Rusty hatch

[festy]

This is the original tank, I cleaned it out and sealed the crack a few months ago.
It was full of what looked like rusty clay, spider webs, and the inner half of a filler cap


This is where it was leaking from:


I haven't got any photos of the sender unit when I first pulled it out, but it looked like something salvaged from a shipwreck.
It was completely crusty, the pipe was clogged, and the rheostat was jammed up with crud. Once I cleaned it up I discovered that the sender wire's post had been removed and the hole soldered up, and the low fuel light terminal had been pinched for the sender's output.
I assume the original terminal post started leaking, so this was their solution 




I made up a new terminal post insulator and wired it back up properly




I also soldered up the crack in the bottom of the tank, but looks like I didn't clean the flux off properly before slapping a coat of paint over it because 4 months later there's surface rust all around the repair.



I still need to add a return line to the tank before its ready to go in. But no rush, there's still lots of rust repairs to get to first.

[festy]

A bit more progress this morning, before I lose motivation for another few months 

Before I cut away the rusty section of the boot floor edge, I thought I better work out where the lip on the outer part goes first seeing as its my only reference.
I trimmed and massaged the patch piece into shape, then traced the line marking the edge of the lower piece, then a few passes with the tipping roller to start easing the lip over.


Pretty quickly the lip started warping so onto the shrinker/stretcher


Once the lip was close enough I cut out and replaced the inner floor edge. I was struggling to get the mig gun into position for the inner edge until I realized there was easy access from inside the boot.

Then lots more welding, grinding, percussive alignment, trimming etc got me to this point. Not Finished, but enough for one day.
 
 
This patch is going to need a light skim of bog in a few spots, whereas the other two patches might get away with just high fill primer.
I'm not convinced making this patch in one piece was the most efficient way to do it, but its done now.

[festy]

And now onto the tail light area...

Right hand side looks worse, so lets start there


Clean it up a bit to see how much metal is actually left


ok, not as bad as I'd feared. I was dreading having to make the corners, but they look mostly alright.

I thought the profile of the tail light surround looked kind of like a standard round bead, except with the outer side of the curve not quite as sharp as the inner side.
Sort of like this, but not so extreme:


I grabbed the nearest piece of sheet offcut and ran it through the roller half a dozen times using 1/8" round bead dies.   
I trimmed it back to right at the base of the bead on what would be the outer side, and started looking for a suitable spot for it to fit.
Yes, I know that's backwards - it makes much more sense to pick a spot to patch and then make a patch to fit that spot, but I'd only set out to experiment with making the profile and hadn't anticipated I'd end up with something usable on my first try.

And that's probably why I didn't think to take any photos until it was welded in, but that's ok because I'll have plenty more opportunities

[festy]

More tail light fun, this time the lower lip of the tail/brake light.

Measure out a piece for the repair, then mark a line where the top edge of the bead will be.
Run it through the roller a few times, lining up the mark with the lip of the die to try and keep the bead forming straight.




Mark out where to cut


And start cutting


Spend some time making small adjustments until it fits nicely, then start tacking


Lots of stitching and grinding later



 
I still need to blend the right hand end a bit better, not sure what happened there.

[Craig_m67]

Impressive, if you're ever in Brisbane....

[festy]

Impressive, if you're ever in Brisbane....

Some patches have really surprised me how well they've turned out, considering I have no idea what I'm doing and hadn't touched a mig before starting on the hatch.
But other times its a complete amateur-hour s#%*show here  

ok, not as bad as I'd feared. I was dreading having to make the corners, but they look mostly alright.

Well, mostly....
I was cleaning up the right hand edges and found a fair bit of filler
This car has obviously taken a bit of a hit to the read right corner a long time ago. I've owned it since 1999 and the paint was equally old and faded everywhere when I got it.
The panel had been roughly beaten back into shape without much effort to shape the tail light beads or anywhere else for that matter, then the whole area was filled with bog straight onto bare metal.
Amazingly, it was holding up pretty well after 30 odd years.


After removing most of the filler, a couple of light taps from the inside got the general panel shape much closer than it was.
But the corner of the lower light was a mess. I rolled a corner bead as tight as I could manage, which came out at around 90° and then tightened up the bend with the stretcher/shrinker until it was a decent match.


Then marked and cut the damaged corner out.


I didn't do a great job with this patch, it didn't fit well so I ended up going round in circles trying to weld it in. A little bit of persuasion and a skim of filler should sort it out though.


I finished off the last few little patches, now onto the left hand corner 


   

[MD]

Mate, at this rate you WILL be nominated for the Panel Beaters Hall of Fame placard.

What is the big plan for this illustrious vehicle?

[festy]

Mate, at this rate you WILL be nominated for the Panel Beaters Hall of Fame placard.

What is the big plan for this illustrious vehicle?

The only thing I'm likely to get from them is a cease and desist letter 

The plan is a bit open ended at the moment, but seeing as I haven't taken it to the track in about a decade I thought I might get a bit more use out of it if it was registered.
The NSW classic rego scheme allows a fair bit more freedom than historic rego, but there's still quite a list of work to be done. Remove the fuel cell, roll cage, slicks etc, fit roof lining, carpet, interior, seats, seatbelts, lights, ignition barrel, washers and wipers, bumpers, speedo, and probably a lot more that I haven't thought of yet.
I've been reading up on VSB 6 and all the applicable ADRs to work out what modifications can stay and what can't.
Apart from the rust at the rear, this is a really good solid car with a bunch of performance and handling improvements and its a waste to not be driving it.

[festy]

A few more updates on my crusade against rust - working from the rear forwards, next job was behind the left rear wheel:



I started with a paper template then transferred that to sheet metal, then bent the flanges for the two ends and bottom edge so I could attack it with the shrinker/stretcher:






Then I lost motivation for a while part way through finishing that patch, but got stuck back into it a week or two ago.

Moving forward again, next was a pair of rust holes just forward of the tailgate hinges, in a pretty awkward spot 


Then lots of filling, sanding and priming followed by a quick coat of red:
   

As usual, as soon as the colour goes on all the blemishes stick out, but I'll come back to those if they bother me too much once the tail lights and bumper are fitted.

Next job is re-fitting the original fuel filler and tank, so I can work out where to add a return port to the tank.
I dug out my filler neck from the garage just to find that the rubber elbow is badly split, so have ordered a Gates 24713 which I think should be a good fit once cut to size.