1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

[79cord]

Glad to see the enthusiastic work!
Personally I'd remove the frt bumper upper trims & re-attach them with nuts/bolts or screws into plastic fittings, as I regret not doing it on the back of my Accord & still have rust stains coming down from the joint. So stops risk of rust there & also allows you to go bumperless or bumperettes later if/when you choose.
Edit
I'm assuming they are spot welded on, though that probably means they are welded on with the rest of the bumper mounts to make the idea more difficult since these cars weren't exactly designed for easy bolt-on repairs.
Also surprised they filled in the rear sides with simple flat interior trims like that rather than following the outer skin more with oddments pockets like early mini... but I suppose that may have added cost.

[vulgalour]

Oh it was all about cost cutting on this particular example. I'm not sure how the other 2 doors dealt with it, but certainly on this Austin it was a case of doing the barest possible they could. I'm surprised they didn't just glue matching vinyl to the back of the wing and left it all open.

Bumper shelf is, I think, spot welded in place to the outside of the face/valance. I don't think it's a sandwich construction like the wing trim seam but that wouldn't surprise me. I imagine they went with whatever method rusted best.

[Rebel]

Loving the Austin, in the interest of possible modifications. I'd be tempted to remove the front sidelight / indicator unit, putting the siudelights in the headlights and if possible movving the indicators into the headlights as well ( in the same way as found on some VW Beetles ). Would clean the front end up and with the possible addition of a chrome tube grille should look good. Obviously just a thought, lol

[vulgalour]

I reckon you could easily hide the indicators behind the grille so they're visibly separate from the headlights. Something to consider, certainly given the propensity for the sidelight units to rot out and rot the wing out around them.

---

Today I was going to have a go at finishing that wing. Thing is, it's all fiddly stuff and I wanted to do something simpler and bigger today. Fortunately, the floor moves independently of the car so that's a big simple job to put right. Probably. First job, knock out as much rust as you can.
20170715-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Also discover the extent of the fibreglass inside the car. This lump was nearly as big as my hand.
20170715-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I won't be doing the front floor today as my panel hasn't arrived yet, it's in transit still. The bashing of the sill did knock off even more of the floor pan.
20170715-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

This is what I'm left with after all that. At the back corner there is a substantial patch repair, the rot has been cut out in the floor and it is fitted fairly well but fibreglass was used as a seam sealer instead of, you know, seam sealer. Perhaps it's just a really old repair, seam sealer wasn't always so readily known as a repair thing. Regardless, that repair at the back is *really* solid so I've left it alone. I checked out the other floor and sill repairs and those too are done quite well with the rot cut out before the panels were added, they just need some finishing work really.
20170715-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170715-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Next job is to clean back the edges and see just how far the rot goes. Surprisingly, the rot creep wasn't actually as extensive as feared. I need to get in at the corner and clean up that repair and do a bit more work on the inner sill piece just to finish it all off.
20170715-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170715-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Scary bit next. Angle grinder time!
20170715-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Yikes. That's a BIG hole. I only just had enough spare steel to make a patch for that after moving my cardboard template around on it a few times to be sure.
20170715-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170715-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

After some more cleaning and tidying of edges I could set to on the welding. I'm overlap welding this rather than butt welding. It's not going to be a pretty repair but it will be strong and weather proof once its done. Originality is not important. The welding went quite well, access was easy and apart from a couple of awkard poses required because of how small the car is, it didn't give me any real problems. This is part way through the welding, I just got on with it rather than taking pictures at every stage.
20170715-11 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I was also sure to check for penetration of the welds from the other side and make sure I wasn't damaging the wiring loom that runs through this sill. As I understand it there should be a closing panel between the outer sill and the point the inner sill meets the floor. It's missing completely on both sides. The intermediate sill isn't too bad, there's a couple of points that could do with patches, but nothing more than 2" or so square.
20170715-12 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Welding completed and dressed back I seam sealered it all... then remembered I needed to make a new seat rest strengthener plate since the old one was quite crusty. It's fun welding in the same area as fresh seam sealer, you get lots of pretty flames and noxious smoke. I also noticed after putting everything away today that I missed one puddle weld, I'll catch that when I do the next round of welding.
20170715-13 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170715-14 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

There's more welding to do on the floors and inner sills, but it's only small pieces now. The welding I did today has returned the strength to the floor so it doesn't flex alarmingly now. I'm really pleased I got this dealt with so quickly. The other things I was doing today was a little interior work. Here's a picture of the bottom of the driver's seat, if anyone has the missing bits, please do shout up as I'd like to be able to adjust the seat without unbolting it each time.
20170715-15 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I got the contact adhesive out for the repairs to the rear door cards. To make sure everything stuck really well, I stacked some old brake discs on them. Then put them back in the car along with the seats. All this will come out again when I finish the floor welding but I can't do any of that until the new panels arrive so I'll move on to the boot floor next probably and just keep everything in its place in the meantime so I don't lose any of it.
20170715-16 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170715-17 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170715-18 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I didn't set anything on fire (apart from seam sealer) today. I'm practically a professional fabricator at this point

[vulgalour]

Thought it might be an idea to note down my to-do list here so I can start checking things off it.
To Do list stands thus:

Bodywork
Driver's side
- bulkhead repair behind inner wing and trumpet panels DONE
- front inner wing to repair above displacer DONE and at front subframe mounting point
- front inner wing "trumpet" to replace DONE
- finish removing remnants of old front outer wing DONE
- minor repair on replacement front outer wing
- fit front outer wing
- repair outer edges of front bumper shelf DONE
- Front floor pan repairs (panel arrived)
- small hole to investigate and repair on lower inner wing to floor join DONE
- front subframe mount on heelboard to investigate and repair if required.
- bulkhead mounting point for heater to repair
- inner sill.  Some very small patches to finish
- sill closing panel to buy and attach
- rear lower outer wing/arch area to replace
- boot floor to inner wing section to repair
- rear boot floor seam to clean and repair as necessary
Passenger side
- boot floor to inner wing section to repair DONE
- rear subframe mount to investigate and improve previous repair if necessary DONE
- filler below B pillar to investigate on outer sill, potentially patch using parts of spare partial outer sill investigated, rot in sill to repair
- small section of front closing panel of outer sill to inner wing to repair
- sill closing panel to buy and attach
- Headlight section of front outer wing to replace DONE
- Upper trailing edge of wing to replace DONE
- lower trailing edge of front outer wing to replace DONE
- lower leading edge of front outer wing to replace DONE
 
Mechanical and Electrical
- repair wiring loom where I accidentally sliced through it DONE
- Identify and re-instate wiring DONE
- Identify non-starting issue DONE cleaned points, replaced starter motor and coil.
- Identify cause of inoperable horn and indicators.  Potentially replace horn and indicator relay.  Potentially dismantle and/or clean column stalk to resolve connections
- Obtain and fit correct battery, current one much too large
- acquire good set of tyres, all five current tyres are perished.  Car currently wearing 165/70/12 on one axle and 155/R12 on the other axle
- flush and replace coolant
- fit new throttle cable DONE
- if good, refit choke cable DONE
- bleed clutch.  If needed, acquire rebuild kit or replacement clutch cylinder (ordered replacement cylinder) DONE
- unseize and rebuild or replace clutch master cylinder DONE
- replace missing brake line
- bleed brakes
 
Cosmetic
- repair and retrim door cards
- repair and retrim parcel shelf
- acquire and fit new carpetting
- apply paint where required

[Spudgun]

I now have a lot of want for an Austin
The pace you have set for the repairs it will be on the road before you know it.

My old man had one when I was about 11 (Years ago) which he had to always leave in gear cos his house was on a hill and the Austin had no handbrake that worked.

Glad you have rescued this one and I have bookmarked it

[eurogranada]

When you first embarked on this voyage I was afraid you were in over your head, but I have to admit that you've delved in with a plan and are making good progress at that!

Well done.

[vulgalour]

Sat having my lunch after having just received the body panels I'd bought and the new throttle cable. I won't get any welding work in today but I should get some underseal removal done and some other little non-essential jobs sorted to save me time later.

[vulgalour]

Another day, another update. Today, the inner wing and Mini floor pan arrived. A little later, the throttle cable arrived. Fitting the throttle cable and refitting the choke cable went smoothly and the electrics no longer attempt to earth through those. Also, the car decided it was going to start on the ignition key just fine today without us touching anything. Because ADO16 on that one I reckon. The floor pan is plenty big enough and while it is for the opposite side of a Mini, it'll do just fine for this car. The inner wing only repairs the upper half of the inner wing but again, this is not a problem because that's all I need and it was CHEAP.
20170717-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170717-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I then spend a very, very long time with thinners, brushes and a wire brush in a drill cleaning off the underseal and old paint and loose rust. This took forever and the unit is like an oven today. No horrors unearthed, overall there was more good metal still there than expected. I gave it all a coat of zinc primer so it doesn't flash rust, this is easy to take back when I do the repairs and a good way of temporarily stabilising things since I'm not entirely sure how long this repair is going to take me to complete.
20170717-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170717-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170717-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Then I ran out of time. I'm planning to go in tomorrow and finish the clean up on this inner wing. In all honesty, it was simply too hot to be doing welding today, I was sweating cobs just in casual work clothes, there's no way I wanted to be wrapped up in all my welding gear. I reckon by the end of this week I should have this inner wing at least pieced together, if not finished.

The last things to note is that the clutch slave cylinder is indeed in need of replacement since it's stuck solid and there isn't anything missing on the front seat adjusters after all. The seats do adjust with a tiny little lever, as pointed out to me by various folks, and I was just over thinking it.

[vulgalour]

Underseal removal COMPLETE
20170718-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Ended up using a heat gun after trying the usual methods and, once you got the temperature just right, it scraped off like cake batter which was quite satisfying. I chopped what was left of the old trumpet off and set it aside, just in case. I couldn't find my spotweld cutter, that's something I'll be using to unstitch the panel for the inner wing repairs. Found a bit of hidden grot in the three layers of bulkhead, inner wing and trumpet.
20170718-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Also found the reason for the A pillar rot is down to a small hole on the inner wing the other side. The tender bit at the bottom of the inner arch holed too. Neither of these items are bad, and very easy to repair since access is so good.
20170718-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Was a messy job. I'll probably be fitting new discs and pads when the welding is done, the ones that are on are servicable but it wouldn't hurt to change them. Tested the brake lights today and they don't work, this could be a stuck switch or just the fact the braking system is incomplete and has no fluid in it. I've not looked into what kind of brake switch is fitted, if it's a pressure operated one there's definitely not enough pressure in the system to operate it.
20170718-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

After lots and lots of wire wheel and flap wheel action cleaning off crusty deposits and paint remnants, I had the panel ready enough for welding. Gave it all a unifying coat of zinc primer so the problem areas are easier to see. You'll also note the remnants of the old wing have been removed, I just have a few spot welds to cut through to release the old wing flanges before I can fit the new one. I'll be removing the wing stay to repair it, there's only a little rust damage and it's not a difficult job so it makes sense to clean that up and reuse it rather than buying a new one.
20170718-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

This is the worst of the subframe mounts. It looks quite scary at first but the construction of this area is fairly simple. I'll unpick the layers and replace the steel and when this is secure and the subframe bolted back on to it I'll move on to the other subframe mounts. That way I shouldn't have to drop the subframe if I'm careful.
20170718-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Had a bit of a fiddle with the controls in the car and the indicator relay woke up! I've got indicators on one side only at the moment, the other side is still having a nap.
20170718-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

The last thing was trying out one of the 13" slot mags in the unit. They look SO GOOD. Unfortunately they're the wrong PCD so we'll stick to the steels and chrome hubcaps. I'm planning to repaint the steels cream which should look nicer against the purple and chrome. I'm not a fan of silver wheels.
20170718-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

[nomad]

The brake light switch is pressure type  The pipe Mike fitted to fix your "burst" pipe goes into a cast block, this connects 4 brake pipes + 1 gizmo (with 2 wires coning out)
The less-technical term for the gizmo is a pressure-operated brake light switch.
Pull the wires off the gizmo switch, turn on the ignition, and if you touch the 2 wires together the brake lights shouild flash.
It's difficult to tell from the angle of the photos but start by looking at the green (and maybe brown) wires.
Electrics can be hours of educational fun for children of all ages. Enjoy   

Results so far are impressive, it has to be good for your mojo to see such solid results happening so quickly ! 

[kevins]

i always find this sort of repair the most satisfying, chop it all out weld new metal in a bit of paint and sealer and job done, no messing around grinding back, planishing, prepping and painting.

keep the good work up.

[vulgalour]

It is nice just slapping new panels in, so much less work and mess!

---

Daily update time! I'll admit, I'm flagging a bit today so I might take tomorrow off from this to recover a bit. We shall see. First thing that arrived was a workshop manual donated to the cause by SpottedLaurel, thanking you. Quite a few of the diagrams and details in here are clearer than the other books I've got so it's a useful additional bit of ammunition in the maintenance and repair arsenal.
20170719-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Then it was on to subframe mount replacement. I very carefully cut out the old mount, being sure not to cut into the subframe itself. The old piece came off in two parts, mostly cornflakes, it was just about stable enough to use as a template.
20170719-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

After painting the back of the new plate and the subframe section it mounts to, I bolted it in place and massaged the surrounding remains of the inner wing so it all lined up before welding. I may have gone a little overkill on the gauge of steel used. My theory is that this will take longer to rust out.
20170719-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170719-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I still haven't found my spotweld cutter bits, I'll likely have to buy some new ones (at which point the old ones will turn up) so I couldn't really do anything about preparing the inner wing for the new pieces to go in. Instead, I tackled the bulkhead section of the inner wing where it had holed. This was all fiddly repairs and in a few places I was chasing holes which was a bit annoying. Once it was all welded up it got the welds flattened back to smarten them but not make them disappear and then some seam sealer.
20170719-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

After that, a coat of zinc primer and gloss black so I can see where I've been. It was seriously hot in the unit again today and being bundled up in welding gear was just exhausting so that's as far as that got.
20170719-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Looking for other jobs I removed the door mirror and fitted the passenger wing mirror. Not a mirror that photographs particularly well, it has to be said. They look right on the car in person and it's great that they won't be in my stash taking up space now.
20170719-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

If I'm feeling up to it tomorrow, I'll tackle the front subframe mount and the small bit of inner wing repair near to it. If I can find my spotweld cutters I'll also unstitch the wing and trumpet remnants ready for the new stuff to go on once it arrives.

[nickyjim]

I've been reading your threads since the time of the Polo. It's amazing to see the casual way you now talk about the business (read dark art) of welding compared to just a few years ago and the way you have attacked this with gusto rather than giving it a wash wishing you had the skills to tackle the harder stuff. Can't wait to see this roadworthy- keep at it!

[vulgalour]

It's great to have the confidence to do stuff like this now, and the resources. If I had all this back then I'd probably never have moved on from the Polo, I wonder what path I might have ended up following had that been the case.

[darrenh]

great progress

while thicker steel is undeniably stronger than thinner steel, when you join said dissimilar guages together with weld, in an environment that is continually stressed, you will find it will defer energy to the weaker steel and fracture down beside the line the weld.

[vulgalour]

Is this something I need to be concerned about with this repair? If I need to undo that bit and redo differently I'd rather do that sooner than later.

[blackpopracing]

Not really, no. All welds crack along the edge of the weld line first as it's the weakest point. I would however add extra metal at the bottom of your repair as its not very strong as you have it currently.

Not wanting to be disrespectful of your welding but as that particular part is structural I would recommend getting someone who is more competant to check it/ re weld it where required as it does not look the best bit of welding to be honest. Sorry to be a bit negative but some things need doing 'right' rather than 'ok' - hope you take this as intended and not as critcism.

[vulgalour]

No offence taken, I'm not a pro and it's not a finished repair.

Consider it more a tacked in repair, I've just been a bit heavy handed with the tacking as I wasn't sure how much it needed and I couldn't finish the welding here until I'd done more preparation work. I need to unstitch the upside-down Y panel to get to the rust that needs removing behind it on the inner wing and I need to replace the upper inner wing before I can actually weld this piece in properly. As it stands, it's much stronger than what came out which had all the strength of Shreddies so I'm confident it's already safer.

Interestingly, while all the subframe mounts have an additional plate spot welded to the panels they go through, the replacement panels don't so I expect most just drill holes in the appropriate places and bolt it all up. Makes you wonder just how much strength is actually needed since the load is carried by twelve bolts across six mounting points.

[eurogranada]

Came across this and well obviously it reminded me of you....

link.marktplaats.nl/m1163345051