Monday, November 06, 2006

Not been too busy really, but I have been having lots and lots of fun with the offside guttering. This apears to be a really hard thing to do. It looks quite straight forward:
  1. drill out the old spot welds
  2. cut the gutter where required
  3. clean up the body
  4. weld on new gutter
  5. seal paint and drive away











however in reality it goes like this:
  1. drill out spotwelds where they aren't rusted away
  2. pull the rest of the gutter off (before it falls off)
  3. cut fingers on sharp steel
  4. poke bodywork with a sharp implement and watch it fall on the floor
  5. attack body with angle grinder (on the roof and under the edge of the gutter)
  6. (gulp)
  7. make up some nice little bits of steel (using cornflake box pattern)
  8. trim steel
  9. cut fingers on sharp steel
  10. butt weld steel into roof and overhang
  11. grind out 'cause it looks a mess
  12. make new bits of steel (with overlaps)
  13. weld bits into car
  14. grind
  15. weld
  16. realise that the welder ain't no good upside down
  17. try again
  18. grind...
  19. yawn...
  20. weld on new gutter
  21. fill in holes blown in new gutter (see 16)
  22. cross fingers
  23. finished?
it kinda looks ok now.. but it still needs a bit of grinding, filling and general tidying up.... will post when I'm happy :o)

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Sunday, August 20, 2006


so the rear door is off...and its a write off... rust all the way up the side which is a realy pain. I think I need to get some better ones. Aparently this is not normal behaviour for rear doors (I asked the oracle). So if anyone out there in minorland has a pair of doors going (I might as well get the other one sorted too) please let me know. I'm in Scotland so there may be an issue with location :o)




And the b pillar provided much hilarity (for those of you who thaught I should have scrapped the car years ago...) . I knew I had to replace the bottom of the pillar, and there there was some filler in there, but I the sheer quantity! Someone must have really enjoyed filling and sanding, because oddly enough it wasn't that bad a shape (maybe a bit square), just 10mm out from where it should have been!








As for other news, the gutter is in the process of getting sorted - out with the old etc. its going well and I have lots of hte old rot out and some repair pieces made and primed ready to go in - when I find the time








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Wednesday, August 02, 2006

So what has been happening recently... well little Rory was born! He's a very cute little chap and jolly goodfun, but he does take a lot of time ....
... but he does take long naps!

And of course Daria as been helping :o) I have managed to get the off side arch filled along with the boot lid, the major problem being flatting it properly. I don't seem to be able to get it sorted, I'll have another go and see what happens.

I also managed to get the rear wing fitting much better (filing hte mounting holes helped a bit too) I think if I put in a few more hours in I can get it all ready for paint pretty quickly. The priorities at the moment are the boot lid and the rear arch.

I have also been looking at the rear door which looks very holy. Thats going to come off soon for a re-build. Also the guttering is well shot so that is in the process of coming off...

so much to do
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Sunday, July 16, 2006

Back

Well it has been a while hasn't it? Lots of things have happened in the meantime. Molly has been on the road and well set up. The 12G295 has been fitted and found to be really good fun :o) . However lots of other problems have arisen :o(
At the moment, she is in bits again getting the rear offside arch/wing done along with the boot aperture. Most of the welding is done so its a case of filling and finishing, however there seem to be lots of other bits to be done including (but not restricted to): the bottom of the b:pillar, the gutter on the off side, both rear doors, and the boot lid. Not much then. on the bright side, I have at least done this before on the other side to I should be able to make a decent job. (Not too good though - or else I'll want to do the other side again!)
More to come - I promise!
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