Restoration Part 4

Boot Floor Continued

The work below was carried out on the Thursday of week 6 and Saturday of week 7 .

The previous week I had repaired the boot floor left and right hand sides this left me with the centre section to replace.

I made a repair section to fit the gap from sheet steel. The piece was cut slightly oversize to allow a joggled lip for the join. The area around the wheel well could not be joggled as it was curved and sloped down into the well so this area of the join was but welded in place. The welds were then cleaned up with the angle grinder.

The next step was to repair the bottom of the rear panel below the boot lip. It had rusted all along the join with the boot floor and rear valance. I had bought a repair panel that included the boot lip but it only went between the boot hinge mounting holes at each side the curved end sections would have to be made separately. The first step was to cut the boot lip from the panel as this would not be needed. Then a lip was joggled on the newly cut edge ready for welding.

The area on the car where the panel was going to fit was then cleaned up and the new panel was taken back to bare metal ready for welding. Kevin suggested that I should use the spot welder on this panel. Kevin set up the spot welder jaws using an offcut of the metal I would be welding and showed me how to use the welder. It was simple as long as the panels were clean, put the jaws on the items to be joined and pull the trigger it has an automatic timer cut off.

The piece was clamped in place and then spot welded, easy.

The corner pieces were next. As these were curved Kevin said that the "L" section shape would have to be made by but welding 2 pieces together to form the sides of the "L". I cut out the shapes and welded them together with the MIG.

These were then welded to the car using the spot welder where possible and the MIG where it couldn't reach. Both sides were dealt with in the same way.

I will have to take in a vacuum cleaner to hoover out the boot as it is full of dust from the angle grinder.