Restoring my 97 Mitsubishi FTO - Beginner so any help and feedback welcomed

[Myles1970]

I'll look into bit @Myles1970 the thing is in Ireland places are so expensive as the scene iland composition is just so small

Yea, I'm actually in Ireland

 

[Cosantoir]

@jpmillermatic Great feedback.
Definitely on board with the blinkers analogy as a few have mentioned me meticulous one small bit at a time and then move on if you start loads of bits it'll spiral and you wont know where to go.
Bought a MIG welder so practice over Christmas and hoping to start tackling it in the new year this year I'm hoping to have a list of everything that needs to be addressed, how high a priority it is to repair that piece (is it just a small hole with no structural importance or is it the suspension top mounts for example) and how confident am I that I could repair it myself. This will hopefully give me a list that I can tackle and hopefully experience that I can reassess the confidence numbers as I progress and may take on more work before maybe handing it off to a pro.

I started at the back and am making my way to the front The sills were next on my list and knew I had a bit of work to do but I've realised reviewing everything that my outriggers on the front on one side is badly rotten and corroded and the other side literally is not there anymore so that's gonna be a biggie and hopefully it's just one section and not a bigger chunk of the chassis that needs doing.
Making them while not a super complex shape may not be so hard but more work than I'm ready for right now but for the importance of them and the fact that the car is going to be jacked up so often with me under it they are pretty high priority.

Yea, I'm actually in Ireland

THEN HOOK ME UP!

 

[Myles1970]

I was in a similar situation to yourself about 6 months ago - not much further on but a lot of preparation done and now getting into the nitty gritty.
I think you've got the gist of things as regards not letting yourself get overwhelmed by the enormity of the project and dealing with it as a series of individual repairs.
You're in the right place here for guidance from people much more experienced than me.
Where are you BTW? I'm in monaghan

 

[Cosantoir]

Dublin but the car lives in Kildare (roll on the end of this lockdown and Christmas holidays. going to put a full week into her come the 18th)
What are you working on?


In other news I got the rustproof epoxy mastic for the car and you guessed it it cant be applied to underseal so I'll need to sand all that off OH YAY!!

 

[Myles1970]

Here's mine:

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/ae86-booter-project.101029/

Yep, coatings and rustproofing is a bit of a minefield... I'm just using zinc weld-thru primer for any seams or areas that won't be reachable, and as a temporary fix for other areas. I've got some 2pack epoxy primer in aerosol to do the front clip/bulkhead/inner wing areas, but I'm still undecided on that... Also have Tiger Seal for seam-sealing... though I'm trying to concentrate on the welding/metalwork first

 

[Cosantoir]

Ahh man. Booted cam and you've a fair few of the same issues I have so it was great to follow your progress see how you handled it are you using 0.8mm & What was the thickness for the outrigger?

 

[Myles1970]

Ahh man. Booted cam and you've a fair few of the same issues I have so it was great to follow your progress see how you handled it are you using 0.8mm & What was the thickness for the outrigger?

I've just changed over to 0.6 wire, seems to work better for thin sheet.... Been a while since I did the outrigger, but I've still to do the other side so I'll check in the next day or so

 

[Myles1970]

Yep, 0.8mm sheet

 

[mike 109444]

Is that 1/2 inch of filler along/over the sill ??

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Toyota and Nissan sills rot from the inside out..cut a few small sections along the very bottom of the sill and keep checking the back of the pieces you cut out for rot. The other thing I noticed with Jap cars is if they get bent (and straightened) or if they get stone damage to the coatings then you'll get odd localised rot often with pristine factory fresh metal next to it.

And of course they are very thin steel....which means you need a welder that can handle very low amps and even then it takes a lot of time and practice to butt weld repair panels in I found.

 

[Cosantoir]

Is that 1/2 inch of filler along/over the sill ??
View attachment 262496

Don't think so I'll take a gander over the weekend I normally keep the side skirts on the car so don't have many pics of it from the side to check.

And of course they are very thin steel....which means you need a welder that can handle very low amps and even then it takes a lot of time and practice to butt weld repair panels in I found.

I got a 30a welder so fingers crossed it'll do the job but lots of practice needed

 

[Cosantoir]

19/12 Post 1/2
Start of the Christmas holidays means a week of attacking the FTO.
To those of you who suggested a power file, great shout!!! It really gets into those little areas that a grinder just can't.

So today I tackled the passenger side sill, chassis rail & sill. The car had been undersealed previously with some form of plastic/epoxy paint so while the car has sat up for 8 years and some elements are bad and need to bee cut out others looked pristine.

So I knew from previously the sill behind the front wheel had plenty of rot and corrosion and the outrigger seemed pretty bad but I had no idea what the rest was going to be like.
It looks like most of the rot is confined primarily to the outer later with just a relatively small section in the inside layer showing bad corrosion/ rot.

 

[Cosantoir]

19/12 Post 2/2
As I mentioned I went in search in of more rust and rot and removed the compromised underseal and checked the status of the chassis rails.

I was surprised actually how good a condition it was in based on the first impression I had from what was behind the front wheel with only a little pitting in one spot in the middle and expected wear in front of the rear wheel.

• The outrigger had shown sign of rot and I was concerned they we're ruined as the driver side is all but missing so having one that I can make a template from later is great news. I can see that the metal under it is badly corroded and probably has rot so whenever I get the outrigger off I'll tackle this. The outrigger is spot welded into place to take it off do I just drill out the spot welds?
• As you can see the chassis rail is badly bent/crushed up the front from jacking I assume. Any ideas on how to straighten this up?
• Around the jacking point front and back side the rail has been crushed is there any suggestions around straightening these back out or am I best off to try straighten what I can and add a little plate along these to give it strength for the future?

Today I used a grinder with a sanding flap for getting the underseal off as I forgot my heat gun so will try this on Monday when I go back at the car.

 

[Myles1970]

I got a couple of these, make a divit with a centre punch first ...takes a lot of patience...



...I've similar looking crushed chassis rails.... I'm thinking that drilling them off and hammering them out is the best course of action.

 

[Cosantoir]

Thanks @Myles1970 I assume drilling out the welds you just drill the thickness of the metal from the part you're removing?

I'm going to take another look at the rail and see if it's thrown anything else out. If it's just those 2 sections I'm tempted to put something inside the rail through those drain holes and use something like a drag hammer to bend it back into shape. Abide I think I'm trying to find ways not to have to remove parts because I've never done it before and scared I'd make a ball of it.

 

[Cosantoir]

@mike 109444 Had a look at that section you mentioned and it's a step in the panel

 

[mike 109444]

Releaf That's not filler then.
Ref your jacking point, you should look to "deconstruct" that area to make creating a replacement much easier.
If you look at the first pic, the red circles should be spot welds (there will be others between these about 25 to 30 mm apart. Once you have drilled a couple out you should be able to get a paint/wall paper scraper between the panels and tapping it along this should find the edge of the next spot weld if you can't see it and then drill that one out. Then rinse and repeat. Once the panel is free then genteelly remove. This may seam a wast of time as it's scrap BUT if you carefully tap it back into shape/remove dents then you have a good pattern for creating a replacement. This pattern will also help when creating the floor(?) above it and any shaping/folding that may need. You can also plug weld through the "new" floor (once made) and into that jacking point rather than trying to weld from below.

 

[mike 109444]

Note you won't always get the rust bit off in one piece but try to put it back into shape as a guide.

 

[mike 109444]

You may be able to tug/hammer out some of that crushed chassis rail using a slide hammer and hammering from above (in car on floor). Don't try to move it all in one spot but a bit at a time, bit from below then bit from above. Use a rule/straight edge to check progress

 

[Cosantoir]

Thanks for the Help Mike.

Ref your jacking point, you should look to "deconstruct" that area to make creating a replacement much easier.

Once you have drilled a couple out you should be able to get a paint/wall paper scraper between the panels and tapping it along this should find the edge of the next spot weld if you can't see it and then drill that one out. Then rinse and repeat.

Yea on my radar I'm seeing if I can get two from a donor if possible otherwise I'm going to use the one from the passenger side to make a template for each of the diver and passenger sides.
I'm hoping to seal the underside of the car on Wednesday and I was thinking of just putting some weld through primer along the line where I'm going to probably have to cut as until I remove the outrigger and I can see plenty of the area behind it that's badly corroded (however I think this the floor planned so ill lift the carpet to see if it is.it might give me a better sense as to what needs to be cut out.

You may be able to tug/hammer out some of that crushed chassis rail using a slide hammer and hammering from above (in car on floor). Don't try to move it all in one spot but a bit at a time, bit from below then bit from above. Use a rule/straight edge to check progress

Yea bought one yesterday hoping it arrives before Christmas. I've not taken a look from above yet. How would I get at the rail from above?