HJ Styleside

[87RB30VL]

Yeah my other thought was to just buy/scavenge like a piece of 1.2mm steel and shape my own piece for the corner of the door only and weld that in since it'll be covered by a door card for the most part anyway. I also brush cupped the drivers sill back yesterday and found a few small holes that had been bogged over but were otherwise rust free from the bog so they can just be spot welded up easily enough. I guess one area at a time haha

 

[87RB30VL]

More digging and it never ends, this time in the cowl panel which is a friggin bitch to get to... They had stuck down thin plastic like from an icecream container, and bogged over the top of it, seriously wtf :hmmm:

this is a mock up I did out of cardboard as a repair template for the door, made from a long strip and flat piece stuck to the strip, I think it'll do the job once it's cut, fabbed up and welded in, just won't look as pretty as an actual cut from a donor door but who's gonna see it anyway:

 

[EYY]

Cardboard templates are the way to go, makes everything so much easier!

The best way to attack that rust is to remove the full cowl panel by drilling through the spot welds. If you decide to do that, it's worth investing in a spot weld drill bit (they're stepped).

With your priming, be careful about what products you use (not sure how much you know lol). Try and use an etch primer over bare metal to prevent it from rusting. That way you can paint over it with either acrylic or 2 pack primers depending on which paint system you decide to go with. Stay away from enamel if you can as it reacts badly with 2 pack and acrylic paints. Also when using filler, only fill over bare metal or 2 pack epoxy primer, otherwise you could end up with a mess (and bodywork that doesn't last very long).

 

[87RB30VL]

I've been spraying a coat of this over the top just as a precaution while I get ready to weld, then I'll brush cup it all back to bare metal again and cut it so I know for sure I'm cutting it all

https://www.bunnings.com.au/rust-oleum-340g-ultra-cover-2x-gloss-black-spray-paint_p1580674

 

[87RB30VL]

Tried my hand at welding today, not bad but not good for my first try hahaha:

 

[87RB30VL]

Couple more repair pics from the corner of the door. It's not the prettiest but it got the job done & it'll be covered up anyway:

 

[87RB30VL]

So I haven't gone down and taken many pics during my progress, but i ended up patching up the floors, and cutting the top of the cowl off (under the windscreen) to get to rust under the cowl, which I fixed by spraying with rust converter, welding in plates and spraying the whole thing with a good layer of fish oil, then welded the cowl piece back on, ground it down and ran a layer of filler over to smooth out any bumps from my dodgy grinding lol. still need to sand it back and spray it but it got too late so i just threw the front back on since it doesn't really need to be off, and i was getting sick of having body pieces everywhere.

I also got new leads and spark plugs, but the coil pack on it at the moment seems to be too small so the end of the coil lead barely sits on the coil. Still, it sounds and runs a lot better, the old plugs were as black as the paint!

Next on the to-do list is fix the indicators so they actually work consistantly, and then put the dash back in. Then carpet, door cards, all the fun stuff lol, wheel studs brakes etc :bomb:

 

[87RB30VL]

Small update, still powering through! Have wing mirrors, wiper motor, interior is all back together etc, got rego today so took her for a quick spin, she's running like an absolute pig, idle is way off, timing is way off, have more electrical issues than i first had, but she goes and goes hard so next steo is off to the shop to get the engine running all nice and smooth and all the vac leaks sorted out, I'm also picking up a donor HX sedan soon to use interior parts for, wiper parts etc and sell the parts i dont or cant use on mine

 

[87RB30VL]

SO not much has happened recently, got the donor sedan and began stripping that down for parts, got door cards, bits of interior etc. Car's at my mechanic at the moment, been there for a while now while he tried to suss out the engine gremlins. Went to drive it to him and it just shat itself and left me stuck halfway down the road, had to baby it home, sounded awful hahaha. I'll keep updating once it's running and back at mine!

 

[87RB30VL]

Bad new, mechanic reckons my motor's **** itself and it's one step from exploding lol, reckons it's not worth the money to throw at it to repair, and I'd be better of dropping in another 253, or even a 304/308. I'm going to look at a one tonner at the wreckers near work on monday which has a 253, see what coin I can drop for it, or there's a 304 with gearbox at Logan for $400 off gumtree that I might grab, all depends on how much I have after pay day lol