Restoring my P1800E

[Burdekin]

I did a bit more on the car this weekend. The first job was fixing a hole in the floor next to the rear wheel arch and the hole in the chassis rail under the hole in the floor as these holes were annoying me I decided I should fix them now before starting the sills. I did it in two sections, fitted the floor repair first and then welded in the repair for the chassis rail. Once the chassis rail was repaired and ground I then bent over the lip from the floor repair to match the inner wheel arch lip. The inner wheel arch needs other repairs so I'll finish off the lip when doing that. I've attached some pics but some are out of focus. This might be of interest to guys with P1800's as it does seem a common place for rust holes.

The next job was to etch and prime the parts I'll use for the sills. I use POR15 metal ready to etch the surface before applying a zinc rich primer. I also use metal ready and the primer when doing the chassis rails.

While doing the painting I also started cutting out the old sills. (if any one wants any slightly rusty second hand sills let me know ;-) ) I didn't finish cutting out the sills because I want to use the repair sections as a guide to know what to cut and grind out.

Anyone used the Brookhouse sill repairs before? The middle sill seems thinner than it should be and the outer sill (outer cover) doesn't fit nicely over the middle sill so I'm a bit concerned. I'll give Simon a call tomorrow to discuss. Has anyone got any tips when it comes to fitting the sills? I haven't done it before so any advice would be appreciated.

[Burdekin]

Well made a start with the sills this week. The inner sills I bought aren't the correct gauge so I used the ones I bought as a template and cut new ones out of 1.5mm sheet metal. I then cut out the seat belt anchor points and welded them in the new inner sills. The rest of weekend was spent deconstructing the old sills. They've been bodged up previously and welded too so that made things a bit slower. There is a bit of work also required on the A pillar. So far so good and will start on getting the metal work sorted so I can start to weld in the new sills.

Still looking for a proper left outer sill if anyone happens to have one?

Cheers,

Mitch

[rusholme]

Mitch
Your posts are fantastic for me. I am months behind your resto but with many of the same challenges. I am very interested in the issues of metal thickness of sills I think they should be 16swg along with other structural steel which agrees with your 1.5mm ( i am an old bloke still imperial i am afraid). I look for your posts and am really interested in your door aperture braces did you hire them? I am currently working very slowly on the cross member under the radiator, I sourced the replacement from Brookhouse and the steel guage is fine, I am also fabricating a repair section for the chassis rails as the end of the passenger side is rotten but the drivers side is fine.
Keep up with the posts you are doing a great job.

[Burdekin]

Thanks for the nice comments and good luck with your project. I have a parts car so if chasing a part that maybe hard to find send me a PM and glad to help out if I can.

The door aperture brace was hard to find. I bought one off the net and a tool company called Sealey make them, they call them; Sealey Door Restrainers, if you want to google them. You could borrow mine if you happen to not need them until I'm finished but the post would probably be a killer as they are quite heavy. Not sure if this is the shop where I got them from but I think this is about how much they cost me: http://toolsbypost.com/product_pp.ph...521606700df2a9
I doubt I could have hired a pair up here.

[redcar]

fair play to you Mitch, if i saw rust like that, i'd run a mile... you'd need to be fairly commmitted to perform surgery to that level, yourself.

i've a spot or two surfacing due to the nasty winter we've had, but i'm probably going to end up getting shafted by a bodyshop when i get around to fixing it...

[PaulWphoto]

When I did mine I found it really difficult to align the sill covers.

In the end I did the inner and middle sill and left it there - then i rehung the doors with their new skins on and offered up the sill covers and front and rear lower wing repairs all at the same time.

I had to use a LOT of clamps to achieve this and the result was still only average. I had to do a fair bit of lead loading as well.

Everything looks like its going really well for you by the way.

Good luck

Paul

[PaulWphoto]

The lower rear corner of the door shut was the hardest bit to get right for me.

You should adjust the spacers on the hinges first to get the door to shut properly against ( probably) a new door seal along with the adjustment of the lock mechanism. (the bit on the B pillar - whatever it's callled).

When you've got the door to shut nicely, this is a good reference point for your surrounding panels (the sill cover, the rear wing/repair panel and the front wing/repair panel

I found that I could force (persuade) them in to position by hand and then clamp and tack weld.

One of the difficult phases in a major rebuild like yours is the transitional period between fixing the structure of the car while being very precise and then moving on to the bodywork which is a lot more "rule of thumb" IMO

Paul

[Burdekin]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the tips and info, appreciated. Totally agree that this is the tricky bit doing the sills and getting the fit correct.

When I had the door skin off the door I played around with the shape of the door to get it to fit better. With some gentle persuasion I shaped the rear bottom corner of the door to fit the door opening. When I tacked the new door skin repair on the door I then checked the fit again on the car before fully welding the door skin repair. The door fit was much better than before.

My plan for the sills is to tack the inner and middle sills in place with the reference points I have and then double check by measuring as much as I can. When I'm happy I'll take off the door braces and check the fit with the door in place. I will adjust things until I'm happy with the fit. Then I'll move onto the A pillar and side firewall etc. That's the plan anyway.

I took off the remaining bit of middle sill from the A pillar last night, it was very fidgety to get at, I then started cutting off the bottom section of the inner section of the A pillar (the bit that the middle sill butts too). I have some panels to fix before fitting the sills as when I was taking the inner and middle sills out, some of the spot weld areas tore after drilling and separating with my wood chisel. Some of the tabs have a bit of rust as well so will cut these off and weld on new bits. I'll then fabricate a new lower A pillar bit, weld in place and then should be ready to fit the inner and middle sills.

Also I think I have a Volvo outer sill on it's way from Sweden, was ........ expensive!!! So hopefully it will fit properly.

Cheers,

Mitch

[davidw6092]

just been reading your epic tales of grinding and welding,well done.I am on a similar mission with pezs amazon estate.I found that having some 2mm steel cut and bent with a 90 degree fold on it ,in various widths invaluable for repair sections,(door pillars,and chassis legs in particular.)quite cheap and usefull for other areas as well.Also I have been known to cut up old cars for repair sections.vw golf spare wheel well for inner wheelarch panels ,and amazon front wheel arches for triumph 2000 inner front wheel arches,easy peasy!I hope you have taken plenty of detail photos of where wiring goes,cable runs etc.unfortunately when i was working for tony barrett restoring these motors i didnt have a digital camera,so had a notebook instead!best of luck with it all,dave

[Burdekin]

Thanks Dave for the tips. I have a good selection of steel now from 2mm down. Cutting out bits from other cars as repair panels makes good sense. I will be re-doing the wiring, I have taken photos, but I'm not too worried about electrics at this stage.