** 26/02/23 Heading Up ** Probably how not to restore a Herald!

[Bordfunker]

After last weekend's marathon welding session, today was focussed on finishing off the last few bits of welding on the passenger side of the boot, and ensuring that everything was properly sealed up.

 

I've opted to seam weld most of the joints as I'm not convinced of my ability to create effective spot welds, so what I have done is probably overkill, but it certainly feels very strong now.

 

Here's a shot of the underside before I'd completed the welding, but after I'd started cleaning the remains of the paint and under seal off the underside of the boot floor.

 

 

One of the first jobs was to sort out the lower mounting on the passenger side rear over rider where the captive nut had come adrift, following the disintegration of the cage holding the nut. 

 

There was no way I was going to be able to recreate the cage, and I tried welding the nut in place on the back of the bracket, but without success, so an alternative approach was required.

 

 

I cleaned up the nut and welded it to the front of the bracket instead.

 

 

This then allowed me to trial fit the over rider so that I could align the spacer tube that I had cut off in order to fit the side panel.

 

 

Here it is tacked in place, awaiting final welding.

 

I had to repeat the removal exercise on the other side of the car, as again the captive nut had failed on the driver's side, so I had to remove the side valance so that I could get an angle grinder and cutting disc in, leaving me with this.

 

 

With the driver's side valance removed I had a chance to take a good look at the condition of the lower side panel on that side, which on first pass looked pitted but OK.

 

So then I took a screwdriver to the sealant that had been liberally applied by the factory, and which was now pealing off, and started scraping it off.

 

What then became apparent was that what had looked like pitting, was in fact the sealant on the other side of the panel.

 

Further inspection revealed that the boot corner mount on the driver's side was also shot, with significant corrosion under the reinforcing plate, so it looks like I'll be repeating this exercise.  

 

C'est la vie!

 

Karl

[Pete Lewis]

Repaired a broken overider nutting with a stud with nut either side , and used wing nuts inside the boot to aid future removal,

[Bordfunker]

Pete, that's a very good idea, I didn't think of using studding, and a wing nut makes sense.

 

Hopefully my welded solution will hold up better than the original caged nut, though to be fair it had lasted almost 50 years!

 

Looking at all the valance mountings on the inner wing, it doesn't look like these have been removed since the car left Canley, as all the sealing appears to still have been in place.

 

Karl

[Bordfunker]

After Saturday's revelation around the rot in the driver's side boot corner, I decided to take a closer look this afternoon.

Here's the boot reinforcing panel and the side panel.



A slightly different view from above, which better shows the roof in the raised web of the reinforcing piece.



And a view from the side.

You can see just how pitted the lower side panel become in this shot, so nothing for it but to break out the angle grinder and cutting disc, which quickly left me with this.

This improved access to the panel beneath the reinforcing plate, and thus allowed me cut around the boot floor panel around the reinforcing foot.

 

And a view from the underside.

Unlike the passenger side, the rear chassis leg under the boot is crusty but solid, so won't need replacing, which is a small mercy.

I had a quick go with the angle grinder to check the extent of the corrosion to reinforcing foot, which showed it to be localised, which I should then be able to patch from below.

The aim of today's efforts was to determine which panels I would need to sort out the driver's side, but it looks like I will get away with a side panel, and even then I won't replace the whole panel as the rear corner I'd perfectly sound, a patch to the reinforcing plate, and a flat section welded into the floor itself, which is considerably cheaper than the replacements boot corners that I had to get for the other side.

All of which is a big relief, as I still don't know if the MoT will throw up any more issues, but did leave this me with this pile of detritus.

 

Karl

[Pete Lewis]

Karl anyone reading the learning curve through out this resto will gain what its like to be a dog with a bone one day you will have a smile to be proud of.

 

Pete

[Bordfunker]

Thanks Pete.

 

Despite the unpleasant surprises that lurk in the recesses of this vehicle, it does feel like it's going in the right direction.

 

Karl

[Bordfunker]

With no family activities planned today, I decided to do some more on the Herald's moth eaten rear end.

 

First up was removing the remnants of the old lower side panel where it joined to the rear wheel arch and the bottom edge of the upper rear wing.

 

 

When I did the passenger side I struggled with removing the old panel where it had been welded to the lip on the rear of the wheel arch, and made a bit of a mess of it if I'm honest, so tried something a little different this time.

 

Rather than trying to grind down the old panel on the inside of the boot, where access is very poor for a big angle grinder, I decided to drill out the spot welds with an 8mm drill from the outside.

 

Once they had been drilled out, I then used a wood chisel and a lump hammer to simply chop out the remainder of the weld around the edge of each drilled weld, leaving me with this.

 

 

A much neater result, and one that took far less time than my efforts on the other side.

 

I then used a 1mm cutting disc in the angle grinder to remove the remaining flange of the lower panel, before switching to a much beefier grinding disc to grind back the spot welded flange that joins the upper wing to the lower panel, doing my usual, grinding the old flange back until it failed, and then pulled off the strips with pliers or with the chisel again.

 

 

At this point I also cleaned up the section around the reinforcing piece, making sure that the edges were all square ahead of fitting the new section.

 

 

As you can see from the picture above, there were number of perforations in the reinforcing plate which needed to be dealt with ahead of any work on the boot floor itself.

 

I decided to tackle these by inserting a couple of patches, one small one below the main hole that you can see above, and then a wider patch across the base of the recess, which would help seal the two smaller holes either side.

 

 

The larger, weirdly shaped patch, was created with the application of masking tape over the panel, and then tracing around the shape, before being stuck onto a piece of steel, and then cut out, and ground to shape with an angle grinder.

 

The smaller patch refused to stay in place with a magnet, so it was time to break out the F clamps. These things are very useful, and have helped so much in this restoration, here's one holding the patch firmly in place.

 

 

As you can see I have given the area a coat of weld through primer as this will protect the metal, while still allowing the MIG welder to produce a strong weld.

 

A bit of weird shot this next one, as it was taken from underneath the car, looking up at the underside of the reinforcing piece, with the boot outrigger to the left of the shot, and the larger patch welded in.

 

 

As you can see I have seam welded the patch in, and then ground it back, so that it sits flush, and won't interfere with the fit of the boot floor panel when it comes time to fit that.

 

With that in, it was time to tidy up a few areas of damage that I had created when removing the original rotten metal, first was the top of the outrigger which I had scored with the cutting disc, and therefore simply ran a bead of weld over the cut mark.

 

 

Next up was the rear of the reinforcing piece, which I had inadvertently cut into with the cutting disc when cutting out the boot corner from below, and which again got a neat bead of weld to seal everything up and keep it all strong.

 

 

With that little lot out of the way, I am now all set up to cut out a sheet of steel to plug the gaping hole in the boot corner, however not before I had discovered some more welding that will need to be done.

 

As part of the clean up work around the boot corner, I had attacked the outrigger with a knot brush in the angle grinder (These things are great at removing rust, but are lethal, so always use the guard, and wear full hand and eye protection), which removed the rust, as well as the under seal which has been liberally daubed all over the car's underside, which revealed the following.

 

 

You can just make our a line of holes at the bottom of the outrigger out board of the exhaust mount.

 

Now I could replace the outrigger, but for the moment I will just patch these for now to get through the MoT. If there are no further nasties, I'll replace the outrigger later in the year, as so far I've barely driven the Herald this year.

 

Karl

[Bordfunker]

I had expected to be off to Ikea today, but after a walk to the local garden centre Mrs B decided she didn't fancy a trip to Milton Keynes, so instead I got a couple of hours to work on the Herald. 

 

Today's job was creating the large patch, roughly 6" square to replace the lost metal under the reinforcing plate from a sheet of 1mm steel.

 

It took me about an hour and half before I had a patch which fitted properly, after getting through at least 4 cardboard templates.

 

Despite appearances the patch was not flat, but curved on two sides where the edges of the boot corner recess curve up to meet the rest of the boot floor, all of which required gentle persuasion with a couple of hammers and some blocks of wood to act as formers.

 

All of which allowed me to start welding the patch in. Here it is tack welded on one side.

 

 

You will note that holes in the reinforcing plate are not centred on the bolt holes in the outrigger, in fact the one nearest the front of the car only aligns with a bit of persuasion, and the bolt came out that way, so it looks like it has always been that way.

 

Here it is after an hour's welding.

 

 

I'm having to weld slowly to avoid distorting the panels as they are only 1mm thick, and given that I am welding gasless, I am having to effectively do a series of overlapping tack welds to produce a half decent seam weld.

 

Although not pretty, my welding looks to be getting neater, as can be seen from this view from the underside.

 

 

I need to sort out the small gap in the corner, but that should be a simple patch job which I can then grind smooth.

 

 

Have you spotted my school boy error?

 

Yes, like a plum I've forgotten to prime the patch with a coat of weld through primer, which as the name suggests allows you to weld through it, but also protects the metal which would otherwise never get a coat of protective paint.

 

Nothing I can't fix with a bit of dextrous work with a rattle can though, as there's a bit of access to the underside of the reinforcing plate, as you can see from the shot below.

 

 

The edge of the boot floor looks fairly good, and will need a touch of adjustment to ensure that it fits the profile of the side panel.

 

Here we are with the side panel clamped in place.

 

 

Overall the fit is pretty good, and as you can see I have cut the panel, as I don't need the portion that forms the lower arm of the 'L' as the section around the lower boot lip is nice and solid, and I can't be bothered to have to unpick the spot welds when I don't need to.

 

The lip on the left hand side will require trimming and joggling to create a flange, however the panel needs a little more work as the lower edge sits a couple of mm too low, which I had thought was my cock up on the passenger side, but maybe a slight issue with the pressing itself.

 

Here's a shot of the inside of the boot, with a couple of F clamps holding the two flanges together.

 

 

I obviously need to weld the reinforcing plate to the new boot corner section, and once that is done I can then look at fitting the side panel, after which it will just be a case of welding the spacer tube behind the lower rear over rider, and then I can get back to the lovely task of stripping the underseal and rust of the underside of the boot floor prior to applying rust stopper, etch primer, red oxide primer, and finally a top coat of Dolphin Grey. 

 

Oh, and patch that bloody boot outrigger!

 

One day I may actually get this car to an MoT station, and get to drive it.

 

Karl

[Bordfunker]

Got a bonus couple of hours in the garage this afternoon, so decided to continue with the welding on the driver's side boot corner that I had started yesterday.

 

First up, everything got a coat of weld through primer, and once that was dry, I clamped the reinforcing plate down to the boot corner repair with an F clamp, so that I could start tacking the plate in place.

 

 

However the clamp wouldn't quite reach the top corner furthest away from the outside of the car, so I instead used the chassis mounting bolt and washer to clamp the plate down, which is what I probably ought to have done in the first place.

 

 

You can see the first run of tack welds in the pic above.

 

A couple of minutes later and I had tacked around the top edge of the plate as well, leaving me with this.

 

 

The next hour was spent filling in the rest of the seam weld, an inch at a time, so as to avoid any distortion of the boot corner through applying too much heat.

 

In between welding sections of the reinforcing plate seam, I decided to tackle the patch on the boot outrigger, nothing fancy, just a seam welded patch to cover up the holes I found earlier in the week.

 

 

Not pretty, but should be sufficient for an MoT.

 

With that lot in progress, I decided to start work on the side panel, prepping it for welding by punching out the holes for the plug welds with my joggling tool, which handily has a hole punch function as well.

 

 

You can see my joggling tool in the background here, and here's the panle with the bulk of the preparation complete.

 

 

Next up was to create a joggled edge that would sit over the existing panel at the back of the car, both on the large vertical edge, and the much smaller edge, all of which takes a matter of seconds with the joggling tool.

 

 

Once this was done, I punched 3 holes into the newly created flange to allow me to plug weld it later.

 

With the welding on the reinforcing plate completed, I could then turn my attention to the pre-prepared side panel, which as carefully tapped into position, and then clamped into position to ensure that nothing would move while I started the plug welding.

 

Here's the side panel, viewed from inside the boot, after the first few plug welds had gone on.

 

 

Plug welding simulates spot welding by filling the hole that you have so neatly punched in the top panel with molten steel, so that it forms a nice puddle which joins the two pieces of steel together.

 

Well that's the theory at least. It works better on the horizontal, than the vertical, where gravity has a tendency to intervene and draw the weld bead downwards, so I ended up doing a number of smaller weld puddles, which don't look as neat, but beat rolling the car onto its side to get a horizontal weld!

 

Here's the outside, including the wheel arch flange.

 

 

As you can I haven't finished all the welds on the flange, again, having to take it slowly so as not to distort the panel as it's less than 1mm thick.

 

And a final shot of the whole panel, including the rear joint, which has already been welded up.

 

 

Apologies for the lack of light, but it was peeing it down outside, and therefore I had to work in the dark, but dry, confines of the garage.

 

Overall that was a pretty productive 2 and a half hours on my back and knees in the garage waving the sparkly stick at the Herald.

 

Hopefully I'll get some time to finish off the welding to the panels over the weekend, including the rear over rider spacer, after which I think the welding may be over.....

 

.......for now.

 

Karl

[Pete Lewis]

you may have one but bernie's sale has  new auto dim hood for £30 

[Bordfunker]

I picked mine up at the Practical Classics show at the NEC in April and it is a godsend.

 

How people work without an auto dimming mask I don't know as you can barely see a thing through a normal mask, which makes placing the welding tip fun!

 

Karl

[Bordfunker]

Splitting today's update into two posts as I didn't post yesterday.

 

My intention yesterday was to finish off the welding, by completing the last few plug welds, and then attaching the over rider spacer tube, however best laid plans, as I attempted the last two plug welds I heard the ominous clunk of the wire spool emptying.

 

B*gger, out of wire, and none on the shelf.

 

That's a half a kilo of welding wire I've managed to use on the boot corners and the chassis patch!

 

What to do then?

 

I finally decided to try and sort out the rear brake lines, something that I have been putting off for over a month now, since discovering just how scabby the pipes were when I did the passenger side boot chassis extension.

 

I tried soaking them in penetrating fluid, repeatedly applying liberal doses every week, to no effect. The flats on the unions simply rounded off, and with limited room under the boot I decided to bite the bullet and cut them out, leaving me with these.

 

 

You can see just how cruddy they are from the pic below.

 

 

I did try cleaning up the shorter run between the nearside rear wheel and the brass junction, but as you can see from the photo below, the pipes are really heavily pitted, and therefore beyond saving.

 

 

At least the junction piece itself is in good nick, and responded well to a swift clean up.

 

 

I'll be dropping these off to my local garage later in the week to make up new runs with new unions.

 

While doing all of this I had the drums off, which revealed new cylinders and seals, shoes with plenty of meat left on them, and thankfully no leaks, so that's one less thing to worry about ahead of the MoT.

 

Karl

[dougbgt6]

Well done BF it is not worth cleaning up any of these things. Replace them all!

[Bordfunker]

Today, with welding off the menu, and the brake pipes already removed, I turned my attention to prepping the boot interior for paint so that I can get the fuel tank back in and the car moving under it's own power again.

 

First up was emptying all of my tools that I had been using for the boot floor repairs out of the boot. It really is quite amazing how many tools you end up using!

 

All of which left me with this.

 

 

An empty and distinctly scabby looking boot.

 

The front boot corners, where the boot floor meets the rear wheel aches were covered in factory applied sealant, which was lifting and revealing the original primer, as you can see in the pics below.

 

 

 

The bulk of the sealant was removed with an old screwdriver, and the wiped down with white spirit, before being attacked with a knot brush in the angle grinder, which rapidly took everything down to bare metal, well, where there was metal!

 

 

I had thought that the spare wheel well was pretty sound, but as per usual with this car, under seal appears to hide a multitude of sins, which the angle grinder rapidly exposed!

 

Would this constitute an MoT fail?

 

With no welding wire there was no point attempting any repairs today, so instead I applied a coat of Kurust to the exposed areas of metal, letting the Kurust flow into the panel joints to neutralise any rust lurking there.

 

After half an hour I was left with a dark blue, and slightly shiny boot floor.

 

 

 

 

I'll let that lot harden off overnight, and then give it a coat of etch primer, after which it will be time to apply seam sealant to all the joints for which I have a combination of brushable seam sealant, and the PU type that is applied with a gun, so hopefully all bases are covered.

 

I also finally got around to applying a coat of etch primer to the driver's side engine bay valance.

 

 

This was the one that was rotten at the front corner where it mounts to the chassis, and which I had repaired previously. I wasn't happy with that repair as it looked messy, and so cut it off and replaced it with a much simpler and more elegant bracket.

 

 

Not exactly stock, but it fits, and is more than strong enough to support the radiator.

 

Finally I cleaned up the rear fuel line that runs from the tank, through the boot floor to the pipe on the chassis.

 

 

This came up much better than the brake lines, and looks to be fairly new. I've already got the replacement rubber hose connections for this to go back in.

 

At this point the pace will slacken again, as it's back to work tomorrow.

 

Karl

[Paul H]

Today, with welding off the menu, and the brake pipes already removed, I turned my attention to prepping the boot interior for paint so that I can get the fuel tank back in and the car moving under it's own power again.

 

First up was emptying all of my tools that I had been using for the boot floor repairs out of the boot. It really is quite amazing how many tools you end up using!

 

All of which left me with this.

 

 

An empty and distinctly scabby looking boot.

 

The front boot corners, where the boot floor meets the rear wheel aches were covered in factory applied sealant, which was lifting and revealing the original primer, as you can see in the pics below.

 

 

 

The bulk of the sealant was removed with an old screwdriver, and the wiped down with white spirit, before being attacked with a knot brush in the angle grinder, which rapidly took everything down to bare metal, well, where there was metal!

 

 

I had thought that the spare wheel well was pretty sound, but as per usual with this car, under seal appears to hide a multitude of sins, which the angle grinder rapidly exposed!

 

Would this constitute an MoT fail?

 

With no welding wire there was no point attempting any repairs today, so instead I applied a coat of Kurust to the exposed areas of metal, letting the Kurust flow into the panel joints to neutralise any rust lurking there.

 

After half an hour I was left with a dark blue, and slightly shiny boot floor.

 

 

 

 

I'll let that lot harden off overnight, and then give it a coat of etch primer, after which it will be time to apply seam sealant to all the joints for which I have a combination of brushable seam sealant, and the PU type that is applied with a gun, so hopefully all bases are covered.

 

I also finally got around to applying a coat of etch primer to the driver's side engine bay valance.

 

 

This was the one that was rotten at the front corner where it mounts to the chassis, and which I had repaired previously. I wasn't happy with that repair as it looked messy, and so cut it off and replaced it with a much simpler and more elegant bracket.

 

 

Not exactly stock, but it fits, and is more than strong enough to support the radiator.

 

Finally I cleaned up the rear fuel line that runs from the tank, through the boot floor to the pipe on the chassis.

 

 

This came up much better than the brake lines, and looks to be fairly new. I've already got the replacement rubber hose connections for this to go back in.

 

At this point the pace will slacken again, as it's back to work tomorrow.

 

Karl

HI Karl, following your work with interest . When I refitted my petrol tank I added a fuel tap and then an inline filter in the boot. The tap makes changing the filter easier plus it's a security aid. All rubber tubing was R9 grade . My car is a vitesse so a wider tank . I re routed the pipe work to the right by a few inches which makes access easier.

Best regards

Paul

[Bordfunker]

Paul,

        I've got an inline filter fitted just ahead of the carb, but hadn't thought of fitting one by the tank itself.

 

All of the new rubber hoses for the fuel line are NOS BL items, still in the original packaging, so hopefully ought to be up to the job.

 

Karl

[Pete Lewis]

NOS hoses probably wont last with modern fuels , better than the nasty repro stuff

Even R9 is getting poor life reports , thats assuming you actually get what you pay for and not india rubber in a nice bag.

pete

[Paul H]

Ive got 3 inline filters on the petrol lines, after tank , pre pump and pre carbs. Appreciate only one is required though with commissioning / fault finding they act as site guides . You can check fuel is leaving the tank arriving at pump and then finally getting to carbs . With R9 the tubing is very firm and slithers are a major issue . Got two teashirts on this one . A good tip picked up on this forum is to use Vaseline when fitting .

Hope this helps

Regards

Paul

[dougbgt6]

Alternatively replace all the metalwork between pump and carb with a single piece of R9. Pump outlet and carb inlet pipes have no sharp edges, consequently, no slivers. Having said that, the short length of coupling R9 in my rear wheel arch recently perished and I lost a quarter of a tank of fuel. Garage integral with the house, what a smell!!!!! Took days to clear.The coupling R9 was 3 years old.

[Paul H]

Carb inlet pipes caused big slither issues

Vaseline cured this

Regards

Paul

[dougbgt6]

Really?!! Surprising! My carb inlet pipes are "rounded in" chamfered, can't see how I would get slivers, unless the R9 was particularly crumbly.   

[Pete Lewis]

I sell small bags of slivers just to prove a point

 

they are not a new idea, over 40 yr ago we used nylon air brake pipes well before any others and had loads of trouble with slivers cut off by the metal firtree fitting flying down pipes into valve seats causing air leaks

 

the little sods are a real pain they breed like rabbits

 

pete

[Bordfunker]

The original hoses appear to have lasted the best part of 50 years, and survived exposure to modern fuels for a chunk of that, so I'm inclined to give the NOS ones a go.

 

If all else fails, unlike Doug, my garage is separate to the house!

 

Karl

[dougbgt6]

Yes but, no, but, all my pipes have rounded ends and I don't get slivers. I feel left out, can I buy a bag?

 

Also BF, bragging is not attractive.

[Bordfunker]

Doug you don't have to get wet when it's raining to get into the garage.

 

There are pros and cons!

 

Karl