Now onto day 4, I thought I'd post up some progress pics.
There's been a leak that fills the boots whenever it rains, and deposits a large amount of rust debris. It's pretty clear that the main culprit was the rear window. There is also a large patch of rust along the top edge of the inner roof skin, where it has leaked badly in the past.
I didn't have the camera until day 3, so there's no early pics. The first day was taken up with removing the chrome trim (which had been glued on with urethane
) and getting the glass out. It's no fun cutting out the butyl/urethane sealant from both sides. I used up about 10 of the long thin stanley blades in the process, but finally at about 4:30pm it was out and I was able to assess the damage.
First impressions were that it wasn't too bad, no obvious holes, but a reasonable scattering of rust patches. After attacking with scrappers and screw drivers, I opted to remove 3 areas -
1. 2 foot strip along the top edge where the inner/outer roof skins meet, this included going 2 inches deep into the inner skim (to repair the interior trim screw holes),
2. The driver side lower corner and
3. A four inch strip along the drivers lower side.
I started at the top edge and carefully cut the worst out, then using a patch cut from the spares car, trimmed to fit. Everything was going well, until I tried to spot weld it in, only to find there was no gas in the welder
I paused there, and moved to cutting out the next bits.
This is where the pics start:
Top strip cut and replacement ready for welding
Two patches cut out of corner/lower side, with surrounding area treated with Kurust
Top strip welded, grinded and treated
Cancer cut out of the corner
Patches filed and grinded
The side wasn't so bad and cleaned up with the grinder
Rear corner doesn't look too good and needs more investigation
Since then I've cut a bit more away from that rear corner. It appears to be a 3 panel junction between the outer quarter, the inner wheel house structure and the trunk opening. The top two layers have rusted and been removed, but the top of the inner structure is toast
and it can't be properly repaired unless the rear wing comes off
. For now, I've cut a bit more of the channel forward of the corner out, to give access to put a small patch to some semi decent metal, and that will have to do.
More pics and updates to follow after todays exploits.