- Thread starter Burdekin
- Start date
Burdekin
Chief Bodger
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Yeah a very well thought out and built production car for its time. Makes it much easier to repair as well compared to fully welded cars.
Burdekin
Chief Bodger
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- 6,684
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- Aberdeen
Stripped the doors and found some rust behind some sound deadening. It needed cutting out but always a risk with a big flat panel and the door skins are pretty soft on the 131. It was a bit of a fight, struggled to tack it in with tig as it needed pushing up from underneath so used mig for most but then got a bit of warpage so had to plannish back in shape then tig welded in all in one go. Mig doesn't plannish easily The helmet kept fogging up so was a pain and you can see how much warpage there was after welding. Most of the plannishing needs to be done with the dolly underneath so hard work. It would be fine just to use filller now but I want it better
what a PITA!marlinspike
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We tried similar on our old Saab. When you take the bodykit off the screw holes have invariably rusted to around 2" each. Didn't have your skills and managed to warp the door with the welding. We did find a used replacement but obviously a respray is now required. I'm in awe of your skills lol.
Burdekin
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I was messaging my mate and saying to him years ago I would have stuffed this up chasing the distortion but it’s all in the welds, they shrink and you have to stretch them back with a hammer and dolly. You just need to keep at it and don’t be tempted to hammer anywhere else other than the welds and it will come back flat. Tig is soft so is pretty easy, mig is hard and is difficult to get back flat.
marlinspike
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Funnily enough, I have seen the weld hammering technique when I've watched Kindig Customs (aka Bitchin' Rides) recently and wondered if that was the reason. We had 3 holes to repair and by the time we'd finished it was 'oil can-ing' all over lol. I'm not sure I'd even try again but at least I'd know where to start.
Burdekin
Chief Bodger
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Well getting the door back flat and profile nice after welding the patch was a bit of work. The welds aren't spot on but I can't bring myself to add anymore weld. I would go back to how I normally tig in repairs, a inch of weld then plannish back into shape. It takes longer to weld but so much better for keeping the shape and profile. There is just one little low area which is a bit awkward to get but I can get to it if standing the doors up. I have a slapper file that I started using with my big dolly, it made raising the lows really easy. I'd never used it before and was really surprised how great it worked. My mate stripped down the quarter windows, they need some new rivets and a coat of epoxy and will be really nice.
Burdekin
Chief Bodger
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- 6,684
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- Aberdeen
Sanded the 131 panels down, good clean and then three coats of epoxy primer. Sealed up all around my roller door so the extract fans worked a lot better and fisheyes are all gone. Happy camper. Now need to see if they need some high build or will flat down okay with the epoxy.
