Bordfunker

My Herald has a DG heater, and mine didn’t work either. I stripped it down, flushed the matrix, which was full of muck, and then took a look at the valve itself, which didn’t appear to be working either. Turns out there is a small screw on the valve which adjusts the throw of the valve itself, and by adjusting it I was able to get the valve to open properly. So the valve may not be toast but just in need of a bit of attention. Karl

Keralan coconut curry, made with an M&S curry kit. Absolutely spot on with a beer after an afternoon in the garage. Karl

Colin, I used a hot air gun on mine, came off in sheets with the scraper. Then attacked the remains with brush cleaner and a load of rags. Have you thought about just lighting it after a coat of petrol? Controlled burn and all that! Karl

Isn't it a joy being able to work in your garage with the door open, and still be able to feel your finger tips? What a difference a week makes! Last week saw the old door step on the driver's side removed, cleaned up, and a coat of weld through primer applied, so this week logically started where I left off last week. The new step was offered up, and a number of adjustments made to obtain a decent fit, didn't have to do that on the other side but ho hum. Once the fit was OK I marked up the holes for the sill screws, and drilled them out, followed by punching out the spot welds on the front face. Half an hour with the welder, and a bit of clean up with the power file left me with this. The plug welds cleaned up nicely with the power file, really glad I bought this now, as it is amazing for cleaning up welds, so much more precise than an angle grinder. Weirdly my plug welds on the front of the panel were smaller and neater than the ones under the car, but given that they aren't really open to inspection, I don't think I'll stress too much. However they look spot on from the other side, giving just that slight depression that you get with a proper spot weld. With the step out of the way, it was time to address this. While the patches are a good fit, the welding is deeply suspect, so everything was ground back, and all the joints were re-welded now that I know that the welder works as it supposed to. Everything was then dressed back with a the angle grinder and power file combo, leaving me with this. Given that this is the seatbelt mount, I thought I'd test how strong it was, nothing destructive, just attaching the seatbelt anchor loop on the outside of the car and leveraging it with a long steel bar. Good news, no deflection or cracking, so I'm calling that a win. Everything then got a coat of etch primer to prevent flash rusting, and I went off to make a curry. Next week I'll start on removing the B-pillar to arch repair panel that I installed what seems an age OK, as the welding is suspect, and I can do so much better now. Karl

Don’t think of it as hijacking, more an extended health and safety briefing! Karl

Is it just me or has it been a bit cold of late? The last two weekends in the garage haven't been particularly productive, as I generally find it useful to be able to feel my fingers when performing manual tasks! I did try running the heater in the garage, but I can't have a heater and weld, as I also need the air compressor to cool the welds, and the combination of all three blows the fuse to the garage! So freezing it was, with regular trips into the house to defrost and imbibe steaming mugs of tea. So last weekend I only managed a couple hours in the garage, which apart from trying to keep warm was composed predominantly of cleaning up the welds around the seatbelt mounting point, so not very exciting, hence no picks. With that done though, I was able to swing the tub around and start work on the driver's side, starting with the door step. Based on my experience with the passenger, I was a bit more organized this time, and started by grinding out the spot welds on the front edge, rather than just blindly setting about it with an angle grinder like I did last time. A quick tap with a wood chisel, and I was able to peel the front edge back. Urghhh! Not pretty, but par for the course. Next up was drilling out all of the spot welds on the rear edge of the panel. A bit blurry but you get the idea. These just needed a fairly gentle tap with a wood chisel, and off the panel popped, with just a little twisting required. Looks OK from this side, not so much from the other. The new panel is sitting ready to go, but first I need to clean up the section of the floor pan that is staying. Somewhat crusty but intact, this then received the tender ministrations of the angle grinder and wire brush combo, leaving me with nice step area ready for a coat of rust stopper, which was duly applied. It was still a bit parky when I packed up yesterday, but with this week's balmy weather, I'm looking forward to applying a coat of zinc primer during the week, and getting the new step welded on next weekend. Karl

Looking at your pics, looks like if you remove the poorly applied replacement panel, and the rusty original , the bottom of that wing may well pull in a fair bit. Having said that, the bottom flange of the wing does does look quite wide, but nothing runner a slitting disc, or an nibbles down probably wouldn’t fix, allowing you to pull the panel in, and re-weld. Karl

Colin, having done a couple of those lower boot side panels they are actually a fairly straightforward repair. Being able to weld helps but you should be able to cut them out without too much difficulty as they are simple flange joints aside the last bit around the lower boot aperture corners. The disc shields look very good btw. Karl

I tore the edge of my left thumb on a big copper staple in a box I was opening while working as a temp in a warehouse about 25 years ago. Even now it splits at the first sight of cold weather. Maybe these things are there to remind us to be safer in future? If so, it’s not working. Karl

I think I’ve managed most of those apart from walking into a four post lift, but that’s only because I don’t have one. I have repeatedly walked into the edge of the garage door, sliced the top of my left index finger off as a teenager making an Airfix kit, and recently burned myself making a cup of tea! We’re all doomed at this rate! Many years ago, while a student, I worked at an Indian food factory in Southall, and had to tidy up the spice cupboard one afternoon. There were shelves around the room, each one with multiple 25kg sacks of various spices. I reached up to move one sack, not realising that someone had ripped it open, and it promptly deposited its contents over my head. Trouble was, it chilli powder! I sneezed and cried for about an hour after that, and went a shade of orange for a couple of days despite many showers. Karl

Luckily I was wearing anti-cut gloves when I did it, which at least absorbed some of the impact, but it didn’t help that I was using the skinny end of a panel beating hammer which probably increased the force of the blow! And Pete I swore like trooper, utilising my full range of Anglo Saxon vocabulary! Mark, the only time I’ve got close to feinting was having stitches removed following an op on my hand, but I can imagine wanting after your experience. But a time machine would certainly have been appreciated, even if it only allowed that 5 second skip back in time! The number of times I could have made use of that are truly countless. Karl

Thanks for the sympathy Tony. I don’t intend repeating that any time soon, or ever to be honest. Karl

You’ve shamed me into giving the garage a bit of a Hoover this evening! Its still not as tidy as yours, but given the amount of metalwork left to do, it’ll be a while before it is. Karl

I work in the mining industry, nowhere near a mine mind you as I work in IT, but as a result we have a tendency to have a 'safety moment' at the start of meetings, just to remind everyone that we work in a dangerous business, so I'll start this week with my safety moment. Last week I needed to make up a repair panel with a strengthening rib, so made up a wooden former to shape the sheet steel against. So far so good, until I decided that I didn't need to clamp the workpiece to the former, and just set to with a panel beating hammer, beating both the steel and, unfortunately my thumb! It did hurt at the time, but not that much, so I carried on working, and it wasn't until I had taken my gloves off at the end of the session that I realised what a whack I had given my thumb. Long story short, I ended up in A&E on Monday night with a throbbing and swollen thumb following a conversation with NHS 111, but got sent home after 3 hours and an X-ray. Following day, call from the hospital, 'You've chipped the bone by your thumb joint, does it still move?' Me: 'Yes' Dr : 'OK, nothing else we can do then, bye!' This is what it looks like a week after the event. Not pretty, still swollen, but at least it's not throbbing any more. I believe that the technical term for this type of injury is 'Twatting it with a hammer!'. I didn't post last week despite making progress, as unfortunately we lost one of our dogs in the early hours of the Friday morning, leading to a very subdued Bordfunker household over the weekend, and to be fair most of last week. So this week's post includes some of the work I managed to complete last week. Remember the patching around the seat belt anchorage that I cut out the other week? I decided to do a weld test, and stuck the removed section in the vice and whacked it with a hammer (Keeping my thumb well out of the way, and it did this.). As expected, given the lack of shielding gas, the weld just failed, meaning that all of the welds to the car done before the welder was fixed are suspect. I will have to revisit all of them, but better safe than sorry, and given the steady improvement in my welding skills, I am actually quite looking forward to it. I know, sick bunny! This is what replaced the shonky patch, note remains of previous patch alongside. No I haven't become a Satanist and started drawing inverted crosses on things, that is just where the seatbelt mount needs to be drilled out. Despite re-welding the patch on the right, I still wasn't happy with it, so cut it out and welded in a new section. And yes I have hit the above with a hammer, and that was before the above picture was taken, so confident that this patch is now strong enough. With that done, I turned my attention to the passenger side door step, which just needed plug welding, but first I needed to grind back to bear metal, as there was a coat of FE-123 rust stopper in the way, which you just can't weld to, so I marked up all the points that needed clean up with a marker. This included grinding the Zintec coating off the repair panel to be extra sure. It didn't take long to get the plug welds done, leaving me with a firmly attached replacement door step. Not the neatest plug welds, but only the ones on the outer face of the step which get seen, and so ground back, whereas the ones underneath, above, I will simply leave as is. With the step sorted, I moved to the front edge of the tub where it overlaps the back of the bulkhead directly in front of the passenger seat, as it was looking somewhat distressed. Au naturale... ..after a quick blast with the angle grinder and a wire brush... Ooops looking slightly worse than expected! Cue latest addition to the tool kit.... ...air powered nibbler, as I find cutting out sheet steel with an angle grinder nerve wracking! Marked up for cutting out. Which proved horribly quick with the nibbler, as was cutting out the repair section. You'll notice that in the above pic I haven't completed the welding, because again I have managed to run out of welding gas! Not sure whether I have a leak, but the last cylinder didn't last too long either, despite the previous one last almost 2 years! Now to be fair, given that the welder wasn't working properly and therefore using gas in the manner intended before I fixed it, and I've been doing a load of welding, this just may be my new reality. Not with standing the incomplete welding, I cleaned up what I had done, leaving me with a very acceptable result. Note freshly cut mounting hole courtesy of my step drill. With that done, I decided to given the tub a good hoover, along with the garage floor as it was covered in grinding dust, before giving everything a coat of primer to prevent flash rusting. I took delivery of a couple of litres of RustBusters Epoxy Mastic Primer last week, so once I've got some welding gas, I'll finish the last repair, and maybe even look at putting a coat of primer over the passenger side of the tub. Now I am counting that as progress. Karl

Wish my garage was that tidy! Nice work on the B-pillar though. Karl

Following on from last week's start on finally welding up the arch and lower B-pillar repair sections, I actually made it into the garage on Monday night and got a the B-pillar repair section welded in. But that was the end of my week day efforts, as the rest of the week I didn't get into the garage, other than to unload/load the tumble dryer, or get dog food out of the freezer, neither of which really count as progress. Which meant Saturday afternoon was spent finishing off all the little bits of welding around the edges of the arch, followed by cleaning up all of the welds and edges. It then got a coat of primer, which as per usual highlighted all of the bits I'd missed, so once the primer as dry, out with the welder again, and then yet more grinding and sanding. And then suddenly the work on the wing repair was essentially complete! Yes I know it needs filling, but that will have to wait until I have finished all the welding. That only took 3 months, but I have loads in the process, and my welding has improved markedly, which is probably not surprising given the amount of practice I've got in. Which meant Sunday was time to turn my attention back to the step area that I removed a few weeks back. This is where I left it. A bit manky, and with the remains of multiple spot welds left from where I removed them with a lump hammer and chisel, of which more later. So out with the angle grinder with the big wire wheel attached, and I took everything back to bare metal, both underneath, or the top, if the tub was the right way up, and the underside which is currently the top. I didn't take any pictures of the underside, but did take some of the top side. Now about that lump hammer and wood chisel that I used to remove the step panel. It was only after, a long time after, that it dawned on me that I could have just drilled out the spot welds from the 'top side', actually the underside, which would have been much simpler, and left me with pre-drilled holes ready for plug welding. D'oh! Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but at least this revelation came me to before I did the other side of the car! The reason for cleaning up the underside, other than just removing rust, was to allow me to see the indents left by the spot welds, allowing me to drill them out. You can see them here, looking like a line of little lights. Nothing for it now, but to start prepping the new step panel, which means drilling out the mounting holes for the lower sill panel mounts, and punching out the holes for the plug welds. Clamped up reading for marking up. And drilled and punched ready for welding. But before we get carried away I needed to paint the whole area covered by the repair panel with rust stopper, which was duly accomplished, and the whole lot left to dry overnight. Which still left me at least 40 minutes to kill in the garage on a Sunday afternoon. Now I could have done some tidying up, but where's the fun in that, and that welding around the seatbelt mounting point was really bugging me. Specifically this bit. Yes, I know that's my welding, done when the car was still on the chassis, and the welder wasn't working properly, but given that this is very much safety related, I decided that it was going. 10 minutes with the air grinder left me with this. Yes, a hole in the car that hadn't been there before. And that is when I finally decided I couldn't put off tidying up, at least just a little, any longer, so fired up the vacuum cleaner, and started cleaning up almost 3 month's worth of metal shavings, which turns out is quite a lot! Next week I'll tackle the step repair panel, and with a bit of luck the seat belt anchorage. Karl

Conor, that looks amazing! That interior is going to be something special. Karl

I was rather hoping that the weather would have improved, or at least warmed up this weekend, but waking up to snow on Friday morning and a day time high of 0 degrees didn't bode well for working in the garage over the weekend. Despite the fact there is a heater in the garage, it's a choice of being able to weld and cool the or having heat. This limited me to no more than a couple of hours at a stretch in the garage for fear of hypothermia! So, Saturday's stint was spent finessing the fit of the two arch repair panels, allowing me to make the monumental step of starting the tacking in. Focus was on joining the repair panels to the rear wing rather than the inner arch, as I figured fettling would be required at the join between the wing and the inner arch. At this point the cold drove me out of the garage in search of a hot shower and tea, so ending Saturday's efforts. Suitably rested and warmed up, I returned to the fray this afternoon, and set about getting the wing fitting where it should be, which meant rolling the dolly out of the garage to compare the two sides of the car to ensure that what what I created on the passenger side matched the driver's side. After all a mismatch would be more than a little embarrassing! What this comparison showed was that the lip of the wing needed to come in by about 8mm, which meant a lot of clamps and Clecos. This had the added benefit of bringing the suage line above the arch into the correct orientation, e.g. vertical. Nothing for it now but to start welding the wing to the inner arch! Having heard horror stories of distorted panels due to over enthusiastic welding, I knew that I was going to have to take this next bit slowly, welding a little bit at a time, and then cooling it down with a prolonged blast of cold air from the compressor. Just what I wanted in a freezing garage! First up, I plug welded the arch lip to the lip of the inner arch, before setting about slowly welding the wing repair sections in fully. Rather than seam welding the joint, I went with stitch welding which puts less heat into the panel, it's not as pretty, but it will do the job. I then gave everything a buzz over with a flap disc in the angle grinder. This will need more welding to plug the bits I've missed, as well as the bits I just haven't got around to yet. Not quite professional body shop quality, but this will get further attention from the sander to further reduce the step left by the weld. Looks like I should be able to get away with a thin skim of filler to blend it all together, but that is far in the future for now. Karl

I would definitely remove as much underseal as possible based upon experience with my Herald. In many places the underseal had cracked and trapped water between it and the chassis, in turn rotting out numerous sections of the chassis. Karl

Happy New Year everyone! I thought I'd start the year the same way as I intend to continue, by making some progress on the Herald. With the body mounting bracket welded up, there is nothing to stop me starting the process of closing up the side of the car, but which in turn means attending to all the little issues before the outer repair panels can go on. Before I started I trial fitted the repair panels with self tappers to get a feel for how everything hangs together. Definitely some fettling required to obtain a decent fit, not least moving the centre of the arch out about 5mm with the aid of a Birmingham screwdriver to ensure that it matched the other side of the car. Then, before I got carried away, because I did on the other side of the car, I needed to sort out how the rear of the lower sill attaches to the base of the B-pillar to rear arch section. Originally I believe that this was attached with a Spire clip and a self-tapper through the top of the lower sill, however mine had long rusted away, so I decided to go with a couple of captive nuts. These then needed welding into the B-pillar repair section like so. All of which should provide a sound location for the rear of the lower sill panel, which would otherwise be waggling around in the breeze at the sort of the velocities that the Herald will no doubt achieve. And from the outside it all looks very neat. Not standard I know, but I used what was to hand. The next job was to resolve the joint where the 2 external repair sections interface with the upper section of the remaining wing aft of the B-pillar, here. I went with cutting out this section of the arch repair section. Leaving me with this, a much neater joint. Note flanged edge punched into the repair panel in order for it to sit neatly behind the wing. Next up was sorting out an area of the arch lip which I had over thinned. 5 minutes with the welder and some sheet steel, left me with this. As you can tell I am getting into the groove with my welding, which is probably good given how much there is still left to do. And while the welder was out, I sorted out all the pin holes in the arch repair sections, which in today's freezing temperatures at least provided some warmth in an otherwise frigid garage! Have you never felt the need to hug freshly welded steel for warmth? I have! As you will no doubt have already noted, I was being very methodical and working from the B-pillar backwards, which brought me to the very rear of the rear arch. The sharp eyed will have spotted my deliberate mistake here. Yes the flange is in the wrong place, and as per the arrows, needs to move over about 10mm. I ran out of time at this point, so rectifying this will have to wait until tomorrow, not that it should prove overly difficult to correct, I'll just need to slit it, then push it over before re-welding. All of which took me around 3 hours, interspersed with regular breaks for tea in the house in order to regain the feeling in my toes. Happy with that, and it finally feels like I am getting closer to closing up the rear wing. And finally, after struggling with poor lighting while welding, I did the sensible thing, and attached a light to my welding helmet. Et voila! There was light! I am stupidly pleased with this! Once again, Happy New Year. Karl

That is stunning progress, and it is looking amazing. Karl

I think the trick is to punch the screw driver through the centre of the plug, and then locate the end of the driver against the outer edge of the plug where it turns through 90 degrees inside the block as this is the strongest point on the plug. Then lever against the block on the opposite side of the plug to where the end of the screwdriver is located This should cause the plug to buckle and then pivot out. Karl

Great progress! Looks like you’ll soon have that back on the road. Karl

A belated happy Xmas everyone! Being one to get my priorities right, I made sure that I picked up a fresh bottle of welding gas from the farm shop before Xmas. Presents? Not as vital as welding gas! With gas purchased, and given that we have moved into Tier 4 here in Oxfordshire, I have been doing my bit for social distancing by hiding in the garage for the last couple of days, despite the bitter cold in there. First up was welding up the reinforcing flange that ties the base of the B-pillar to the inner horizontal sill. This is supposed to be spot welded in, but I went all belt and braces, and seam welded it into position. Next up was body mounting bracket itself, cue much use of Clecos to trial fit the bracket. The awkward bit was going to be the back face of the bracket where it mounts here. So holes were drilled ready for plug welds, and a Cleco inserted from the rear to pull the bracket into place. Time to break out the welder. Not having a spot welder, I used plug welds, creating a pool of molten weld metal in the holes punched out of the flanges. They need a bit more tidying up, but are strong, and this whole section of the tub is feeling a lot more rigid than it ever has since I've had the car. In a few places I had burn through of the flange, leaving a ragged edge, which left me with an opportunity to try a new welding technique. Essentially this involves taking a piece of copper with a straight edge and holding it against the edge to be welded. It's then just a case of welding up to the copper. In this case my piece of copper was a flattened pipe union. The weld won't stick to the copper, so leaves you with a nice straight edge, and therefore this is technique that will come in very handy when I start to weld up the more visible panels, where neatness will be required. In between doing all of that I made a start on removing the over step sections which include the flange for the lower door aperture seal. The reason I am doing this is because rust has broken out between the the two panels, leading to bulging, and a nagging doubt as to the underlying condition of this section. Nothing for it but to grind and cut out the spot welds, and have a look. The front edge, looking very rusty. And then, what is currently the underside, showing the extent of the rust ingress between the two panels. Nothing terminal, but certainly not what I want. This will be cleaned up with wire wheel in the angle grinder followed up by a generous application of rust stopper. I've already got the replacement over steps ready to go, so this will just need punching for the plug welds on the outside edge, the inner welds I will do from above as that should be less obtrusive, and won't need cleaning up. I'm giving it a break today as I managed to burn my arm yesterday, not while welding, but while making a cup of tea! Bloody muppet! Still hoping to be back in the garage tomorrow to finish up the body mounting bracket, and make a start on the outer B-pillar to rear arch repair panel. Karl

Alan, I’m in a similar place to you in conducting a very slow home restoration of a very rusty Herald, and therefore I have used Rustbuster’s products, both their FE-123 rust stopper, which is the same as Hydrate 80, and their epoxy mastic primer, see link below: https://www.rust.co.uk/product/cat/em-121-epoxy-rust-proofing-chassis-paint-7 Very good products and resist rust very well. Karl