i borrowed a mates spot weld removing drill thingy today, saved soooo much time.

I unpicked the seams on all the parts around that rear valance area and found ALOT more rust :(

i cut the bumper mount off the right hand side and found the chassie rail to be full of old mud... had to ask the question "where the f*** did that mud get in?" so i went along the rail with a screw driver and right where the tyre would throw dirt at it, the screwdriver dissapeared through the underseal. big hole...



and then once i got the rest of the bumper mount and valance cut off i found a piece of tin that was riveted over the end of the valance, so i ground off the rivets and found even MORE rust...






so now with all the rust cut out along the valance area and all cleaned up ready for patch panels



as you can see i have spent lots of time on the end of my grinder today :?

i have also decided to get some dry ice and get ALL the underseal off, i want to know what other big rust holes are hiding underneath it, hopefully not too much. the car will be getting completely bare metalled now as i don't want any bubbles coming out of surprise bodgey repairs that were done by other owners.

i've got patch panels made up for all the boot floor holes now too which i will fit up tomorrow.

im just stoked i don't have to cut off and rebuild the spring hanger mounts, not yet anyway, we will see really once i get all that bloody underseal off

managed to spend a whole bunch of time in the shed yesterday and got a fair bit done.

managed to get two of the three big holes patched, the other will have to wait till the car is on its other edge to get access for welding.

also removed the diff assembly and cut out the rusty section of chassie rail and started to fab up the replacement section













hopefully i'll get into the shed for a bit tomorrow and finish that chassie rail and then rip into making up new bumper mounts.

i've got my welder on trademe at the moment too so i can get a gass mig, my gasless one just doesnt do a clean enough job, i wouldn't have a show of doing any seam welding like marty's with my POS

i did think about building a rotiseree but the only welding work left that i have to do is that stuff on the back that i am working on, it would be alot of expense and fuss for only a weeks work

Looking good!!!
Shaun

starting to get a bit dis-heartened with this project at the moment... :(

started stripping back all the underseal and found more rust. a whole bunch of little 2 or 3 mm holes in the chassie rail on the drivers side from the steering box back to the gearbox mount.

i also found a hole lot of rust in a box section that goes across the front of the car behind the front lower panel. Ideally i would unpick the front panel to get proper access to repair it but that is along way beyond my skills so im not really sure what im going to do there.

I got some dry ice for getting the underseal off but i don't think its really helping all that much. some of it seems to still be really hard to get off and some of it comes off easy.

there are places where the underseal has been covered in oil for a long time and it has kept it really soft and damp, this is where the rusty spots seem to be as well.

lots of work to go anyway, i'll be back in the shed later tonight so i'll take some photos

it must be an Anglia thing with where the rust evolves from!! i just tackled the front lower rad panel rust..heaps of fun...not !
maybe that rotissery is looking more tempting now that yu found big rustys?? At least your car had body deadener, mine was painted blue as same as the top, just proves they still rust as bad either way!