OK.....very helpful so far.
To clarify the picture....I started to renovate the car a while back - it was my intention to just go over everything mechanical and also clean, repaint and seal the underside and then put it back on the road.
<b><font face="Arial">I've owned the car almost from new and it's in great shape with hardly any rust</font id="Arial"></b>
At first everything went well. I lifted the back of the car up really high and removed everything - back axle, suspension, fuel tank, bumper...everything. I then cleaned all the old Waxoyl and underseal off and was pleasantly surprised to find virtually no rust had taken hold. All the places that were supposed to be rust traps were dead sound - boot floor, fuel tank, rear chassis legs - all sound. There was just the odd surface rust scab here and there but certainly no holes. I proceeded to remove what few rust patches there were, treat them with a rust inhibitor and then hand paint five coats of paint - one zinc primer, two undercoat, two top coat of gloss black. The whole area was then given a light rollering with a thin white spirit/ underseal coat - more to dull the finish down than act as an underseal. I've read that thick underseal tends to trap water in and cause more problems than it prevents. When it was finished, the whole underside of the car up to a point level with the gearbox looked fantastic - like brand new. I then refurbed all the components and re-fitted everything. I even had all the nuts and bolts re-plated ( I have a pal who owns a zinc/ chrome plating business).
So far so good.
I then turned the car round and lifted the front up and that's when I found the rust perforated suspension turrets. At first I thought I could just cut out the bad bits and weld in some new metal.....
..... so I bought myself a mig welder and a cutting disc but when I removed a piece from the turret I could see that the inner wing had suffered a bit too.....
...... and the only way that I could see to repair that would be to remove the outer wing.
I was venturing into unknown territory at this point an so the whole thing ground to a halt. This was eighteen months ago and I'm only just now getting the motivation back to tackle the problem.
As can be seen from the pictures, I've partially stripped the engine and also taken everything out of the engine bay. I have no problem with the mechanicals.....it's just the body panels that's bothering me. If I drill out the spot welds and undo the bolts, will the wing just come off easily or will I have to bang and hammer and lever it off? And if I do will it not be all out of shape then? And if it is how do I re-fit it and get it back looking like it does now?
....help !!!
<b><font face="Arial">Engine bay is quite rust free - the patchy areas are just the remnants of the old Waxoyl that I haven't cleaned off yet.</font id="Arial"></b>
Dan
