2 door VAE 306H

[kevin s]

Andrew polished up the chrome, most of it came up as passable. We have also now removed the glass and trim and cut the lower bodyside behind the door away which revealed the ususal corrosion and dodgy patches, there is a bit of rust around one of the rear quarter windows, but otherwise no great new horrors.

we reied to get the door off as well but all the bolts seem seized solid (one sheared off), any tips for moving these?

We have ordered a pair of rear spring hangers and the lower outer sill, I plan to make up the new floor edges and repair the bottom edge of the sill diaphram, we will then work our way up the door pillarsand roof gutters from here doing one side at a time, the centre member and front part of chassis rails will then be done last.

Progress will now depend on how the land rover does on it''s MOT this week, but I am working on a year per side and another for the rest as a target.[frame][/frame]

[kevin s]

Had a couple of hours on it yesterday, the rear wing is off and seems perfect with just a couple of small dents needing sorting out.

The mounting flange has already been replaced but not very well there is some rusting around some of the welds where it looks like they have not painted the inside and in one place there was obvuiously a gap which has been hammered together and covered in 10 mm of filler these can all be repaired with small local patches though.

There is also rust on the inner arch again this will be cut out and replaced

Further down I have cut the outside of the rail away, the rear spring hanger looked fine but once opened up was thin and holed, I will fold a new one of these up easily enough though.

The main focus was the rear of the sill and front spring hanger, I cut the rusty boxing end plate away, and pulled the outer sill off which was about 3 layers of patches attached loosely to rust, I made a simple jig and cut out the front spring hanger which was also a mass of patches. Thats now in and welded at the rear and sides, the inner sill is pretty good with only a small section around the seat belt mount needing replacement which will be the next job. The front lower edge of the seat X member also needs replacing and I will make a new boxing plate rear extension as the replcement ones seem completely diferent to the original.

Another saturdaty afternoon should see there rear of the sill replaced and me moving forward along the sill, the front seems prettty sound but I will cut it all out and replace for completeness anyway.[frame][/frame]

[kevin s]

the rear arch[frame][/frame]

[kevin s]

and the wing mounting flange[frame][/frame]

[kevin s]

Did a bit more this evening, I formed a section of floor which stetches from the spring hanger plate to just past the centre crossmember, It took a bit of time forming the area under the sill where it tapers but it fitted well in the end, cutting the metal out was enlightening, over the centre crossmember were 4 layers all held together with tack welds and around the seat belt mounting was a patch held on with tacks of braze.
With this welded in I then repaired the inner sill which will be welded from both sides, I will also weld the floor repairs from underneath, once all the welding on this side is finished and I can get it on the ramp to do it all in one go.

Next will be to cut out the lower half of the rear seat crossmember and replace it (bottom flange rusty),while this is out I can weld the repairs to the floor from the top as well, after this I will knock up a boxing plate extension then work my way to the back of the car(not too much to do here) before I start on the front of the sill and A pillar followed by the gutters and roof.

picture is of the new floor / sill panel I made.[frame][/frame]

[kevin s]

floor repair from above[frame][/frame]

[kevin s]

wider view from underneath[frame][/frame]

[kevin s]

the inner sill repair[frame][/frame]

[kevin s]

been a busy weekend, the main task was to re-skin the door on the TR this is also the colour we are thinking for the minor, in between I also manged to make some good progress on the minor.[frame][/frame].

I seam welded and painted the areas inside the rear seat crossmember.[frame][/frame]

I then welded the new front in.[frame][/frame]

next I did the same to the rear of the sill including replacing the lower inch or so of the B post[frame][/frame]

And made and fitted the boxing end plate[frame][/frame]


And finally I started re-constructing the inner arch and wing flange by butt weldng in pieces, I have decided to do away with the original rust trap spot weled seam and replace with a seam weld, I will do this all round the arch.[frame][/frame]


Next task will be too finish off the rear inner wing & wing flange and replace the lower rear chasis leg, I have also found the outer edge of the boot floor is rusted, so this will need replacing as well

[kevin s]

A update of the last couple of weeks work, I am working back down the drivers side, firstly I cut out and butt welded in new metal to the inner arch.[frame][/frame]

Next I worked backwards along the wing mounting flange, the front section had already been replaced but only tacked so I seam welded this, furhter back I had to form sections to go up the bodyside an inch or so as well, I also did away with the exposed joint, it is now a seam weld which should help to keep the rust at bay.[frame][/frame]

next we moved to the boot, the fuel tank has been removed , the floor was rusty along the rh side and at the rear but the rest is good with just surface rust, we cut out the rusty lower sidemember and the boot floor.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame] I have also fabricated a new lower sidemember, just need to weld in the reinforcements and trim the lower flange up.[frame][/frame]

we have also found some interesting history about the car, it appears it was originally owned by the Bristol omnibus company and is the very car corgi chose to model (same registration), under the white paint the green roof and cream body can be seen. It now means we will probably paint it in these colours, just need to find some codes for the colours.

[kevin s]

A bit more progress, we fabricated the repair sections, I taught Andrew how to stretch metal to form the domed section over the rear damper.[frame][/frame].

We have also cleaned up all the metal in the boot and welded the above section in, Andrew doing a fair bit of the welding, next is to make the new lower inner wing and the rear of the boot floor, then we will have finished one corner!

[kevin s]

some more progress, the boot floor and chassi rail section is now welded in, Andrew did most of the welding from the top, and some superb plug welds, not bad for an 11 year old.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame] we then weled the closing panel in the inner wing[frame][/frame]
I also repaired the fuel tank, the flange around the edge had rusted so I filed it up with water cut the rusty parts out and welded new metal in.[frame][/frame] after a coat of paint it has come up realy well, should last a few more years.

[kevin s]

started looking at the other side, initially it looked worse due to the state of the wing[frame][/frame] [frame][/frame]but on stripping some paint off the inner wing looks a lot better underneath most of the underseal is the original white paint, there is a little corrosion around the bottom of the spring hanger but very local so It looks like we will get away with a small repair section, I will also cut the tie down plate off and replace the area behind this to do away with this corrosion trap.

at first the wing flange looked good [frame][/frame]but on stripping the paint it is a bodged previous repair, the new wing flange being held on by a tack every 2 or 3 inches then covered in 1/4 inch of filler[frame][/frame], corrosion has then started to spread up under the filler, it looks lke i will need to make a new wing mounting flange and do away with the original spot welded flange between the inner wing and bodyside, this was pretty easy on the other side in sections approx 10 inches long.

[kevin s]

an update, almost finished the rear now[frame][/frame] the rh side only needed a repair on the inner wheelhouse and wing flange otherwise springhanger was very good original metal.

part of the rear panel also replaced.[frame][/frame] there is also a new (home made)rear floor section in behind this which will need the flange trimming eventually.

All the original reinforcements, and the boot striker mount have been cleaned up and painted with weld through ready for fitting, the lower top hat part of the striker mount is a newly formed part.[frame][/frame]
Another hour or so and the boot area will be finished.

Also started working out how to fix the roof to boot surround panel joint, I have cut all the rust out, first thing will be to repair the boot suround panel, they try to form a new lip to the roof It looks like all of this joint will need replacing, at least the middle is relatively straight.[frame][/frame]

[kevin s]

We have welded the remainder of the boot floor in, the welds have been ground down and it has been primed with weld through primer so we can weld the reinforcements in, after this the boot floor will be finished.[frame][/frame]

Also made a start on the roof, on the rh side there was virtually nothning left so I had to fabricate the new parts from scratch.[frame][/frame]

as there was rust in the seam between the roof and rear deck I decided the only way to get rid of it would be to bite the bullet and cut the rear end of the roof off, repair it and weld it back in.[frame][/frame]

the centre is only lightly rusted and will clean up fine, but the other side is deeply pitted and holed soo will all have to be cut out adn replaced.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

[kevin s]

Some progress around the rear window, I have replaced approx 18" of the mounting flange on the rear deck both sides and replaced the bottom half of the bead along the roof hope to get this area finished this weekend.

[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

[kevin s]

Made some significant progress this weekend, the roof section is back in, all the paint cleaned off and the welds cleaned up, there are a couple of small piceces to repair around the rear corner of the the side window and then we will fill and prime the rear end before moving onto the remainder of the drivers side repairs.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

In summary I have replaced most of the bottom half of the bead along the rear of the roof and the area it welds to, once it was seperated virtually the entire length was heavily corroded, I think water had been getting in past a leaking rear window seal, it will now be painted inside and out and sealed as well.

[GBond]

Nice welding skills, those look great!

If you're ever in Guatemala I have a couple of floor sections I need some help with

[kevin s]

I must admit it suprised me how well the joint between the roof and back panel came out, this was the one area which realy worried me, cutting the rear of the roof off was definitely the way to go. (though laying upside down in the boot plug welding it back on was no fun).

[kevin s]

Andrew welded the reinforcements for the bumpers in and the boot striker top hat section, he then painted it, next step is to repair the holes and pitting around the the rear corner of the sside window then fill the rear end and get some paint on it before the winter.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]