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A new reel of mig wire arrived and the drivers side floor is in place. I have had a slight change of plan. I am going to sort the boot floor and rear wheel arches before tackling the passenger side floor. This in no small measure because the panels were on offer at Minispares.

First though, while I have a boot floor to reference, I needed to establish the position of the heel board. Things a pretty rotten back there but the rear companion boxes are sufficiently sound to give a good fore- aft position. With a few location brackets screwed to the old boot floor the position of the heel board could be transferred from the old one to the new.

MUCH PATCHED PASSENGER SIDE SILL AND THIS COUNTS AS REPAIRED!
THE OLD HEEL BOARD HACKED OUT AND THINGS TIDIED UP
IN PLACE WITH TEMPORARY LOCATION BRACKETS
AND ALL SCREWED SOLID AND MEASUREMENTS CHECKED.
I can now get rid of the grotty boot floor and know I can relocate the heel board accurately. Another big pile of rust to sweep up.

D

Maybe a rear sub-frame laid in position could help locate the heal board, or are the rear mounts to far gone on the old boot floor?

surfblue63 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 1:15 pm Maybe a rear sub-frame laid in position could help locate the heal board, or are the rear mounts to far gone on the old boot floor?

That is precisely what will happen when I have the new boot floor temporarily fixed in place. I have saved the rear wheel arch stiffeners and the wheel arches to help to locate the floor. The old boot floor is nearly chopped out now but the new one is sitting with DHL in Inverness and has been for two days now. Of course you can’t get hold of anyone to find out why.

D

hi d
it is impossible to find out how these delivery mobs operate i bought a 500 weber carb for the v8 in my clubman and it sat in the post office in western australia for about 5 weeks before it started to move on its long journey but then i got a radiator for my rz yamaha from china it arrived 4 days after payment
it seems that it is in the lap of the gods when we get things delivered
happy welding
cheers roger

With the boot area now ready to accept a new floor (after some repairs to the bumper flange) and DHL finally getting their act together and delivering, it was just a matter of modifying the boot floor. Just is not quite the word. I had bought pre- modified floors from M-Machine before and had not appreciated how much they had changed over the years.

In for a penny, no going back now.
And one I prepared earlier.
I’m not sure I’m completely happy with the result but then it’s only going in a scabby GT. As usual the best thing to do is sleep on it and see how I feel towards it in the morning. The guys who do the mods at M-Machine seem to get it just so. Hats off to them.

D

With the boot floor trial fitted it became apparent that the back end had had a minor shunt. This had pushed the boot flange of the rear panel forward slightly on the right such that the boot floor and rear panel flange were not quite aligned. The conundrum was how to pull the bottom of the rear panel back to where it should be. A good nights sleep had the answer.

THE TOOL. A piece of angle iron.
With the boot floor clamped to the rear panel this would just slide between the two and be held nicely in place with the short vertical section engaging just the folded corner so not marking the flat of the hinge mounting face. Moving it around soon pulled the panel back to were it should be.
Now to try the rear subframe in.

D

I am beginning to feel that there is real progress at last. The boot floor is now welded in place. The heel board is still removable but the rear most subframe mount points are re-established.
It will soon be time to order more panels.

D

Great progress! Always enjoy watching your builds.

Wheel arch time, with a few repairs and alterations. The usual corner behind the arch was flakey to say the least. I hadn’t ordered a repair section …..
Magic away the old
In reality a tedious hour or more careful undoing the spot welds. Then in with the new. Well er no. Heritage don’t make the right hand arch to fit their floor panel. It a strange affliction they have and have been told about it each time I fit one.

The problem is that the arch is not pulled in tight on the vertical plate and the whole thing ends up too long.
And this is how much needs to come out.
Continued.

Then with some pushing and shoving and every last vice grip, it fits.
In actual fact it didn’t because I had aligned the bottom of the wheel arch with the lowest edge of the boot floor. Hertitage have changed the shape of the wheel arch leaving off this tag (which remains on their boot floor pressing).
Once the arch was pushed further up it managed to touch the rear bulkhead.

D

hi d
well you sure are getting this little car sorted out quickly are you retired or a wealthy farmer with lots of time as you are getting a lot done in a short time
the first pic of this car looks great but paint can hide a lot but it landed in the right garage and will be a great car again
my clubman has stalled as i need to save for the rebore that will take a while as 50 aud a hole and x 8 is a bit of cost lucky the crank was fine still on standard bearings lots to do need to sort the collapsable steering column the lower spline had to be changed it was a spare one from a laser but the right length upper mount needs sorting along with other bits and bobs
building the plug for the unipower gt gets in the way along with other projects i will need to live to 100 to finish them all that gives me 21 years
cheers roger

Yes Roger, time rich! No time off for bank holidays though. Today saw the RH rear wheel arch fully welded in and all the plug welds ground back. That also is a time hungry operation. I was wanting to get the wheel arch area solid again so that I could try to improve the B pillar where it had been pushed back.

The quarter panel also had some high and low spots. This is what I tried.
That trusty bit of angle iron again tack welded to the edge of the quarter panel in a series of positions. Easy enough to cut it off with a thin disc.
Things definitely moved forwards and the highs and lows in the panel are pretty well gone. Whether it is enough to improve the door gap is yet to be seen. It cleaned up just fine too.


More of the same on the other side next.

D

hi d
well here is hoping the b pillar is right good trick a slide hammer is a handy tool to have around
cheers roger

More horrors discovered and to fix before I can get the other wheel arch done. This was hidden under some plastic icing.
Simply a plate welded behind.
I already had a former in steel for this area so a nice sharp corner was easy.
Some very slow welding to keep things cool and it looks much better.
The angle grinder then decided to die. Just needs new brushes so there will be a bit of a holiday while I wait for the post.

D

hi d
some people should not be allowed to use body filler we had a panel beater here that only used masking tape to repair rust in panels a few strips a bit of a rub then a lick of bog another rub and paint it would get through rego ckeck and fell of when it rained cheap and quick
cheers roger

I don’t know, does this count as progress?
Lots of repairs to do before the new floor can go in. Then I can chop the door step and A post out. All good fun.

D

Not much to tell. The floor and boot area are now solid and just need time spending grinding back the welds. A tedious job but it always feels good once everything is looking right again. The outer sills will go on once the left hand door frame is sorted. In the mean while it will get a good larding of epoxy paint inside the sills.
Plenty to do yet but the pace should pick up again now.

D

Well it’s good to get this project back on four wheels again.
OK OK they are a bit on the small size. It does give me chance to have a sweep up of the pounds of steel filings. I can also turn the car through 180 degrees to make work on the passenger door aperture a little less cramped.

Cracking weather today too even if it’s still chilly. The trees are just coming into leaf now. Spraying weather soon - fingers crossed!

D

Tidy workshops just don’t last with me around. Passenger door step. I’m still aiming to hang on to the quarter panel if I can. Anyway here is what I’ve been up to.
That area of heated panel needs shrinking back further but I think the quarter panel can stay.

D

This morning I checked with Rich a Minispares that all the front panels I will need are available. The answer was yes so I was good to go with the next major section of this project.

First off was the scuttle panel to fix the rot hidden beneath the screen flange.
There are a few more bits like that to sort.

The other task was to get the inner wing off and remake the boxing plate at the end of the cross member.
I have never had to replace inner wings in their entirety before so this is a completely new game to me. It should be fun!

D