a jumble

Ok.....things have been quiet on the blog front but the upside of that is that they have been busy on the VDP front! I've made lots of progress but shied away from updating the blog as I wanted to do it in chronlogical order and not miss anything out so I'm getting a huge backlog of pictures and words building up.

Realistically I'll probably not go back and post on all the work in the fashion I previously did so here's a quick summary and lots of pics.

I've also just noticed that there has been an 'enhancement' on the picture aspect: if you click on any of the pics within a post you are then presented with a gallery of all the others in the same post.

work done includes:

• passenger side outer and inner arches welded in place






• tops of inner and outer sills all spot welded together






• bottoms of outer sills plug welded to floor edges






• all 4 sill end caps in place including troublesome driver's side rear where 'window' was larger than cap






• sill tread plates re-fitted in exact right locations






• repairs to fronts and sides of exhaust tunnel panels






• rear valance protective primer removed and re-primed with further trimming to it and original body, prior to final fitting






• sand blasting of exhaust tunnel panels






• driver's side sill fitting problem sorted out






• upholstery cleaned and re-fitted






• rear wing bumper locating brackets removed for rust removal and repairs to wing lower edge
  
  

very pleasing, visually, the re-instated curve of the RHS fuel tank closing panel

surface rust in these areas blasted off. also provides good key for primer/paint

similar to driver's side. repair done to curve. this side of car less rusty for some reason. patch also needed at bulbous area for fuel tank mount-bolts as metal was thin

wider angle of same area after sandblasting, patch repairs and priming. top of patch still needs to be welded

driver's side area before any work. looks reasonably sound

curved patch on front face done a long time ago but blasting revealed repairs needed at concave pressing towards rear and in front cornert and small patch above top slotted hole curved face

different type of primer used here to see which one proves to be the best protectant against rust

areas above will not be blasted or painted as have very little corrosion and will be flooded with modern wax/rust-proofer solutions

corrosion on rear wing/bumper blades

spot welds drilled out on wing flange to free bumper bracket underneath

cut made at corner. easier than taking more panels off at rear to free curved section of bumper bracket

taking off bumper bracket also exposes hidden part of wing for blasting/repairs

brackets being blast cleaned

new rear valance picking up corrosion from damp air despite having paint on it

paint and rust specks rubbed off by hand before painting inside with enamel primer

passenger side sill unit after removal















driver's side front end-cap

passenger side rear end-cap in place




'feet' of rear wings, where they meet sills, need localised repairs

feet can be welded back in once repairs complete



rear seats stored in rafters and covered still picked up a worrying amount of dust etc




centre, cleaned up easily with Turtle Wax leather cleaner, contrasts against outer area








seats stored in rafters looked to have been damaged badly



cleaned seats look great. difference between leather facings and synthetic rear/sides is evident

outer wing repair panels seam welded in. distortion hard to avoid

nice shot of repaired front passenger sill gives it a 'chassis' type look

standard repair panel looks rather flared here



passenger side inner and outer sill being levered & clamped together for final spotwelding

front of driver's side inner sill. repaired a long time ago but recently given a lick of primer

nice to see sills in place again with tread plates re-fitted