Practically Classics Forum

Since my last post I had a bit of a wobble with the old brain space and had to step away from all things car for a month or so. Happily I'm well again now and I'm back on track with things, not only that but the Princess has been coming along very nicely.

I'm saving up the pictures to do a big update once I've finished the welding, so this is just a little "I'm not dead yet" post. Yesterday I finally completed the welding to the driver's floor front and rear which looks tidy and is far stronger than it was when I bought the car back in 2012. The weekend before I put the sill repair section on and build a wheel arch repair section from scratch. It's not Grumpy Northerner standard of work, I haven't the experience to achieve that and my fabrication skills are merely okay, but it is solid and with a little more fettling the visible bits will be invisible again.

I've got a repair panel to attach to the bottom of the front driver's wing, a section of outer sill to repair (about 2" by 6") and a small square to put back in on the rear arch to finish off the welding on the driver's side. Passenger side I've a small square to let in on the rear arch and three small patches inside after the MoT advisory rust turned out to be a few small holes. Then there's just two squares to let in to the boot floor, which is a bit involved as I have to drop the petrol tank, and the bodywork is solid again if not the prettiest it could ever be.

After that, the list isn't too bad to get ready for MoT time:
Fit good part worn tyres - freebie from my brother
Change mechanical pump for solid state electric (having oil leak issues with the mechanical one again) - about £30-40
New fuel filter - £2-6, depending on type
Fit good displacer - free, already have the part
Pump up suspension - find someone to come out and do it, usually about £50. Already have the fluid
Fit tow bar - free, liberated from the orange breaker car
Fit interior - removed to do the welding, so free again
Adjust brakes - got the parts, rears seems to be working properly now at least

Then I go through and check everything is working and good, refer back to my MoT fail sheet to check everything is done on that and book her in. Current state of play she's look very much like a 1980s Grandad owns her for allotment and tip runs. I've had the Thule roofrack for ages, but the WINDSLAMMER aerofoil was a recent purchase that I'd forgotten I'd bid 99p on until eBay told me I'd won it.


Xantia is in the bad books too. My brother who used to own the Xantia gave it to me because it kept breaking whenever he tried to use it. I try not to be the superstitious sort so I thought it would be fine for him to have a little drive in it so he could test out the Peugeot seats and the new clutch and let me know what he thought of it. Very nice, was the response from him, far better than when he owned it. What should happen the following day but the glow plug relay was dead as a dead thing. Ordered a 'new' one for a tenner which arrives on Wednesday. Perhaps I ought to be superstitious after all.

I'm glad your okay I was wondering why you were quiet on here! Just take it easy you don't want to do too much too soon and have a relapse of what ever it was!

Yup, back on track again. As of today, the worst of the welding is finished so it's time for the BIG update that I've been holding off posting for a while.

My last proper update was way back in February and I had been getting increasingly frustrated at being unable to work on this car. Just these past few weeks, that's all changed. The one thing above all else stopping me getting that all important MoT certificate has been rust. So much rust. I mean, it's not terminal, but it's certainly been more than I wanted.

It just seemed that anywhere I found filler - and my goodness there's been a lot in this car from its previous 'restoration' - I found it was hiding rust that had started small and grown big. More reinforcement, as if it were needed, to the theory that I bought this thing with my heart and not my head.

I had been getting together some important things for the welder, things like a new auto-mask, a decent set of tips and shroud, a bottle of Co2/Argon mix and various clamps all to make life easier. Metal fabrication one of my weaker skills so I need all the help I can get on that front. My welding is equally okay but I'm no master, I produce reasonable welds that are strong but they're far from pretty. So with all this in mind I made a tenuous start on the worst part of the car, the rear driver's corner. Here's just a shot of the welding I was getting when I'd already attached the sill and started building the arch.


Before much longer, that whole sill outer was welded in place and an arch repair section made from a bonnet edge. I'd seen someone else take a piece of right angle steel, cut one face at regular intervals to the bend and then curve it to match the profile of the arch. I did this and tacked the tabs to the existing arch, trimming the tabs as needed and filling the slightly triangular gaps with weld as I went. Bit of a learning curve on that one and the end result isn't perfect but it's so much better than the big blob of filler that was there.


Really highlights just how rough that door corner is too, but since that's not structural it can wait a little longer yet.


Moving to the front of the car I explored some rust blebs on the front wing and found that a lot of filler was hiding here covering what must have been pinholes and had since festered. Slightly trickier for me to resolve as this is very visible so I shall have to take care with this repair.


The bottom of the wing was also up for repair but on removal from the car more filler and poor repair was highlighted, the whole thing just crumbling in my hands. The spare rear sill section I have for the opposite corner is a close enough match to replace this, I just have to hope the other wing isn't as bad!


Typically, hiding behind that is the reason the footwell on the driver's side would get wet, along with a lot of rust flakes and dirt.


The section I needed to repair was simple enough. Luckily I had an odd bit of sill and some flat sheet that did the trick here.




I did find a section of the sill this side had gone from the inside out too but I'm putting off doing the rest of the outer sills until the floor is finished so I can do both in one go.

I got a little distracted from the welding when I won a WINDSLAMMER aerofoil on eBay that I forgot I bid on, mine for the princely sum of 99p. Talk about an obscure accessory. As a kid I thought they looked really cool and associated them with the modern fancy trucks that had started getting those big fibreglass scoops on top of the cabs when most trucks were just brick-shaped. I was an easily amused child.




So, that was some little holes filled which is great. Then it was time to explore the front driver's floor. I knew from when I bought the car in 2012 there had been some repair here, evidenced by a blob of pink fibreglass visible when the carpet was lifted. I'd left it alone all that time and more fool me, I should have investigated it and sort it out because the filler, fibreglass resin, rivets, overpatch and old rusty floor pan turned a little visible repair into this demoralising hole.


I did the inner sill first while I had some access to it, leaving it long so I could trim it back before the repair section goes back on the wing. It also made sure I had enough metal to tie everything together.


Typically it had gone over the jacking point too. That seems to be a weakness on these cars. I had thought the hole at the back of the floor was bad, forgetting that cutting out most of it made the inner sill much easier to repair and, unlike this hole, I didn't have a steering wheel or pedals getting in my way. As a result I laid down quite a few welds not quite where I wanted them and had to go back over a few times so it's quite ugly. Importantly, I couldn't see light through from the back. Usefully I had a spare floor section from the orange donor car which proved almost big enough to fill this and saved me time on some fabrication.


While that was cooling off I investigated the other side of the car at the front. I knew water or oil was getting in here somehow but had never figured it out. After removing an enormous blob of bitumen and cleaning it all back I found the floorpan itself was remarkably solid but that the inner sill had rotted and just been smeared with bitumen to hide it. Cheers restorer.


The more I cleaned the bigger that hole became. Happily, it very quickly cleaned back to solid metal. Another case of a small area becoming far worse because of bodging. Lots of dirt and rust flakes had got stuck allowing water to sit in the sill and seep into the cabin thus explaining where the oil/water was coming from, finally.






I also cleaned up the back corner on the same side. This was much better than anticipated but awkward. I didn't want to cut good floor out to repair this and needed to have a think about how best to approach it so left it for another day.


My last job was to get some beige paint down on the rear corner of the driver's floor. Not all the welds were dress back because I haven't the tools to give me access. Since the welds are solid and no light visible through I thought it best to apply seam sealer and paint and leave it at that. Once it's properly tidied on the other side and underseal and I've got the carpet back in the cabin you won't even know it's there anyway.


I had finished welding up the front floor too but didn't get pictures of that. The panels aren't perfect and you can see the patches but again I don't mind so much. Similar access problems with cleaning up the corners so it's a bit lumpy-bumpy to look at, there's nothing I can do about it and it doesn't bother me. I know there's no filler here anymore and while I'm resigned to the fact that rust will always find its way back in, right now it's nice solid metal.


Here's that WINDSLAMMER with my old Thule roofrack, a very useful accessory that's helped me do tip runs and house moves and furniture collections with this car.

The last bit of this big update then is what I did today. I had earned a break from work and decided to see if I could get the floor finished since there was so little left, might just help me get through the rest of the week. Started by tackling that back corner. This was an absolute nightmare to cut out using a combination of worn-down cutting disc, almost small enough grinding disc, wire wheel and ingenious use of hand tools. A Dremel would have been ideal but the one I have access to has a dying motor and just isn't up to the task.

Two small patches were made and stitched in, on the whole this went well apart from the inner sill catching fire and me having no access to put it out. Welding gloved hands over the sill holes to starve it of enough oxygen did the trick.


I couldn't get anything in to clean up the welds and it looks appalling. Everything about this repair was unpleasant, part of me wishes I had just hacked a massive hole in the floor for access. If I get a working dremel in the future I can always go back and clean this up. But as with the other repairs, when the interior is in and the underseal on you just won't see it so why bother beyond some pride in workmanship?


The front floor cleaned up quite well, the patch over the jacking point went in really easily and even ground back mostly smooth. It's surprising too how much stronger all the jacking points are now, I hadn't realised just how weakened they were. You see that daylight coming through? Yeah... as I was welding the inner sill some bitumen melted off and I saw some filler. BLOODY FILLER. So it got a poke and that happened.


I had a poke at a suspicious lump in the A pillar too, a lump that wasn't present on the other side. That was yet more filler and hiding this lovely hole. I didn't want to cut the bottom of the wing off for access so this was a tedious job to clean up to something like weldable and impossible to dress the welds back on later.


If front wings were more plentiful and easy to remove I would have just taken the wing off. The end result is really ugly. Happily, I have some good arch liners to go in thanks to that orange donor car, my originals on this car were broken badly on both sides. So none of this will be visible.


Inside I made sure all the metal bits joined up to all the other metal bits, found it again really difficult to dress back so just got busy with the seam sealer and paint to keep it watertight and solid.




And that is the update I've been holding off on all this time. I wanted to get the floor finished before I shared what I'd been doing. I know my welds aren't attractive but I also know the panels cannot be pulled off by hand or by tools so I'm confident they're suitable. What did surprise me is that now these bits are all done the floor is more solid, it used to feel like it had a bit of spring in the front - possibly because large parts weren't attached to the sills - which it now doesn't.

I've got the driver's side wing bottom to repair, both sills to strip back to bare metal and weld up where necessary, the boot floor corners to repair and all four doors need attention, which they will get. For the MoT, it's only the sills that need to be done, but that doesn't mean I want to rush it through with just a couple of patches, I want all this rust I know about dealt with before the car gets back on the road again.

Other than that there's very little to do on this car. A new clutch kit has been ordered, I've got a hopefully good displacer to go on, a good set of tyres, enough metal to finish the repairs to the sills and other bits and the engine does run when it feels like it. The brakes need going over because the car's been out of regular use for a little over a year now and I'm wanting to fit a good modern electric fuel pump.

Maybe one day a full restoration will happen. For now I just want the car reasonably solid, tidy and reliable again so I can use it. Ideally I want to at least drive it legally on the public highway before the end of the year.

Looks good, coming along nicely your welds look perfectly fine for a structul area, if you want prettier welds I think you need to clean the metal up a bit more, whicle it is perfectly possible(and often unavoidable) to make a strong weld on less than perfect metal in my experince they always end up messy, you need bright clean metal with no trace of rust on both sides of the area being welded (back and front of the metal as well).

Kevin

It's an uncomfortable compromise. Even where the metal was taken back to shiny steel both sides - and in many areas this just wasn't possible - the quality of the steel is so variable that there's no guarantee of a smooth easy weld going down. In a few places I did get some really nice really easy welds but most of it was a bit of a battle. The worst thing has to be the bitumen on the inside, you clean it back out of the way, dress the metal back as clean as you can and then get to welding. A little later the heat in the panel melts a bit of bitumen you've missed and it dribbles down and spoils the weld, or smoulders and fills the cabin with smoke so you have to stop and wait for it to clear. Really, really unpleasant stuff.

At least when I get to repairing the doors I can do them off the car as I've a full spare set of four that haven't been subject to poor restoration work and should, I hope, be easier going.

I have been having the same problems on the minor, someone has painted everywhere with bitumen which you can never completely get rid of, it's so much easier where we have been welding new metal to new metal.

Urgh, well I feel your pain with the bitumen hell you're undoubtedly having with the Minor.

Like delicious bacon, I am on a ROLL. Had some free time and some motivation post work hours today so got myself over to the unit for a few hours to try and get the Princess sorted out a bit more. With the exception of the rear seat and inner sill trims (I don't actually have the latter, I need to make them) all of the interior can be refitted now without fear of welding damage.

Scooped up the remains of the knackered foam that used to be against the bulkhead and traced the pattern onto some new matting, it's essentially bubble wrap sandwiched between tin foil and can tolerate under bonnet temperatures, ideal for this application as it cost me precisely £0.


I didn't want to go mental sound and heatproofing everything and besides, I've still got the soundproof mats and foams that the car came with and they're perfectly fine. The foam on them also helps make the carpet feel a little more plush which modern matting probably wouldn't. The other benefit to using this stuff is that magical £0 price tag.


Then fit the carpet, which is easy peasy in the Princess. This is the interior I liberated from the orange donor car.


I couldn't fit the centre console so it's just dropped in place. Locating the screw holes for the centre console is difficult in good daylight in a brown interior, trying to do it with artifical light in a black interior is just rage inducing so I didn't even make the attempt. It also meant I couldn't fit the front seats either but they're easy to put in. All the door furniture was reinstated including the black grab handle someone in the owners club kindly provided. I did find I was missing one window winder fixing screw, a grab handle fixing screw, a door seal, an aluminium tread plate and a door seal protector/clip all on the same corner so I'm hoping they're in a box and I've just not found them yet. These aren't items I removed so they could well be lost forever. Back seat plonked in place to keep it safe.


I finished cutting the holes for the speakers in the parcel shelf trim board. The board is not in great condition and the vinyl cover was badly damaged from having holes put in it for wiring and stuff but it was complete enough to be retrimmed. I used more of the space age matting I used on the bulk head as you do get a little bit of boom from the parcel shelf and then wrapped it in some black velvet I happened to have in a box. I was going to go with black vinyl but since I had no use for the velvet and it's a really good match for the seats I decided pimping was the better option. I've got to wrap the edges and cut the speaker holes in the cloth the put speakers in I liberated from another Princess' door cards so I'll have a four speaker system in the car that looks factory. There seems less glare from this than the vinyl too.


Finally, I got the posh flocked glovebox liner fitted in place of my plain plastic one. This is something I'd meant to do ages ago. Does need a dust, as does the whole interior, but then this has all been in stasis for a year so it's to be expected.


Of course, while I was doing all this black velvet, velour and vinyl stuff I had The Cure playing in the background.

Cracked on with a bit more on the Princess today. Left the good camera at home so had to make do with the camera on my phone instead.

First thing was to get the old boot lid off. On inspecting that there's clearly filler in it on the return lip which is starting to bubble and show rust. Had to remove the lock from it to swap into the boot lid I was putting on in its place as I haven't got a key for the replacement. This was fine but I'll have to go back and fettle some more as the return spring for the latch isn't located properly, a fiddly job that I lost patience with after fighting with it. Instead I cleaned off the flaking paint on the return lip and gave it a quick coat of satin black until I get the time to clean the boot lid up properly. It doesn't fit quite as well as the one that was on the car, this is pretty normal for Princesses, panel gaps are not their strong suit.


Then it was on to the interior again. I finished off wrapping the edges of the parcel shelf and locating the speaker pods. The bolts I found aren't quite right so I'll be going to the local fastenings place to find something better. Tried to remove the brown vinyl trim that goes behind the parcel shelf just under the window and it just shattered.


That did make putting the black vinyl trim in easier as it had come unglued from the metal trim that was still in the car, it just slots in place and is held down by surrounding trim items. Far tidier end result. With some shorter headed bolts to hold the speakers down the install will look very subtle. There's an oval speaker hole in the parcel shelf panel that may get a bass speaker at a later date.


Fought with the centre consoles and finally got them in place, such an awkward job but one that's easier with natural daylight and the seats out of the way. Then the seats went in front and back. Fitted the black head restraints I was given by a club member too, I was in two minds about it as I liked the look of the seats without, it's probably more sensible to have them fitted.




I've still got to make and fit some inner sill trims. I've also got to fit the A pillar trims which I just didn't get around to today. The front wing aerial got replaced with the one I took from the orange car, little bit of changing about of components to get it all to fit but no real hassle and I now have a complete aerial for when the radio is reinstalled. Everything in the cabin got dusted, seats and carpet need a vacuum to finish off the dusting and then everything will get some vinyl cleaner and whatnot to tidy it up. I found and fitted the missing window winder screw and found the missing treadplate. The treadplate will be fitted once I've finished cleaning up and painting the rear arch. Rear door seal is still missing, I'm still looking through boxes for it.

End of play I got the first fill on the rear wing repair. It will definitely need a second fill. Initial signs are good, I haven't needed to use as much filler as I was worried I would.


Did try to start the car but the battery hadn't got enough charge in it. Tomorrow I'm not sure what I'll be doing on the car, I might repair that front wing, I might clean up the sills, I've not decided. I might do nothing at all and stay at home, we shall see.