Archive: Body

Removed right hand wheelhouse and filler panel.

Cut away some more of the quarter panel and proceeded to drill out the spots welds holding the inner and outer wheelhouses to the body shell (to the rear seat pan, trunk pan, rear seat back rest, filler panel, inner side panel, trunk hinge supports and sail pillar support). An area down near the rocker panel is causing problems as to how to remove the wheelhouse spot welds from there,…
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Drilling out the trunk support straps.

Drilled out all the spot welds between the trunk pan and the support straps in preparation for removing a large section of the pan.   I started by dot-punching and drilling a 2mm pilot hole (with a Cobalt drill bit) from underneath, then from above drilled the hole to 10mm (with another Cobalt drill bit). I didn’t worry about putting a hole in the strap, as I’ll be welding them…
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Temporary structural support for the rear.

Quickly knocked together some tubing to try and give structural support to the rear end. It should at least stop the back from crabbing when the entire trunk pan is removed. It may not even be necessary with the frame rails, tail panel and remainders of the quarter panels, but it won’t hurt anything, is easy to remove and doesn’t get in the way (too much).   The bars stretch…
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Where to cut?…

Been working out where to cut, how much to keep, what to replace et cetera.   I plan on cutting the whole pan out along the blue lines (apart from to the right side, I’ll cut along the white line – this is the frame rail). Then cut out the filler panels on the red line (but not over the white line). Then the new boot pan will take the…
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Removed filler panel.

Removed filler panel through drilling out spot welds to the top of the trunk pan, the bottom of the remaining quarter and also, unnecessarily (causing me more problems by doing so) to the tail panel.   Before:   After:…
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Removed wheelhouse.

Removed left side wheelhouse by drilling out all the spot welds, and a little bit of cutting.   Before: Rust damage:   After:…
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Cut quarter panel.

Cut a large section out of the rear quarter to examine how it’s all put together – whilst waiting for the new panels to arrive.…
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Doors back on.

Doors temporarily rehung. This is to aid in replacing the rear quarters, they will somewhat hold the body in alignment. I removed all the glass and the associated mechanisms. Left the exterior handles on and locks in.  …
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More paint stripping.

Used some more Nitro Mors on the trunk lid, boot lid and front cowl panel. They all still need to be sanded down. I am considering either hiring a beefy shot-blast unit and compressor (the one I used earlier, coupled with my small compressor, to do the hood hinges is just not up to the task), or taking the panels somewhere professional, just to save on all the time and…
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Initial paint removal.

Removed paint and sanded to bare metal, the roof, sail pillars and rear end. Used Nitro Mors Paint and Varnish stripper, it makes light work of each of the layers of paint but doesn’t touch the primer. Used a random orbit sander to get rid of the primer coat. Before: Paint stripper applied: After scraping: After sanding: The rear quarters are going to be replaced, so are left untouched for…
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Headliner bows and insulation removed.

Pulled out the spring headliner bows, labeling each one as they have specific designations. Using a paint scraper, scraped away at the headliner insulation. Very dusty work.   Bows and headliner insulation still in place:   The bare metal roof:…
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