Beaksters 2.8i Resto + 24V

[Supercharged Nat]

the curve/ radius changes as you move along the inner wing/ drip rail. i ended up getting something half right and then using filler to get it to mirror the other side BUT it was atleast 2 days solid sanding!

sorry but i cant help much, the only thing i can think of is to take it to a place where they have a roller- they should be able to roll the sheet with a varying radius like that (itl basically be a cone)

keep at it though your doing a fine job!



"Understeer" is when you hit the fence with the front of the car.
"Oversteer" is when you hit the fence with the rear of the car.
"Horsepower" is how fast you hit the fence.
"Torque" is how far you take the fence with you.

[Beakster]

Making a bit more progressnow, but gave up early tonight cos my back was hurting.











Had a look at my drip rail repair section that I bought and realised its a load of crap.

It looks like it was cut by a monkey with a pair of safety scissors, the edge is all over the place:





And it doesn't even follow the contour of the wing!



So I'll probably end up fabricating my own. That'll be another 10 grinding discs I'll be buying then...

[andrewg1323]

Got 2 days off work next week to work on mine all day long! Hope the weather stays good!

Hopefully my welder wont break like it does every fecking time i try and weld anything these days!---------------
Andy

[Beakster]

Got my repair section tacked on. I'm quite happy it with. It's the most complicated repair section I've ever made and I reckon its quite good

The bits I wont be able to get at later have been cleaned up and zinc primered:









I've started seam welding it too and its looking ok so far. Hoping to get it finished tomorrow and then move on to the headlamp bowls.

[Supercharged Nat]

its really starting to take shape now, head lamp bowls are easy compared to that!

"Understeer" is when you hit the fence with the front of the car.
"Oversteer" is when you hit the fence with the rear of the car.
"Horsepower" is how fast you hit the fence.
"Torque" is how far you take the fence with you.

[Beakster]

Had a 2 hour grinding session today. Its looking good so will just need a very minimal skim of filler to completely disguise it.

[Beakster]

Last thread was gettin a bit chunky so here we are. I got busy with the angle grinder on the passenger side tonight:









I'm going to go to B&Q and get a heat gun (as soon as the new fan belt arrives for my Laser) to help get all this underseal off. I don't know what it is but its black and crust and its been put all over the previous bodge.

There's a nother really rust bit up by the slam panel so that might have to come off!




Questions....

1) How can I make the indents in the footwell/A Pillar in a flat sheet of metal. Are the indents there for strengthening?

2) How can I create shapes like this in the inner wing from a flat sheet of metal. And are these there to provide some extra rigidity?

[Peter-S]

Yep, I believe they are there for extra strength, presumably press formed originally. I guess you could try hammering them into shape over a wodden block with a shallow channel chiselled out of it but I don'y know how successful it would be.

[Beakster]

hmmm.

Im thinking of just making the sections for A pillar and floor out of flat steel. The cutting out another piece the same shape size as the indent and plug and seam welding it on. Although it will look completely different, I am guessing it will give some strength in the required area?

[andrewg1323]

But TBH i'm just doing away with em in mine yes its possible to put them back in with a chisel theres a threqd on some vw forum of a guy in thailand making complete floorpans with ridges out of sheet steel and a how to guide but its stupidly labour intensive.

Realistically after that much welding to a car its structural integritys gona be totally diferent to when new anyways so i dont think the ribs will make too much difference...---------------
Andy

[Beakster]

Different good, or different bad?



I got a heat gun and cleaned off all that white stuff. What is it? It is similar to seam sealer. I guess I want to apply it in the same way Ford did in the factory, but how???

Also, what kind of primer did for use on the metal originally? It seems dark grey in colour. I'm going to be using U-POL Weld Thru on it after the repairs. Will this do the job for corrosion protection or would I be better with something more similar to what Ford used?

Cheers

[andrewg1323]

No matter how well you weld it its gonna bend and break different to the original one solid panel so you never quite know how or where its gonna fold in an accident! Either way you'll be fine (unless you;re going that fast!) ---------------
Andy

[Beakster]

Yo,

Got the carpet out of the way so I don't set fire to it welding the A pillars. Once the carpets were up I found lots more rust as well as lots of plates that have been welded on before.

[Beakster]

How do I fix this mess?

[Supercharged Nat]

theres some serious work there buddy, but youve gone this far..

i replaced the outer sill on mine and cut out and welded in fresh metal on the inner sills and where its joint the floor where needed.

the actual floor its self would be like what youve already done. the structural piece which has been mangled by jacking is available i think....

"Understeer" is when you hit the fence with the front of the car.
"Oversteer" is when you hit the fence with the rear of the car.
"Horsepower" is how fast you hit the fence.
"Torque" is how far you take the fence with you.

[Beakster]

Yeah, I think I'll have to take the outer sill of then.

I've seen those structural bits, so that will come off and get replaced.

So I'm looking at about £20 for the structural bit, £30 for a sill. I'm not paying £130+VAT for a floor section so I'll fabricate the what I need there I think.

I seem to be getting a bit unproductive recently. Last night I pulled the heater matrix out then sat for an hour poking a chisel at rust bits.

I had a look on the projects section of OSF to cheer me up. Seeing the mess of some of the cars these guys start with always gives me hope. There's a guy with a mk5 cortina which has a floor much worse then mine and he is getting on with it, so I'll try and do the same.

Tonight I'm just gonna get in there with the angle grinder and cut out anything crusty.

[Peter-S]

Not as bad as yours mate but I had to patch the footwell on mine a few years back

[Supercharged Nat]

i spent 2 years working on mine (on and off) and it had all the same problems as yours, some not quite as bad though, but then i think if i was doing it now, the extent of the problems wouldnt be far off yours!

It is all do-able! im going to be replacing rear archs, some of the section in front of the rear arches, sections of inner arches/tubs and probably the rear valance this summer.....

im hoping it would take more than a few weeks of nights and weekends to get completed.

Im actually toying with the idea of doing a mass strip down, acid dip, all welding that it shows up, full etch prime and a **** hot paint job (orignal colour, just a good quality one) and then chuck everything back on it... but it will cost some!

"Understeer" is when you hit the fence with the front of the car.
"Oversteer" is when you hit the fence with the rear of the car.
"Horsepower" is how fast you hit the fence.
"Torque" is how far you take the fence with you.

[Supercharged Nat]

and then fill all inclosed spaces with waxoyle, lots of waxoyle!

"Understeer" is when you hit the fence with the front of the car.
"Oversteer" is when you hit the fence with the rear of the car.
"Horsepower" is how fast you hit the fence.
"Torque" is how far you take the fence with you.

[Beakster]

Ok, done some chopping:











I haven't chopped the bit in the middle out yet cos I'm afraid the shell will implode. The problem I have now it there there is nothing left of the inner sill to weld floor repair sections to. For this reason the outer will will have to come off to give me access to repair the inner sill.

Not a problem I thought as the outer sill is in bad condition and needs replacing, and on first inspection it seemed that sills were cheap, around £30.





Ok, now look closely at the above pic. It appears the half the sill has been repaired before, but using a sill skin rather than a full sill. It was here I realised the difference between a sill skin and a full sill. The full sill is what I need to do the job properly. It incorporates the door step and is basically the full panel as Ford would have fitted it.

Now if I was restoring a cheap car like a mk1 escort, I could get a sill skin for £15.70, or a full sill for £15.93. No one's gonna do a half assed job for the sake of 23p!

But because I own a mk3 Capri, a sill skin is £12.70, but a full sill panel is £80+VAT and only available from expressed steel panels! I'm seriously upset about this! I vow I will never try and restore a Capri again, its a job for the wealthy and I just don't have the money to do it properly. If I replaced the panels which need replacing I'd be looking at around £4000!!!

I'm not sure what to do yet. I might hack it together with a skin, or just pay the £100 odd quid to expressed steel. I don't want to do that though cos costs will soon start spiraling our of control.

It just makes me really angry that this is the case. If it was an escort I would be able to afford new valance, slam panel, floor sections, fulls sills, inner wing section, but cos I've got a Capri I can't afford to do the job properly!