1973 Volvo P1800ES on MX5 chassis with Ford 5L V8 conversion

[vulgalour]

That's exactly the method my brother taught me when I was dealing with some particularly recalcitrant metal and is the technique I've stuck with. Takes a bit of time but the end result is much nicer. It also tends to cause much less panel distortion which is particularly useful on very visible areas of repair and saves time in the paint prep stage later.

What you've written there is a really good guide, it helps me understand a bit better what my brother was trying to explain about positioning the spots themselves.

[kevins]

I use the same technique myself, the higher current also helps if the steel is a bit pitted or rusty still (not always possible to get it perfectly clean). If you are looking to reduce distortion it is usually best to do a series of tacks approx 20 mm apart let it cool then some more in between, let them cool again and keep repeating until you have a seam.

[bjornagn]

Well, I have to declare a failure for the week-end. the goal was to have the sill and dogleg all completed, and I only made it as far as the sill bit. Barely that by the time I got done.



The good news is that with the door in place and a reasonable fit achieved, I am pretty confident that I did not make a mess of the tub. I do like this picture for some reason:



This is where I came to a stop for the day...The lowermost part of the wheel tub where it meets the sill is rotted out. I need to figure out how to fabricate this piece before I can move forward.  When I applied the seam sealer, it was not apparent that this spot was more rust than steel.

[bjornagn]

Time to bore you guys with another piece of project minutiae...

Got the repair piece for the bottom of the inner wheel-well fabricated and welded in. Trivial but tricky little job, and now I know how to do it when I get to the other side.




Next I can will weld this section back in and move to the dogleg repair patch.

[mattiwagon]

Whats your plan for the unobtanium sill on the opposite side? Fingers crossed and wait or fabricate your own. Lovely project by the way.

[bjornagn]

Jun 2, 2016 21:38:34 GMT mattiwagon said:

Whats your plan for the unobtanium sill on the opposite side? Fingers crossed and wait or fabricate your own. Lovely project by the way.

Going to see if I can work with what I have. The RH side is in better shape and I hope I can get away with just replacing the crossed out parts. Not having to cut into the B post and door-sill is the silver lining to this approach.



I will know better once I cut things open and look around inside to see what things look like inside the sill.

Frankly, if a new sill came along right now, I am not sure what I would do since it would be expensive to buy ($300 or more) and would require that I cut up the pristine B post and middle sill. Recall that I had to splice in a long patch into this area on the LH side.

[bjornagn]

OK, got the dogleg section finished. That was more than just a bit of a pain in the butt because the repair panel I bought for $100 pretty much had to be put back to being a flat piece of tin and remade. I really hope that was a faulty part cause I still have the other side to do.

Full panel and the bit I need.



Backside painted, note that the weld bead is not painted as it will contaminate the weld puddle.



Nice tight fit-up. Tacked and no-going back!



Using method described above, do short runs and move to a different spot on the seam. Wire brush the soot off while waiting for panel to cool.



All the dots connected.



One beer's worth of grinding later I am calling this done



Backside of the weld bead (from a test panel)



tomorrow the next side!

[claymore]

I'm loving the work going into this project.

[bjornagn]

With the LH sill done, moved on to the RH side. Recall that there is no repair panel for this side, so I got to do some Jazz.

The ugly zone:



Looks like I might be able to just cut the middle of the sill out and weld in a repair piece. There is a fore-aft and top-bottom curve, so that will need to be dealt with. No big deal.

So, all cut out and wire wheeled. What am I into?






Looks like a bit of creative metalwork is going to have to take place between now and then...stand by to see how I get out of this mess!

[bmwv8capri]

once you get over this hump it should all be down hill keep up the good work

[bjornagn]

This image intrigues me...

The quarter panel on this side has been replaced. Not well, but it has been replaced.

The screw holes indicate that someone has tried to re-shape the middle sill. Why, when they did such a crappy job on the rest, I cant imagine?

As to being downhill after this, yeah, kinda. Since the outer sills dip under both the front and rear panels, this had to be done before I can put the front clip back on. After this bit is done I can leave the rest of the body-work until the car is rolling with all the mechanical bits below.

Not as bad as the LH side, but the bottom of the wheel-tub needs a bit of mending.

[Knugcab]

Aren't 1800 sills just shortened Amazon/120-series sills? If you still can get them it might be a solution....

[bjornagn]

Jun 6, 2016 11:31:32 GMT Knugcab said:

Aren't 1800 sills just shortened Amazon/120-series sills? If you still can get them it might be a solution....

Interesting thought, and one I will look into.

But for now, me and the E-wheel and the bead roller and my other good friend Stella Artois are going to have a go at building our own sill from what we have left. How hard can it be?

[bjornagn]

This is where we left off. Wondering how the heck to move on without a proper repair panel. Idea was to just replace the vertical sill face that lived under the door.

The I had a look at the lower flange bit and decided that the rust was not contained on the verical face, and that if left alone, bubbles were going to start showing in my lifetime. So this lip needs to come off.

The basic sill panel is pretty simple.36.5" inch long by 8" wide piece of 18 gauge tin with a bend where it wraps around the middle sill at the bottom.

But here is the fun part: The vertical face on the sill is NOT flat. There is a curve in it .

My nice new piece does not have a curve. How can I get a nice curve in this thing?


The answer is to head over to the E-wheel and load a low CROWN anvil. Something with a curve similar to what you want to form


But, English wheels stretch metal and would give me a 3D curve that I do not want  (at this point). So what I did is wrap a foam cover over the upper wheel. This pushes the tin down over the curved anvil, yet it cant crush the steel and add  shape where I don't want it. Often done with a big rubber band,



My foam wheel worked a treat and I have a reasonable curve on the vertical face of my new sill.

Next I needed to create the swage lines at the front and rear of the sill. These are the points where the sill disappears under the front fender and the rear dogleg. Here is the front swage.


Here is the rear swage


Here is the sill as far as I got tonight. Well get to why the word "flat" is wrote on the sill at a later date.



And that is as far as I got on the availble quota of beer. I could actually stop at this point since the front wing and rear dogleg would cover the original grotty bits.. Any bets if I am going to let good enough be good enough or do I risk mucking this up?

[07lilredwagon]

such nice and patient work!.....really looks great. I'm inspired to get cracking on the sill my own project over here!....

JP

[bjornagn]

Jun 8, 2016 14:32:25 GMT 07lilredwagon said:

such nice and patient work!.....really looks great. I'm inspired to get cracking on the sill my own project over here!....

JP

Hey JP...I suspect that some of that patience comes from the fact that this thing might scare the bejabers out of me the first time I mash the pedal!

Might have to sell it on before it gets to that point.

[CaptainSlog]

Look here - don't know what they are like and you have nearly finished a better one.
www.classic-panels.net/?119,outer-sill-rh-volvo-p1800-coupe

[bjornagn]

Jun 9, 2016 15:15:56 GMT CaptainSlog said:

Look here - don't know what they are like and you have nearly finished a better one.
www.classic-panels.net/?119,outer-sill-rh-volvo-p1800-coupe

Thanks, bookmarked it.

The picture shows a factory original panel OR an amazing reproduction that I really should be buying at the price.

But as you said...I am well on the way to fabricating something of my own, and lets not forget that this is first and foremost a learning experience for me so that I can develop some basic metal shaping skills.

I will give this up to two attempts and if I have not managed, I will give them a call.

[bjornagn]

Pressing on with the sills. Man, now I know why they call this body WORK. Not much left of the original outer sill. But what is there is nice and solid.


So, now that I am down to good metal and all wire wheeled, time for a few coats of POR rust encapsulator so that nobody ever has to do this in my lifetime.



Also spend a lot of time finishing the new sill. More pics on that subject tomorrow when I hope to wrap up this sill work.

As a change of pace, I had some valve-train bits show up so I could go ahead and install the rockers and set clearances.

Almost a shame to cover the rockers.

The engine build gets a bit complicated at this point in that what timing gear cover I use depends on what accessories and accessory mounts I use and that will depend on what fits. So, a bit of a chicken and egg/ rubiks cube thing ahead.

[bjornagn]

Made it this far.



The dogleg looks close



But if you follow the line, you see that the lower sill line does not match.


This is the problem. Not much fits with aftermarket panels, and this is going to take a bit of fettling.