The weekend was back to normal and I left home with thunder, lightening and torrential rain to accompany me on the way down to Mustang Maniac. I was about three miles away when the clouds broke and the sun started to shine. As ever there was people in the office buying stuff and picking up some orders. I decided to leave Adam to it went to see my car again. There she was feeling neglected and that soon changed as I got my overalls on ready for some work. Al was on hand to give me some professional training on filler and how to apply it. The sills needed to be bare metalled as well. Al looked over the welds and mixed up a big wad of filler, he spread over the large area and it looked dead easy. I have applied filler in the past but not on such a large area, so I was going to give it a go. I mixed up a wad and applied it, it wasn’t as neat as Al’s effortless application, the more I tried to make it neat the worse it got. The secret is to apply it and leave it, “don’t be afraid to put some on”. In a way if it looks a little rough it’s not to bad but it just means it takes more rubbing down. As long as the filler is over the low spot then it should be OK. That’s the difference when somebody who is good at what they do let’s somebody else try it. It’s a skill that takes time to master but I will get there.
Al’s applications looked neat and applied in about one minute flat.
My attempts were there but not as smooth and took longer. When it starts to look messy and drag its the filler going off, so it’s best to leave it alone at that point, then apply some more fresh filler if you need to.
The sills had to be bare metalled as well to check for any damage due to the dreaded rust. As the sills were galvanised as standard when new they looked remarkably good. The sills only showed a couple of issues right at the ends of the rear wheel arch, and a small pin hole at the leading edge on one side. Usual story – stripper, rub down with some coarse wire wool and repeat as required which gave some good results. These pics of the sills are before I drilled off the sill clips which hold on the chrome sill covers. Once the heads were drilled off I then punched through the rivets in order to make the rubbing down easier.
The pics here are during and after the paint was removed. Those who are eagle-eyed will spot a ring on the sills in black marker pen. This is to mark up areas that will need a little mig welding work to secure. I went round the car marking up any areas ready for the welding before I miss any bits, again.
One of the jobs in prep for the welding was the seat belt anchor points that had broken welds. I was unable to get the bolts undone from inside. When I checked the outside with Al he showed me an eye opener. The lunatic who done some work previously on the exhaust had welded some bolts to the end of the anchor bolts. Why? Simple to hang the exhaust from rather than make proper brackets. This seems to have been common bad practice, but not to the extent to weld another bolt on. Amateurs to put it politely. This meant that there was no way they were going to be undone. So it was down to the last resort angle grinder to cut the welded bolts off. Once they were cut, they undone from the inside no problem and the rotten old seat belts were finally removed.
I was hoping to get the welding started but quite rightly so it was decided to fill the floor pans now while it was easier before the car was the right way up and have to apply filler upside down as it were. Maybe next week for the welding? It really is worth looking at the before and after pictures so far. I have put a quick link at the bottom for the full story or click here.
Sunday I have finished the chassis cross brace which was a little dented and rusty in a few places. The whole thing has come up very well. Last week I rubbed the old paint of, got rid of the small surface rust that looked worse than it actually was. I then applied the filler and this week I rubbed it down, red oxide primer, and mat black top coat. I may apply a coat of silver at the ends the bar for a little detail. But I will think about that, after all nobody will see it – except me!
Quick Links:
Under seal & floor Pans the story so far click here or go to Photo Menu – Under the Car and Chassis – Under seal & Floor Pans
Looks like it’s coming along, slowly but surely.