It's been a little while since my last post but we've had a holiday (touring Europe for a month), been busy with the B&B, and enjoying the sunshine in the garden (Party Time!). I also bought a new MIG welder - the gasless one was OK and gives a strong weld but, I've learnt, gas MIG is much better if you can afford it (I bought a secondhand Clarke EN160 off Gumtree) so will be better for the visible welds.
This side of the car looked in better shape than the nearside, or so I thought. Once let loose with the cutting grinder I realised that it only looked better as a cosmetic sill cover was covering up, well, not a lot, as there was virtually nothing left of the sill underneath - heaven knows what it was actually welded onto. In fairness, the bottom of the front inner wing was in better condition than the other side, requiring just a small patch.
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As before, the A Pillar was in good condition but the bottom of the B pillar was rotten away. This was no surprise as I'd already purchased new B Pillars for both sides. This was cut away which revealed several rust holes to the inner wing behind. By chance, I found someone selling a repair panel on eBay so the decision was made to cut out this whole section of inner wing. The repair panel is actually for a Coupe but the only differences are cage nuts for the hood frame and a slightly different position for the striker plate - both of which I can adapt.
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(Update 30/3/2020) I was staggered to look back and see the left hand sill was completed this time last year, and I hadn't posted progress for seven months - where did that time go? Quite simply we have been enjoying ourselves with holidays, running the B&B and generally getting on with other things without spending serious time in the garage. Now, thanks to COVID-19 shuting down our B&B, I'm back in the garage.
I seemed to have spent a lot of time fitting and removing the door, changing hinges and doing it again. Taking the advise that you need to get the doors right and fit everything else around it, I purchased a used door (seemed in better condition than original, but without hinges) then trial fitted with several different sets of hinges. It's true that the original factory workers made the doors fit by hammering a bend in the hinge as every hinge I tried had a different kink so different alignment.
Left pair show bend in hinge arm. Right pair demonstrate wider opening of newer hinges
I've finally been able to settle on a door / hinge combination and have cracked on with welding in the modified inner wing panel, sill panels, B Pillar and outer sill cover.
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It seems like a long time to get to this stage, but we got there in the end. I need to decide which direction to go now - remove the body and get on with the chassis / engine, or start to prep the body (probably the former)?
