Left Hand Wheel Arch Repair Part 1

 Gosh been a little quiet around here. Global pandemic does not help.

Betty has been resting on a new Barn over winter. With Covid restriction not allowing me to visit her until now.

With regular access since April I have started work on the Rear left hand side wheel arch.

The left hand wheel arch has had a small amount of bubbling just above the pressing over the wheel for a many few years. It never looked as bad as the right hand which was done a few years ago. But now was the time to have a good look.

Small amount of rust in two areas

Lower area around sill

Along the top edge

As always it starts with a few rust bubbles and then turns into holes.

Needed to understand why the lower corner where it meets the inner sill was rusting out. A bit more picking and the cause was found.

Under the underseal a hole had grown into a major entry point for all the water

So started to remove the rest of the paint and a good amount of cutting off the old outer wheel arch later.....

Quite a lot worse on the inner tub edge

Caught the rot not to effect the sills much

Gone up quite high

All the way back to the Battery tray. Rear corner and tray look okay

The rust had been a lot worse on the inner wheel rub area on the inside then obvious on the outside

So some inner tub repairs are needed. I always prefer to do these first and work my way outwards. Start with the flat vertical areas and then move onto the outer skin. Then coming back to finish the inner / outer closing lip once both are done. It makes life a lot easier then trying to do inner edge in free air not knowing where the outer is going to end up.

Cut out the inner sill closing

At least the C Post has not been badly affected. Only surface rust.

So much cutting and a lot of rusty metal removed. Nothing I have not done on the other side. After cutting and cleaning back a good coating of FE-123 rust converter was applied to all areas.

Moved onto starting to build up the inner wheel rub.

New straight area at the top was grafted in. New curved area on left created. New angle on right between the tub and the "mud flap" of the tub also built back.

Now I was happy the areas of the tub has been recreated I moved onto the outer skin.

Outer skin cut down to size and trial fitted

Outer body cut to fit

So the repair panel and outer body cut down for a massive long butt joint weld.

Painted all non welded edges with Epoxy mastic paint to ensure the area is good coating.

Coating the whole area again with Weld through primer again to ensure a good seal.

Moved onto the welding.

Tacked and then welded along. Ground down the weld.

I chose to align the butt weld at the top and then move downwards to the sill and battery tray to ensure I had a good panel gap without compromising the flatness of the join at the top.

Clamp the bottom sill on the left. Had to clamp down quite hard to get it to meet the lower sill limp. Poor cheap reproduction pressing. Tacked it in place.

Then moved onto the Battery tray on the right. again had to press in, clamp and tack weld. This allows me to get a good body gap which runs down.

That's all for Part 1. So far I can only have work access on Saturdays. So I did this over 3 days worth of work.

In Part 2 I will conclude the welding and hopefully have it finished. Maybe in 2 weeks time. Might be a part 3 with paintwork.

Stay tuned.

Bodywork - Part 5 - Welding

Quick recap.

Cut, grind, template, transfer, trial, prime steps completed. Now final clean and weld in.

Most panels areas required another trial and also to remove, clean the weld areas. Then a few holes or flange edges to ensure a good fit then tacked into place and then final weld.

There are not loads of photos in this section as I spent most of my time under the van welding and grinding to take photos!

 

 

All I can say is that welding upside down under a van with a welding helmet is hard!

But welding i find is strangely addictive!

After all welds are completed and have been ground down... next step finals painting

Stay tuned for Bodywork - Part 6 - Painting 

Bodywork - Part 3 - Cutting Out

All parts purchased. Now lets get started!

This post is outline all the areas of rust and rot which requires cutting out. Most were identified by the MOT inspectors crayon.

As always a small hole when stripped back the extent of the rot increases exponentially!

What starts out as a small hole always ends up huge!

Front wheel arch / Sill

No photo taken of the cut out area. Rough marked out repair patch in red.

Inner Sill Front

Small Hole on the front corner of the Inner front sill. 

Inner Sill Rear

Quite major holes at the end of the rear outer sill and then coming into the wheel tub at the rear. Red marks are roughly where the patches are to be made. The rot is mostly around end of the sills.

Outer Sill

The outer sill was the most rotten of panels. There was quite a lot of rust at the front. and rear.

CANNOT quite believe what I have found. The Previous owner or Danbury had just put a patch over the rusty outer sill!

It was only spot welded at the corners! then covered in filler!

No wonder it was rusting out.

After some more cutting.........

The middle and inner sill was in reasonable condition. a Small lip section at the front will be required. Then plenty of good metal on the middle and rear to weld the outer to.

Rear Wheel Arch

Again the rear wheel arch was the major rust spot along the lower sections and over the wheel.

Sanded down paintwork. Found the small area of rust near the battery tray. Defined the cutting area height to take in this small area.

Peeled back the panel at the top cut. Very hard to remove with all the Factory seam sealant.

All removed. Was really hard to not cut too far into the wheel tub.

Most of the rot was at the front lower edge, along the wheel tub edge and the the rear spot near the battery tray.

Rust converter applied (It leaves a blue / black residue)

Rear Bumper Mount

The left hand rear bumper mount and rear valance bracket needed some work.

Most of the right angle bracket for holding the rear valance needed removing. Chassis rail is in good condition. A slight hole on the D Post.

Left hand outrigger

While underneath I noticed a small area on the out rigger which I missed.

Battery Tray

I found some rot in the main battery tray (Right hand side) after all the other welding was completed and I was going to close up the small hole near the wheel arch. I found it after finishing and was not even on the MOT failure as the underseal under the tray was hiding it!

A small area underneath.......

turns into a large area on top

Hole keeps getting larger!

Complete tray removed. Decided to cut the whole thing out

All this work just for this little hole!

All the tray was removed as it would not bee good to just patch the hole as the shape and pressing would be hard to replicate! New Battery tray on order.

Recap

After all the areas which require attention have been found. I applied the rust converter on all the rust areas before any really cutting out. This will allow the area to be stabilized before a larger area of good metal work to be exposed and repair patches made.

the repair areas where patches wight go were identified and marked in Red welders pencil marks.

The next step is to clean back the underseal and seal sealant back to bare metal, prime and template the repair patches.

Stay tuned for next post Bodywork - Part 4 - Repair Patches