Jigsaw anyone?

Making these parts that are 90% missing is interesting to say the least, got some more cuttings/grinding discs for the air grinder today so finished removing the front section of the passengers rear fender and began work rebuilding the structual panel behind.

I wont have to replace the whole rear quarter on this side but will have to replace about 60% of it in two sections. Also the rear isnt as badly damaged/rusted.

2 weeks till my 11 day streak on the impala so i've got to get a riggle on with the rust repairs so I can do the bodywork of majority of it when i have the time off.

Anyway. here is the pictures from today.

This is the rust on the section that was removed from the front of the rear fender.

This is the rear area with the rusted support part removed

This is the rusted support part. aka jigsaw.

Piecing together the new piece.

Insert witty title here.

Well finished cutting most of the rest of the boot out, I ran out of bloody grinding disc's for the air grinder ><. Also good news, the wheel arch metal on the passengers side isnt rusted.

The car is finished on the drivers side now. so the rust repairs have begun on the passengers side. the rear quarter isnt as bad as the drivers side however it still needs 2 big patches replacing.

Also there is no rust at the structure just behind the rear door on the passengers side, however there is rust at the top of the rear fender (go figure) so i'm going to have to replace metal up there ill take pics after work tomorow as ill be getting stuck into the rear quarter then now that wezz's front bar is finished (rx7 bar kept me busy after work on week days during last week or so).

Anyway I gota go out so going to wrap this up. Also confirmed with Craig that he's keeping the arial which is mounted in the front passengers fender on the vertical surface.

Pic of the boot with 90% of the rusted area removed. the rest will be finished when i get new grinding discs.

Here is the two area's im removing from the passengers rear quarter. All the crap on the ground came out of the fender.

Taped before being removed. to give a straight cut.

The rust which once again protrudes through the rear support panel

The rust repair on the drivers side behind the door finished.

Insert creative title here.

Okay well few things done today finally assistant finished the bonnet sanding so i can do the rust repairs on the lip.... finally....

The little patch on the rear of the door has been 90% finished just gota finish welding it. clean it up. seal it from behind. and so on so forth.

Tomorow the car will get turned arround so i can begin the serious rust repairs on the rear quarter on the passengers side and easily strip the front fender off.

The 11 day 'holiday' i've booked off work is approved now. so ill have nearly 2 whole weeks of 12 + hour days to spend on it soon. By the end of that period the car should ...

a) have all rust repairs complete

b) have the whole car etch primed.

c) have most bodywork done and the heavy 2k primer coats on with guide coat to sit for 2 weeks.

anyway. time tells all tales :P

Craig was upset no progress pics had been forthcoming recently :P (upset may be an exageration). So here's a few pictures not much to show. by the end of tomorow should be a bit more to show off.

Oh also the boot has arrived (did i say that yet?) So next weekend Craig is gona drop off the 3 boot panels and the seal set.

All this picture shows is that the door seals (roof mounted) have been removed on the drivers side. and for ONCE there was no rust.... Also removed the chrome strip that cilps over the rain bar on the roof.

Ok here is the repair on the drivers side just behind the door. not finished yet but its like 8pm and im tired ^^

More of the boot has been removed, you can now see 1 of the two fuel tank supports.

finally

Allright the rear right fender is finished welding on, all I have to do is finish sealing it up and schultz the back of it. its nice and strong and best off all... NO RUST.

Spoke to Craig today talked timeline with him all good so far so excluding anymore nasty surprises we'll both have an idea of the timeline now.

Hopefully by the end of this week all of the front and right will be finished then its just the repairs on the left side and the boot floor pan when it arrives.

taking shape?

Aight by end of tomorow i should have finished the bottom right quarter - 60+ hours later... custom making these panels takes a lot of time.

Anyway going to grab some food so here's some pics and descriptions of todays effort.

Here is the new piece clamped into place as im roughing it out

Here is the new piece welded in along the top from a rear angle

Here is hte new piece from a front agle. i have to do the ends tomorow, due to the complex angles in them i make them seperatly and weld them into place.

All of the old boot panel that im removing on this side has been removed a shot of the 'air' where metal should be.

Oh and great news, WE FOUND MORE RUST GOD DAMN IT. this time in the bonnet. behind the chrome strip on the leading edge. rusted right through in 75 % of it. awesome. Also every single bolt on the strip 'sheared off' while i was trying to remove them so i'll have to pull them apart and some how replace all of hte bolts, awesome.

getting there.

OK so. Hardly any pictures today. I made and welded in the angled area that was missing from just above the big cutout for the rear quarter panel (pic of it after being 'spot welded in'). The rest of the day was spent a) clearing out the mess that is between wheel arch and rear drivers door and b) making the plates to repair the drivers rear quarter cosmetic piece. (biggg).

Hopefully that'll be done before the weekend then i can get stuck into the passengers side.

my assistant did more sanding on the passengers side (revealing more rust problems --- goody). She also treated and Da'd the front drivers door and the front grill piece that goes inbetween the windscreen and the bonnet. They're sitting in epoxy primer now. ready to 'store' tomorow.

long day some visible progress...

OK

So i finally finished the support /wheel arch part man that is almost imposible to make freehand. The other side better not be as bad because its insanely time consuming. I also put a patch in the rear of the panel that seals the rear quarter panel underneath the trunk floor. Then i put sealer on all the welded area's (both sides) and then sprayed epoxy 2pac primer on those area's so when they're sealed up they're water proof.(Ill do all the 3m schultz at once) - during / after the bodywork stage when its all assembled.

Also my assistant finished sanding the boot (finally lol) so i treated the metal. sanded it and sprayed the rear drivers door and the boot with epoxy aswell. those will be ready to go into storage tomorow morning. When all the rust repairs are done and the whole lot is epoxy'd the car will get re-assembled and then FINALLY the body work begins in ernest.

The pics are all mixed up and im too damn tired to sort them out so view them 1 at a time.



first up we have a picture of the rear quarter internal area after being repaired and sealed and epoxy'd












Here is a picture of the boot and rear drivers door. you can see the dents protrouding through the epoxy. To be fixed during the bodywork stage.









Da'ing the boot panel with 80 grit after treating the metal. before cleaning and painting.










OH GOODy more rust. i spoted a tiny spot protrouding on the front of the wheel arch between it and the door. upon closer inspection <--- THERES A GOD ALLMIGHTY HOLE!. So now i have even more damn rust to fix. awesome.








Here is a view from the back of the car looking at the repaired section with sealer over the welds/joins before being epoxy'd.











A view from the side of the support / sealing panel after the welds have been finished and the area's sealed.

A view from the wheel of the area after its been sealed before being epoxy I still have to mount the bottom of the rear quarter too the repaired area.

The rear section after being repaired before being sealed or epoxy'd

The damage on the bottom of the rear left quarter hard to see from that angle but there is a 3-4inch hole lengthwise down the body thatll have to be repaired the rust here isnt as bad as the drivers side.

The rust at the front of the rear left quarter was just as bad as the drivers side which probably means the support and wheel arch area's will also be fried - awesome...

The front support after being 'rebuilt' with about 1/3 of the original to go from as a sample. The original litterally fell apart in my hands as i removed it. totally rotted out.







Thats it for today another 10 or so hours to do tomorow we'll see how it plays out hopefullly I get all the rust repairs on the drivers side finished and then i can start on the passengers side. In 1 week I will have had the car for roughly a month and its taken that long just to do the huge number of rust repairs and also to strip the old paint (10 layers thick including 10-20mm of bog) so i can start the bodywork from scratch and fix ALL the rust i find. (Which when you remove the cover-up paint job is a lot.