Cary's 73 1.7 Rustoration Thread Options

[cary]

Was hoping that we'd get a break in the rain. But it wasn't too be. Kind of drizzled all day. So back to the door repairs.

I start with tweaking the shorter outer flange of our new channel. Didn't need much, just a smidgeon.


But after I tilt the door up a little I see rust hole I missed. Damn ............ (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)


This is where EXTREME patience is need. That crooked edge is almost paper thin. It's going to blow out. The only question is, how much. So the trick is to turn down the welder till your just getting a weld, not a cold blob. As the hole enlarges be patient. Use air and time to let it cool. You don't make the next weld until you can touch it with your bare hand. It' takes time. Basically you want to build a solid ring around the outer edge of the blown out hole. Then with same patience you fill in the hole. Make sure you try and start with the inside bottom edge. This helps with not creating air pockets in the short blip welds.


Another tip. Always start the weld with a clean wire tip. Don't be lazy (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)


Work Station :

[cary]

Now on to welding in the spot weld cutter holes with rosette welds.
It starts by making sure every hole is clamped tight to the channel flange. Then tap the edge of the hole with the pick end of your body hammer. Now your ready to weld.




On the upper flange weld I ran into a couple spots that blew out a bit. But that's to be expected. Go slow. And take your finger off the trigger. News Flash ......... you take your finger off the trigger. Things stop melting. LOL.

[cary]

Found another issue with the left door. I found a rip in the door closer mounting hole area. Almost looked like it was cut. Hmmm ?



I marked the welded area with survey tape. It will be a reminder that I need a smaller ground down disc. One that will fit down into the groove.
Might have to get after it with the Dremel.



The rest of the day was spent on my good friend Harry's Magic Bus. We MacGyvered a type 1 engine to type 4 heater cable arrangement. We figured it out. Left side is working fine. Right (passenger) we kind of buggered up. Stretched the outer tube.

[cary]

Looks like we'll have a small break in the PDX drizzle. So I decide we'll do some bead blasting. I think if we stay at this spot much longer we'll need to pour an apron on the front of the building. That will allow us to lay down a large trap and recover more of the media. Right now we recover about 1/2 with a shovel and the kiddie pool.

I figured I might as well work on the doors first. I need to strip out the remainder of the seal channel looking for more foam damage.



I find one spot on the door with the larger repair. It was on one of the upright sides. Seems kind of odd when any moisture should have rolled down to the bottom. So I assume it was over filled with adhesive which hindered it's drainage. On the good door I find 4 spots that will need patches. I'd planned on using JB weld on that door to see if it holds up. I was thinking someone could reread this 20 years from now and look at the difference. But I think I'll surgically remove and patch them.

Then we roll out the rotisserie and get back to blasting. All thats really left is the front trunk and the gas tank cavity. But I ran out of cleaned and dried media. The last bag of new stuff was a bit chunky. And we have three 5 gallon gallon buckets of recovered material to be screened and dried. Weather report said the rain would start at 4:30.





Just a little bit to go .................

[cary]

Looks like we'll have another break in the weather. No rain forecasted until 3pm.
But we need to dry and screen our 4 buckets of reclaimed media. So why'll Super In Law is tending to the media I get after the spot I missed on the repaired door.





My first touch blew a giant hole in the project. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif) The gap at the bottom could be pushed up tight with a screw driver from behind. A little touchy, but all in all it welded ok. Now the grinding, not so much.



Ground thru in a couple spots. Be extra careful grinding on an outside radius curve. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
After my grind thru issue I broke into my new Cubitron discs. OMG ............
I'm going to have to do a cost analysis on only using them. The 80 grit leaves a beautiful finish.

[cary]

Get back from lunch and push her outside.

Got R' Done ................ (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)
Blasting down into the gas tank hole was the worst media flashback that I've had on the entire car. No where the media to go other ran right back at you.
There will still be quite a bit of seam sealer removal work to do.


Here's where the project should have started ...............

[cary]

Oh yeah ................ the rain started at 2:45.

Now on to the better door. After close examination I'll need to do four patches.
I'm doing the cut outs a little different. I'm drilling a 3/8" hole in the top corners so I can cut with the air hacksaw. Not real happy with how straight I can cut with the saw, but it's ok. I used the hacksaw on the vertical cuts and the die grinder on the mandrel on the horizontal cuts.




Then I saw some rust creeping out from under the spot welded channel lip.


But I could get my hands up under the bottom of the channel. It was solid. So I used the edge of the die grinder on the mandrel to peel off the top layer of the channel.
BEFORE

AFTER
Peeled back and OSPHOed


This post has been edited by cary: Jan 22 2016, 10:12 PM

[worn]

Oh yeah ................ the rain started at 2:45.

You are really cooking! It has been subzero all the past week after a mild December. Finally cold-soaked the foundation of the attached garage so I get chilled there. So I have made a tactical retreat to the basement.
Discovery: you can treat masonite for new door cards with acetone-thinned epoxy for table tops. Goes on and soaks right in like shellac but is water resistant. It is a trick I started using for wood-turning hard/soft spalted maple. Soaks a long way into soft fibers
I have to do a bit of welding on the door in the same spot, but less than I expected.

[saigon71]

Your attention to detail is superb! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) Nice patch work on those doors - that's a tricky area!

[Cairo94507]

Terrific documentation and work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

[cary]

Thanks for the words of encouragement ............

I was going to add. Be careful with the top edge. That's where I had serious issues.

[JoeDees]

It has been subzero all the past week after a mild December. Finally cold-soaked the foundation of the attached garage so I get chilled there. So I have made a tactical retreat to the basement.

I teach the new LTs to avoid the word "retreat" in their briefings unless they're talking about the bugle call while lowering the colors... I would suggest you use the term "retrograde" and for this particular instance "retrograded to a defensive posture". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/flag.gif)

[cary]

Beautiful day here is PDX.

Super In Law went to work cutting and fitting the door patches ...........
While he was doing that Tool Whore went to work on some air line drain modifications. Built a new one for the blaster cabinet and new one under the racks in the big open shop. Then added 3 foot drain pipes to the existing drains.

Patch #1

Really pretty easy welding.
The right side welds are little too big. Buts that's caused by having to have a 2" wire lead. The Millermatic helps, but doesn't totally take care of it.
The big gap in the bottom of the channel needed a brass backer.

We left the channel run wild. I trimmed it on the yellow line after everything was welded into place and tidied up.


Patch #2
Not real happy with it. I should have bent the top a bit before I started welding.


Sabbatical Side Note for those that have been following along. The job I've been waiting for should be posted first part of the week ............... Things got held up a couple weeks for a couple different reasons. But we're back on track.

[cary]

I think we'll start the day by switching to the roll of EasyGrind MIG wire that I bought. Not a lot of welding still do, but I'm sure I'll find some spots I want to strength and or touch up.

Oh yeah the Magic Bus is returning today to get its new heater cables installed.

[cary]

Here's the tubes we fabricated for the heater cables for the Magic Bus.

[cary]

Finished up the door patches. Had trouble with the grinding. I'm sure the pitting on the backside is causing the issues. Weak spots.




Corner was a bit of work. The channel is two layers and pitted so it was either too hot or too cold.





Blew thru this area about 5 times over grinding.



Ended the day with hanging the door in Super In Laws new fixture. This allowed me to spray down the inside with OSPHO. Drip drying over the old mat.

[cary]

Here is my assortment of different types/shapes of brass.

[cary]

On to the next task ................
After bead blasting the trunk I found some more disturbing rust. It is the portion behind the front pair of steering rack mounts. Yellow circles


CLOSE UP
The dark portion is the backside of the mount.


Mount pictures


This is a piss poor design. No Drain so the air could flow thru.


The ? is. Do we take the support off and make a big patch? Or cut out the portion between the spot welds and patch it? I'm leaning on the big patch. But that will mean creating some kind of jig for returning it to right place. I've got just the right guy for that, LOL.

I'll need to take off the tow hook and patch under it. And there's a couple tears/cracks that will need to be strengthened.

After closer inspection it did have a drain. It just didn't work too well.

[cary]

Took a time out ..................

1. Bought some 6" steel wheels for the rotisserie. The 4" poly ones just take too much effort to get started rolling. The 4" ones will get moved to the body dolly.
2. Doing some maintenance on the PCA AX event trailer.
3. Installed my new SeatBelt Planet seat belts on my white car.
4. After rebuilding the door stays on the white car I decided to replace the door cam actuators. They just weren't strong to finish opening the door. Just a little to much flex as they were trying to push open the latch.

[cary]

I've been under the weather the last couple days. But Saturday we're back at it.

I installed the new steel wheels on the rotisserie. Now one person can move it with one hand.




While I'm doing that, Super In Law was converting our body jig into a bolt on body dolly.
We scavenged some legs off some old produce display tables years ago.




These will be the legs with the old wheels bolted to the small tube on the bottom.


Here we are all finished up. Added ending 2/2/16