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[GastronomicKleptomaniac]

I really like that

[andyc]

Ok so i'm now back on the Senator as the Manta is waiting to go to the paint shop, these pics might interest Webby after his post about rust

While moving the car i noticed some rot around the rear seat belt mounts



And some rot in the rear chassis legs


After cleaning back and cutting the rot out i'm left with this


New repair section made



Couple of hours with hammer and dollies to get the shape, must of trial fitted a dozen or so times to get the shape correct

Seat belt reinforcement plate had gone very thin in a couple of places so a new one was made, the nut was salvaged from the old mount


Repair section and reinforcement welded in

[omega3000]

Looking good 

[GastronomicKleptomaniac]

Top work! Might have to see it in the flesh if I ever manage to get down that way with Zeke...

[andyc]

My god the time flies, got time on my hands at the moment so here goes, two years of updates.

So with the inner wheel wells sorted it was time to get all the rear suspension off the car and start work on the rear chassis legs. Both legs showed signs of old repairs and they were just patches over patches so the rot has just carried on, time to cut out the rot.

New chassis legs are just not available anywhere, even my contacts in Europe could not locate any so I'd need to re-build using 2.5mm plate for the inner sections and 1.00mm plate for the outer sections.

The first job was to find out how far the rot went so disc cutter in hand i started cutting the outer skin off and removing it from the inner section until i hit good inner metal. I got the outside & underside outer skins cut back and then attacked the inner skin starting with the lower section first.

Now this wasn't the easiest part to make and it took an hour or so to get the profile correct by hand and once it was the correct shape i welded a couple of bridging pieces into each end of the leg then seem and plug welded the new part in place. This was then repeated for the two inner side section and the outer skin. The right rear leg was i bit more involved as i had to remove the spring seat plate as the rot had got underneath that.


This is the hole i started with


Inner & outer skins removed


Inside view of the leg, This will be pumped with a couple of litres of cavity wax in the end


Old inner skin removed


New inner skin, zinc coated ready to go in. You can't see it in the pic but the narrow end also has a longways kink in it as well


Under side fitted


Better View


Outer section all welded in


Outer skin of the right rear leg removed


Spring seat plate and outer skin removed


One of the repair section ready to be cut out.

Next on the list was the inner wall of the spare wheel well. The seam had started to go so that was marked out and repair section made up

 
Marked ready to cut


There's a hole in my wheel well


New Panel


Fitted, welder has having a hissy fit at the time so welds not as tidy as normal but cleaned up ok


Finished view from the inside all painted

Thats it for now
Andy

[andyc]

As you can see from the next pic repairs were required to the bottom of the left quarter panel and also to the base of the parcel shelf support.
The only way to gain a good access to the base of the shelf support was to go in through the bottom of the quarter panel making nice straight cuts so a new section could be made and fitted. The bottom of the support is also profiled so this had to be made


Access hole cut in the quarter panel and bottom of support removed


better view from the outside


New lower support on the left


Fitted


Outer filled

I had to tidy up a few small spots around the bottom edges of the rear panel and the other quarter panel. It was at this point things got busy. The original plane was to strip the lower half of the car to bare metal and paint up to the body mouldings, which once re-fitted would hide the seams.

So out with some proper paint stripper but as i started to remove the paint from the lower section of the left rear quarter i found out that it was full of filler which reacted with the stripper, bugger. I later found out that the car had had a new quarter fitted at some time in the past so i ended up stripping the whole panel back to bear metal and starting again which ended up with the shell being taken back to bare metal as well.
The reason i ended up doing this was due to the amount of coats of paint, there was twelve different coats in the end and as we had no way of knowing what the paint was we didn't want to take the risk, i did talk with the painter about using a bar coat but if you cut through the coat while keying you won't know until the paint goes on and reacts.

Once all the doors, bonnet and boot lid had been stripped and repaired, they and the shell were treated to a coat  of 2k etch primer followed by four litres of high build primer

 


Four litres of primer done.

The shell as now ready for paint but would not get the final key of the primer until its in the body shop but to get it there all the front and rear suspension had to be stripped, repaired, painted and re-built but first there was a matter of the oil cooler to sort. The Senator never had one fitted as standard but the Monza did and as this car is going to North Carolina the summer temps can top 40+c so the old CIH is going to need all the help we could give it.

Right, going to finish there as i need a cuppa and i'll pick up on the cooler mock up next time
Cheers
Andy

[Andy B]

 

Great job s far 

[Kevin Wood]

Great Stuff.

[migiestate]

Really great looking cars  .I wish I could weld  . The work you have completed looks great.   

[Diamond Black Geezer]

That's looking fabulous! Keep going! 

[Shackeng]

Nice job Andy

[Sir Tigger KC]

That's a great looking job! 

[EMD]

Nice job there andy 

[andyc]

Oil Cooler Time

So we managed to salvage a cooler setup from a Monza GSE apart from the front rubber ducting which isn't available anywhere so the only way was to make one. We did look a using an aftermarket set up but there is no room at the front due to the conderser and twin electric fans, the Monza cooler is set to one side and lives in the front of the right hand wheel well

Mocking up the housing wing brackets


The front ducting was a bit of a 3D puzzle and the only picture i had was a sketch from an old parts Mirco Fiche. I did look at using sheet steel for the duct but settled on using plastic as it would be much easier to use.

First job was to build up the main body which was easy then work started on the trunk. This had to come out of the body at a slightly inwards then taper down to a square, each time a section was glued in place the whole unit was offered back up in postion and checked.

You can see from this pic how its steps down


And this one shows how it also has to go around the cooler pipes


This is looking down on the final mock up


And a front view. The leaf grill is made from the bottom of a scrapped ironing board


Once i was happy that it all fitted the plastic has reinforced will some fiber glass matting and a skim of filler both inside and out and then treated so a few coats of stone chip
 







Next up is getting all the suspension parts stripped, cleaned and painted

Andy

[2boxerdogs]

They were great looking cars, nice to see one being restored properly, 👌