1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

[vulgalour]

That's a little stunner! Love the diamond stitched trim panels and usefully I now know where that other ashtray that came with the car actually lives, I would not have expected it to go between the front seats for the rear passengers.

---

Today I'm at home because we have a minor water leak of unknown origin in the house and a plumber is supposed to be turning up (not holding out much hope at this point) to figure out what's going on with that. In the meantime, that meant I was at a bit of a loose end so I decided to see if I could find those spotweld cutting bits. They weren't at the front of the garage where I hoped they'd be so I had to move the Princess. To her credit, the old lump fired up first time with no bother even though she's not been touched in what seems a very long time. Princess is in limbo at the moment, I'm waiting on a few things resolving to try and get this pipe sorted so I've been busying myself with other stuff instead and putting it out of mind for the short term. I had put a scrap of linoleum down in the garage so we could see just what was leaking and how much and even at rest the Hydragas is steadily flowing out of the system and making the minor oil leak look a million times worse than it really is.
20170720-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I have a very effective filing system on my storage boxes now. I had a strong suspicion that if the spotweld cutters were anywhere, they'd be in the Whatever box.
20170720-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I was right too! Found both of them, they're the stubby brass coloured drill bits on the compartment boxes. I also spent some time sorting through the various old fixings and putting them into the compartment boxes in order of size and type so I don't need to keep rifling through an old ice cream tub with mixed everything in the future. I need to buy some more of those boxes, they're really useful, and fairly cheap. As an added bonus, I found two fuel filters I didn't know I had.
20170720-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Thanks to Beige1100 too who has sorted me out with a trumpet and other bits, I'm looking forward to those arriving so I can finish off that inner wing. Providing I'm not stuck at home tomorrow I'll get in and remove all those spotwelds I need to at the very least, I'm still hoping to get that inner wing finished by the end of the week.

[vulgalour]

UPDATE TIME.

You know I like to deal with all the important things on a car first, that's why it now has a boot badge.
20170721-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

New fuel filter too, since the old one was a bit brown.
20170721-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Then I spent what seemed like forever with a combination of spotweld cutters, cutting disc and flapwheel getting all the metal off that I would be replacement with new stuff. This in turn revealed the rot that needed repairing in the bulkhead which could have been done from inside the car, it's just this way is easier because of all the extra work that's being done.
20170721-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Yet another check of the inner wing repair panel to be absolutely certain there's enough, and there is. I need to clean this all back before I put the replacement trumpet on and it should be easier to do that off the car and then put the whole thing on the car in one go.
20170721-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I also pulled off the wing stay with the intention of repairing it. Unfortunately, it's a bit far gone so I'll have to replace it.
20170721-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Once the extent of the rot on the bulkhead was explored, I carefully moved the wiring loom out of the way and set to with the angle grinder, taking my time being sure to make it a nice neat cut.
20170721-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

A nice neat cut STRAIGHT THROUGH THE WIRING LOOM. FFS.
20170721-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I'm not fixing that today, it can wait until later. Lesson for next time is that I ought to tie wrap wires out of the way so they don't spring back to their old place. Anyway, new patch made, welded in and cleaned up.
20170721-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Nice splosh of zinc primer and paint later and it's looking far better.
20170721-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I wasn't paying much attention to time today, so I ran over my alloted time quite a lot. That's why I then went on to chop the rotten corner off the wing so that I could weld a better piece in off the spare wing. There's a few niggly little patches to finish off here and there before filler and paint, it's not a beautiful job but it'll do.
20170721-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170721-11 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

We shall see what I end up doing over the weekend... probably fixing those wires I chopped through.

[vulgalour]

Right, I'm taking tomorrow off. I'm knackered. Let's see what I got up to today, shall we? That bleb on the passenger sill was explored, it wasn't actually much of anything, just a scruffy weld presumably to bridge a little hole.
20170722-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

It's what was underneath that was the problem. Fortunately, I've got a big enough section of outer sill to sort this out. Eventually, it wants a full outer sill fitting this side, I'll save that for when/if I buy new front wings in the future.
20170722-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

To offset that unexpected find, I cleaned back and inspected the boot repair and found that it was, overall, not too bad. There wasn't really anything to gain by cutting it all out and doing it again so I flattened off the welds and applied some more welding where required. Then flattened everything off again, gave it a good dose of seam sealer (which I'll do on the other side too, which incidentally has some welds of serviceable quality too), primed and painted. This did take rather longer than I made that sound, especially since it's not the most comfortable bit of car to be working on. Didn't have any Harvest Gold so for now it's just black, I'll go over the interior of the boot with green to match the cabin once I've done all the repair work back here.
20170722-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Chased out some pinholes I'd noticed on the headlamp repair section before flatting that back ready for a little bit of filler and paint. Also found the missing part of the donor wing for this side, a piece I'd previously dismissed as random scrap, so that saved a lot of time on the lower wing repair. Used some fresh steel to bridge the gap where both donor and original wing had rotted out.
20170722-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170722-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Repaired a couple of smaller holes on the original wing where it meets the corner section at the front and I've still got a couple to do underneath which I'll find easier when the car is up on the lift. For now, those areas that were ready got some filler and then everything got a dose of primer partly to tidy things up, partly because the car may have to go outside next week at short notice and I don't want it sitting outside in bare metal (I know primer isn't much better, but it's better than nothing). It needs work on the filler to be ready for paint but is very close now
20170722-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

The other boot corner that I need to do work on isn't too terrible. I was tempted to do it today but I ran out of steam when I realised how fiddly and time-consuming some of it is going to be to put right. With the exception of the driver's front corner, the welding that remains really needs the car to be on the lift to sort out. I'm not especially looking forward to replacing the front floor pan, but needs must.

Finally, can anyone identify these? They don't seem to naturally fit anywhere and while they look similar to the engine/ignition cover, they don't seem right for that application. They also seem to be handed but are nothing to do with boot interior trim or inner wing guards so far as I can work out, which is where I would have expected this sort of shaped thing to go. It has been suggested they're ignition shields for a Mini.
20170722-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

[jpsmit]

Could they go left and right in front of the doors under the dash in the interior?

[vulgalour]

Couple of people now have confirmed they're for Mini and they're the ignition shield. A slightly different design to the standard ADO16 one in that there's a cut-out for the dipstick so I can fit these to my car which would look nicer than the taped up original.

[retrolegends]

Can't believe the progress your making on this, personally I think they look great in Harvest Gold with a set of yellow and white number plates with black plastic letters to give it a proper '70s look.

Keep on! 👍🏻

[vulgalour]

Yeah but... Harvest Gold D: Limeflower I'm okay with, but not Harvest Gold, it's a dreadful colour and not in a good way.

----

It's been a day or two since the last update, I bet you're wondering where I got to. Never fear, a new update is here. Yesterday I went in with some goodies that had arrived but couldn't do anything as the unit needed to be a clean space for the day, so there was no way I could be doing grinding and welding. That's okay, I got a bit ahead on some work projects instead and left the new parts for today.
20170725-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Mike was going to be in the unit ahead of me today and offered to fit the clutch slave cylinder and repair the wiring loom. I wasn't sure if he'd have time and they're non-vital items at the moment so I didn't mind if today was just me cracking on with bodywork. Happily, there was a note.
20170725-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Well, that was nice. Old slave cylinder well and truly jammed, the pedal actually moves properly now. It needs to be bled to work fully, that's a job for tomorrow, hopefully. Wiring loom was all repaired and wrapped to Mike's usual high standard so that's another worry out of the way.
20170725-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170725-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170725-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I had spent some time yesterday looking at the car and the inner wing panel and imagining how to fix it. This is a much more involved and scary repair than I've done before as it's all peculiar shapes and I pretty much had to do it with the panel I'd got, there's no spare funds for another at the moment. It was a case of offering the panel up, marking and trimming it about a thousand times, then doing it a bit more, and a bit more, until I was as happy as I could be. I did have to remove more inner wing than expected at the front because of rust but much less depth of wing.
20170725-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Clean it up, tack it in, bash a few edges for a slightly better fit and massage bendy bits of panel so they line up as good as possible and it's starting to look something like. Oh, and clean off the surface rust too, of course.
20170725-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Eventually, the whole repair section is seam welded and plug welded where required. I went over the middle subframe mounting plate again and got the welds more even and hefty to improve that area. There's one corner of the subframe mount I can't finish until I've done some rust repair, but I needed the upper section of wing in before I could do that, so that job happens later this week. I was quite picky about both sides of the welding, part of the reason for doing it from the inner wing side is the ugly side of the welding would be less visible. Once I was happy that everything was properly seam welded with good penetration and a reasonable finish both sides I treated it all to seam sealer, primer and paint. Where you see the flashes of grey primer is where there's rust repairs to complete
20170725-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I decided against fitting the trumpet to the inner wing panel before fitting the inner wing panel for two reasons. The first is that the spotweld holes I need to access are accessible with the panel fitted, something I didn't know until it was ready to be welded in. The other is that the trumpet is a terrible fit. I've been trying to squash and bend and straighten and tweak it and it's something like but it's going to need clamping to the wing and bashing into place to get it to sit right in some areas. I don't know if the fitment issue is down to the inner wing panel or the trumpet, both or the car, it's just one of those things. It was one of the parts of this repair that was worrying me what with there being a lot of complicated shapes having to slot together neatly.

Never mind. I got the engine bay side of the wing seam sealered as tidily as I could. It should be a much less visible repair once the battery and wiring are reinstated and it has some paint on. It's all metal now, at least, and will hopefully take at least another 45 years to rot out again, by which point I don't think I'll care.
20170725-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170725-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I am looking forward to getting this engine bay tidied up. There's a small piece I need to put in between the bulkhead and the inner wing where it was cut away for the repair before I got the car, a fiddly job but an easy one at least. I wanted to do this after the inner wing was fitted so I could make the repair the correct shape easier. I didn't cut through any wires or set anything on fire today, which was very surprising, though I did make the obligatory blood sacrifice by accidentally stabbing myself in the hand on a drilled hole edge.
20170725-11 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

[melle]

Looks like you're trying to remove the minimum by cutting around the rot, it's often easier to cut out bigger sections so you end up with straight cuts and less angles. Makes fitting much easier. Like this:

[vulgalour]

I considered doing it that way, I just wasn't keen on cutting out any more than I had to.

[melle]

I think this is a "mistake" many make, it's often much easier and quicker to remove a bit more metal than to end up with all kinds of funny shapes. Apart from that, you would have shorter welds, which not only speeds up the process, but also reduces the risk of panels warping.

[vulgalour]

Consider it a new thing learned, which is something I'm still doing with this sort of work

[blackpopracing]

I agree, often easier to chop more out to get to a line that's easier to weld as well.

[Deleted]

I am in envy and awe of your skills and progression here.

[vulgalour]

Don't be envious, be inspired to do your own great things

---

Made a bit more progress on the bodywork today. I'm into the territory of fiddly jobs that take ages for no obvious visual gain now, which is always annoying. First thing was cleaning up and bridging that hole between the inner wing and the bulkhead, a repair made difficult because of it being quite a tight corner to get into with things like the wiring loom at high risk of getting damaged. I couldn't get in to clean up the welds because my tools are too large so it was a case of doing my best with what I'd got. It's not too bad, and it is solid at least.
20170726-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Wiring grommet reinstated nicely so I was pleased I hadn't messed that up and the bonnet stay was screwed back in so I didn't have to rely on the wooden prop that was being used. After that I could get on with the trumpet panel.
20170726-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Fitting this trumpet panel is annoying. I got it clamped in as best a fit as I could and set to puddle welding through the holes that were drilled in the panel. I drilled some new ones for the bulkhead join too. The fitment is... okay... but not great. It'll do, certainly.
20170726-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

On this side you can see which drilled holes line up nicely and which ones need more adjustment of the trumpet panel. It's going to take a fair bit of hammering and tweaking to get everything to line up and I may have to get a bit creative in a couple of places where the pressing just isn't cooperating. I have an arsenal of clamps and hammers so I'll get there, I'd just rather hoped this bit would have been somewhat easier.
20170726-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I ran out of time to do any more unfortunately. Mike and I did try to bleed the clutch slave cylinder but it looks like the master is jammed. While the clutch pedal does travel and the arm isn't seized, there's no resistance and it seems to hit a fairly solid stop when you get about halfway down the pedal travel. I'll remove the master cylinder to inspect it and possibly replace or rebuild it. The only other thing of note is the new headlight gaskets arrived since the old ones broke up on removal and I expect these are quite an important bit of kit to keep things happy at the end of the wings.
20170726-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Not sure if I'm going in tomorrow, got a fair bit of work on at the moment that I need to get through so I might have to take a day off from the Austin. We shall see how I get on today.

[nomad]

The progress is looking good   

When you have the headlights out it's an ideal time to do your best to protect the wings around the headlight bowls.
At a minimum, I like to coat everything with some rustproofing ( I normally use wax based )
Or make some splash shields to go under the wings, to stop the mud and road spray from getting up behhind the headlights.

[vulgalour]

I'm planning to make some full size mudguards to go in the arches rather than the partial jobbies that were factory fitment. That and decent amounts of paint and whatnot should help slow down the rot a bit. Seeing how various parts are put together, it's a wonder any have survived at all, there's so many obvious rust traps in the construction and layering of panels. All I can do is hope I get enough protection on to slow the rot down a bit. Having done similarly extensive welding on the Princess I can understand a bit better just how many improvements were made to construction techniques and panel pressings along with factory protection such as seam sealer.

[Spudgun]

Looking great

I remember cutting through a wiring loom on a customers car years ago when I worked for Charlie Browns, felt like a right donut because the customer was watching at the time.
Took ages to repair

[optimusprime]

Hmmm not sure on the mud guard idea ... am in 2 minds ..... great when they are new and they seal ....but if anything gets behind them they cant dry out properly and the inner wing just sits quietly rotting out unseen.
I took them off of my Disco tdi just so i could hose them out and let them dry as needed.

[melle]

Great progress! I'm by no means an expert, but I have some further tips from experience that you may or may not find useful. Also, if you haven't done so, read the Making Panels thread (again)!

Jul 26, 2017 16:41:17 GMT vulgalour said:

a repair made difficult because of it being quite a tight corner to get into with things like the wiring loom at high risk of getting damaged.

I'm a big fan of wrapping delicate stuff like looms and glass in fire blankets when grinding and welding, 1x1m ones are as cheap as 4 quid apiece and I find I never need more than two or three at once to cover everything that needs protection.

Jul 26, 2017 16:41:17 GMT vulgalour said:

I couldn't get in to clean up the welds because my tools are too large so it was a case of doing my best with what I'd got.

Do you have a power file? If not, get one, they're great. I've never used one, but I'd say even a cheapy from Aldi or Lidl will do the job (I have a 25 year old Black & Decker).

Jul 26, 2017 16:41:17 GMT vulgalour said:

Fitting this trumpet panel is annoying. I got it clamped in as best a fit as I could and set to puddle welding through the holes that were drilled in the panel.

It would probably have been easier to bolt it on with a few M5 or M6 bolts first and position it bit by bit. Just drill some though holes and weld them up when the panel is welded on. Alternatively, lightly tack weld the panel in position in a few places, you can always cut the welds (one by one) to reposition. Make sure that if you move something, not everything else moves with it, panels can be like waterbeds if you try and clamp them like you did.

[optimusprime]

Jul 26, 2017 19:39:11 GMT melle said:

Great progress! I'm by no means an expert, but I have some further tips from experience that you may or may not find useful. Also, if you haven't done so, read the Making Panels thread (again)!

Jul 26, 2017 16:41:17 GMT vulgalour said:

a repair made difficult because of it being quite a tight corner to get into with things like the wiring loom at high risk of getting damaged.

I'm a big fan of wrapping delicate stuff like looms and glass in fire blankets when grinding and welding, 1x1m ones are as cheap as 4 quid apiece and I find I never need more than two or three at once to cover everything that needs protection.

Jul 26, 2017 16:41:17 GMT vulgalour said:

I couldn't get in to clean up the welds because my tools are too large so it was a case of doing my best with what I'd got.

Do you have a power file? If not, get one, they're great. I've never used one, but I'd say even a cheapy from Aldi or Lidl will do the job (I have a 25 year old Black & Decker).

Agreed.
A powerfile is a great addition, very very useful, just ensure its has varied speeds and you get a good selection of belts,you soon go through them.