Rear outriggers

Taking the rear outriggers out highlighted a small chassis hole just above where handbrake cable crosses chassis, this was patched with a butt welded repair section templated with the help of a breakfast cereal packet. :)

It also became apparent that the floor and rear outriggers / top hat sections had been repaired before and that the floor was about 5mm lower than it should be. I took the decision to work from the true line of the new outriggers against the chassis and the new inner sill, shorten the existing top hat sections so that I could get it back the the original height at a later date.

Middle Sill Repair

I used the point at which the original track ran along the middle sill to create a line to cut and repair from taking measurements for the distance between the cargo bay floor and the door runner track.

It was a long weld, so I tacked it evenly and back filled small sections to minimise distortion.

Once welded from end to end, I tidied the weld up with the grinder and primed it with Bonda Zinc primer.

Here you can see where the C pillar was stepped into the sill.

Repairing the chassis hole

A hole hiding underneath an outrigger!

After discovering a large hole in the chassis below the outrigger I set about repairing, I set of on a chassis repair detour.

The chassis was ground back to the good metal around the rotted out hole, cut square and a patch fabricated, then butt welded in.

I've decided to stay as close to all of the original geometry as possible rather than bulk everywhere out with layers of metal. In this situation the chassis needed to be as original as possible because the outrigger will sit on top of it!

Butt welded patched and ground flat.

Primed and ready.

Removing inner sill and rear outriggers

The inner sill was a previous repair and had been spot welded from below in several places as well as the spot welds from inside the cargo bay.

The I beams and rear top hat section I decided to cut away close to where it joined the inner sill, I figured it would be easier to extend these later to meet the new inner sill rather than try and cut around the seam welded ends.

After removing the front outrigger to find a large hole in the chassis, I thought it would be worth replacing the rear outriggers just to make sure the chassis was solid underneath. And even though both outriggers seemed only to be rotten at the vehicle’s edge while I was here it made sense to make a complete job and know that there was nothing lurking underneath.

As it turned out the chassis was fine. 
But it’ll be good to rust treat it and paint it out.

Outrigger replacement

A previous repair

When Frank was in for his last MOT he failed with some holes in the chassis and outriggers, I asked the MOT guy to patch the chassis (to pass the MOT) and although he offered to patch the outriggers I thought it’d be best to replace them.

Daylight through the outrigger.

The difficulty is knowing where to stop. Frank is a ’71 early bay and there’s a job to be done pretty much everywhere you look. But I’m keen to break the ongoing work into chunks that are small enough to be achievable, without turning him into a graveyard project.

You can see from the inside of the front wheel arch that the outrigger is toast, and there is also a hole in the top hat section above.

Outrigger complete with holes.

Middle sill with bottom half missing.

Cutting away the outer sill underneath the sliding door showed that the middle sill had been cut short and doesn’t meet the bottom of the inside sill.
Whilst most of the middle sill is solid, there are holes at the rear of the track, and the rear of the inside sill has rotted through.
After cutting out the front outrigger I uncovered a sizeable hole in the chassis beneath. Not a high point of my afternoon! If you think about the shape of the outrigger and how it meets the chassis, it is pretty much an ideal dirt and moisture trap. Which makes you wonder how many gaping chassis holes are covered up by outriggers.

Rear of the inside sill.

After cutting back the front and bottom of the hole to good gauge steel, the inside of the chassis was treated with rust killer (Jenolite), and primed (Zinc primer), then sprayed out with stone chip paint.
Patches were fabricated in 2mm steel and primed / painted on the inside keeping the weld area bare.

Chassis with outrigger removed.

What was left of the old outrigger.