Topic

Well that minor bit of surface rust escalated rapidly! A really good chat with Mike Satur and now waiting for the parts to allow repair to continue

That looks crunchy

I don't think I've ever heard anyone involved in motor car restoration say " it's nowhere near as bad as it looked, in fact if I left it it would probably heal on its own".

All fixed! Only took 6 months, still ready for the summer. Oh! Never mind.

Congratulations a great achievement.
Gorgeous looking.

Mike Satur's repair panels are really good, I did the two rear sills and they fit really well, however the two front ones are now beginning to rear their ugly head so a job for 2024. When I bought our TF the sills looked pristine, amazing how someone welded a rusty patch to rusty sill then got filler to cover it up. Now that you have repaired it and presumably rustproofed it then you have a car ready for another twenty years plus. A good job well done.

Nice job Moggie, I was planning on exploring the rust on my passenger side and hoping to use one of Mikes repair panels. I was curious if you replaced the section in the first picture you show ? ( the inside of the end of the sill )

Did you use a small bit of filler to smooth the top joint on the repair panel ?

On my drivers side I'll be replacing the front sill and rear wing to address some seat belt dents, wing small wing dent and significant sill edge rust so a professional will be used there.

Then moving to full respray next year

I bought a full set of panels from Mike Satur. They've all been fitted, fettled, filled and painted. Now having had it back from the paint shop a week I'm chasing a fault with the clutch hydraulics... Bl#&*y car!

Bleeding the clutch can be a bit arduous due to the way the pipe from the master cylinder to the slave cylinder runs . It is best done with an assistant but the pedal will stick down after the first press. You will have to manually lift the pedal after each and every push down if that makes sense. Air tends to get stuck in the pipe and in the end of the master cylinder but just persevere and you will get there . You may have to consider fitting a new slave cylinder as they are in an often neglected and awkward place .

Making some good progress, quite surprising how easy the HSS drill goes through the spotwelds.Cut away the rear bit for the repair panel first then decided to go the whole hog and replace the whole sill. Had to do a little bit of cutting and welding on the thicker bit of steel to replace a rusty section??? Anyone know what the filler / decorators caulk is that used originally in the sill ???Hopefully if i get busy this weekend I'll be ready for the Rimmers replacement sill next week.

Making some good progress and would hope to tidy up this inner edge in readiness to mount the replacement panel at the weekend, (best laid plans)

Anyone know what the white 'mastic' under the body is or the grey 'glue' they used on the sill joint. I'm trying to figure out which offering from these three give the best product. Sikaflex, Tiger seal or Dintrol

I would go for Sikaflex, but only because that’s the product I was recommended years ago & as a creature of habit that is what I’ve used subsequently.
My only reservation is it’s shelf life, or more accurately it’s life on my shelf. It cures in the tube & as I use it so infrequently it isn’t unusual for me to perform open tube surgery to allow me to scrape out what I want. And then of course it’s completely useless.
What impresses me most with the number of body jobs going on is the dedication to your cars & the dedication of the replacement panel manufacturers in making quality parts for a car that can still be bought for much less than a grand.
When I bought the f these cars were all but considered disposable items so cheap were they & by the number in the scrapyard the once proud owners thought the same.
When I did some of the jobs you chaps are on with, I took my battery angle grinder to the scrapyard & having found an appropriate donor zizzed out the required sections.
A recurring motif at that time was the reasonable car with a boot full of water bottles, indicating dead head gasket. The other saving grace for the forlorn was the rag top. Roofed cars were picked up by forklift & stacked, f & tf invariably we’re on the ground & with the roof up, so things were reasonably easy to access, if sometimes mouldy.
Those were the days, tool bag in one hand & carrier bag full of goodies in the other; 52mm throttle body to replace the old SU plastic offering for £15-00 & other trinkets thrown in.
M