The Metal Cutting Begins!
Thursday, October 5, 2006
Started some cutting on Sunday morning... I've not much room either side of the car, so the photos are all at silly angles! They don't seem to show up the rust brilliantly, but it's gory, to say the least!
Cutting the front end of the driver's side sill away, peeling back reveals some old repair panels that have definitely seen better days:
Cutting the rest of the sill away reveals a manky old patch panel running all the way along the length of the sill where the sill strengthener should be... maybe it's still underneath? It'd been made with three panels welded end to end, and you can see where it's been marked up with pencil - it's a piss poor fit. These panels cost a tenner, so god knows why they made their own.
Once I'd cut the sill along the top, the only thing holding it onto the car was the filler along the bottom, there was no welding. I pulled at it gently and away it came... considering these are bits that seem to have been replaced, I dread to think what else I'll come across!
Cutting away the repair panel reveals the old strengthener underneath... nice and solid as you can see!
It was at this point that I realised there was nothing attaching the floor to the sill, other than filler! A quick stamp with my size nines proves this quite effectively...
And this is where I left it before coming in to give my back a rest...
I'm starting to think I made a good decision buying so many replacement panels, but I can already see I haven't got nearly as many as I'll need. I really should have bought a nice rust free Californian bodyshell instead, shouldn't I? Oh, and if you're wondering... the passenger side is the worse of the two. Lots of fun to come, it seems!
Posted at 18:51
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