Yoshi

Looking forward to seeing the drawings

If the sills and front body mounts are ok, then its worth getting the rear welded up. I would have a serious poke about elsewhere to check if any more needs doing.
That part looks pretty easy to patch weld so shouldnt be a challenge for a good garage.

Compared to the 2006 project i have its really good Have a scroll through this to see how rusty they can get: bigjimny.com/index.php/forum/18-build-thread/63372-ulysses

So bad i chopped a fairly big bit bit off

If incase you need to replace the rear body mounts
I have this lying around from a previous project I scrapped


Jack

Thanks guys,

Riccy, the front seams to have gotten away from the most of the rust. But hopefully this week end I can rip some panels off and have give the area around the body mounts a harsh brushing. If all is good, some waxoyl to hopefully keep them that way.

To confirm the front mounts are inside the front wheel arches, and the rear are near where I took my pics (visible in the pics I think).

I was on the verge of checking the door sills on the weekend just gone, but was annoyed so just packed up instead.

Jack, thanks for the offer I will keep it in mind. If I get a chance this weekend I am going to pull the tow bar out and give it all a proper look over and some waxoyl, but I am confident that the chassis is solid. My dad is an old mechanic repairing everything from massive excavators in mines to custom building race cars. He had a check over it when he was around and said it was solid in that department. Hopefully he was right and this is all just body stuff.

So following Riccy’s Advice I spent this afternoon checking the body mounts and all the wheel arches.

The left side isn’t as bad as the right but needs to be repaired as well. Where the rust goes up quite a lot on the right, the left side doesn’t, and it’s just the back.

The front arches and door sills were near perfect. Some surface rust that brushed off. Followed this up with some waxoyl.

Carried this on to as much of the underside as I could easily get to with out a ramp. Leaving the back where it needs to be welded.

Now to find a garage to weld up the bits I need doing.

Sounds like good news and good progress there, as well as a bit of elbow grease

Welding isnt that hard. I have done a fair bit with a less than £200 welder and some metal plate

Sadly I don’t have the space for a welder. I either work on the side of our quiet road or in the alley next to the office (private).

I could do the welding at the office I suppose but would rather get it done right

Popped up to the local garage, they estimate around 3 hours work to get it done. The price comes in at the top end of what I wanted to spend so I am happy with that.

Thats with me removing the bumper and panels for them. Said I dont want anything painted ect as I will manage all that which I would want to do anyway. Hopefully get a slot next week for them to do it.

Wow, it took 2 MONTHS for the garage to get their asses into gear and complete the welding. It was booked in with them as something to do on the side, keep my costs down. But really, 2 months for what equated to 5 hours work.
Oh well, its done and I have my baby back.

Wheel Arch:


Inside of the Arch


Not the cleanest, but I think thats due to them not having the right welder. The outside was sealed in something, in black, and no idea what it was... so covered it in Waxoyl like I have been doing the rest of the under side. Completed the underseal of the rear arches now and as much of the rear as I could reach without too much trouble.

Had to get an MOT while it was with them as it expired... passed with no advisories.

Next up, a lot of sanding. I have decided to sand the inside rear back to bare metal, repair all the little holes with epoxy (with a steel filler) and respray it.
After the inside is done... wire brush the underside of all that and waxoyl the remainder of the underside of the car, which is basically a stripe down the center.

After this I am going back and forth trying to decide how to deal with the removal of the rear plastics. They are gone, and I dont want them back but I do want to kit out the rear for camping. Its a toss up between going all wood paneling and fiberglassing it. The storage box system I want to build will be wood. But I want to replace the side plastics that covered the front seat belts and think that using the bits I have of it (just goes past the seat belts) I can make a new panel that hugs the wheel arch rather than taking up a ton of space like the original one did.
Fairly certain its going to be fiberglass, as from a weight point of view this would be the best bet. And I think it would look much better with the curved lines around the front seat belts, all the way round to the rear door. Along with a "bin" for the back, to keep moisture away from the metal.