Aircooled restoration

[michaelodonnell500]

The weather was on my side again, so I thought it would be a good idea to crack on with the rot removal.
The rear arch is a mess and the best solution would be for me to buy a rear inner & outer wing. While they're not that expensive, there is postage on top, and the time I have to wait for them to get here and it would involve allot of work to cut enough bodywork away to allow the inner wing to be welded in before I could start on the outer so I thought I'd do it myself.
I had hoped to use this section I had cut from a scrap car Rusty had at his home, but on closer inspection there were quite a few rotten patches on it so I figured it would be best to start from scratch.
First I cut a wide strip and clamped it to the rear arch lip as a former










This left me with a thin strip which will act as the wheel arch lip


Missed out a few images here, but with the lip still clamped to the former I welded a few sections to start to form the face of the arch. These gave it the strength to allow me to weld it to the body with out losing its shape


it took me a little bit of headscratching to work out the next step. You have to visualise how the inner and outer panels are going to be attached to the car with nothing but an arch template to work to.
I decided to go for the inner arch first to allow me to weld from top down.

The next part was part sliced in a few sections to allow me to fold it over and follow the curve of the inside of the wing. Not the neatest way to do it, but It will only be visible from inside the wheel arch. It makes for a strong section and cut down on the amount of welds I had to do






The outer wing repair will be made from 2 pieces. Splitting it into 2 pieces makes it much easier to form.
For some reason my welding went down the pan on the last part!
Despite leaving the settings alone and using the same metal, it wasn't arcing properly, I suspect I may have had a bad earth, but I won't go too far into it as they say a bad workman always blames his tools!

It started to rain so the last part will be welded in later.

[Amateb8]

Fantastic work. It looks like a scene/article from Practical Classics!!!! Perhaps worth contacting them for piece on, "Restoring a Fiat 126". Continue the good work and keep the photos coming!!!!!!!

[michaelodonnell500]

I took a break from the rear arch today so I could take a stab the floor.
It had been plated in several places along the floor so I had to cut out a fair chunk to find a bit of clean metal to start from






I'm not using a floor pan section to fix this, but I've got some heavy gauge steel instead.

Firstly I welded in a piece of angle section to act as the edge to where sill is welded on.




Then after that a plate for the floor. As with the rear arch this has to be done in several sections because of the curvature of the pan section. You can't really see the curve from this angle, I'll take a few more pics tomorrow:


Once I have the other pieces in I can re-weld the seat rail and seat belt bolt, and the jacking point

[michaelodonnell500]

just a quick update on today's work.
This metal is about twice as thick as the sheet used on the wheel arch which makes it a bit trickier to manipulate, hence the awkward little bits at the end. The floor is now very solid and the sill will have a good foundation to be welded onto.

[Jan-in-UK]

Crrracking

[thepuddlejumper]

Michael well done excellent work

Ralph

[michaelodonnell500]

I got married last summer, so I didn't really get a chance to do much. Then it got cold and I chickened out!
I realised embarrasingly that I hadn't lifted a tool to it for almost a year, so I made some time and got to work!
I'll have some more photos next week as I have taken some photos on my camera phone, but left the cable at work.
Firstly I chose to tackle the rear screen surround as it was a bit rusty. Thanksfully not rotten, but I sanded back, treated the rust, applied red oxide primer, then got some colour on it.





Next job was to cut the front end off. the headlight seatings are rotten along with the bottom where the front panel meets the bulkhead. I used erbaur 9 + 1/2" 2mm thick disks. They get through very quickly, but when you offer up to the steel they flex alot until they settle into a rut. Very disconcerting!
Although I haven't added a photo yet the front panel is second hand and includes the bulkhead panel up to the negative terminal bolt so I have chosen to cut at the angle between the horizontal and vertical faces as this will reduce distortion



the battery tray was removed using a spot weld drill. Very handy little tool as it saves drilling through both layers of metal




Next was the strip at the top of the wing. The rest of the wing was pretty good and I was able to salvage a smal section from one of Rusty's relics before it was recycled for baked bean tins!




I spent a bit of time measuring this cut on both pieces with a ruler, and it was worth it. When I offered the parts up it was almost a perfect fit.




The final 2 images show the top strip welded in places and sanded back (despite my best efforts it will need a wee bit of filler!) I also offered up the replacement front panel. A bit more trimming is needed but should get that finished tomorrow.

[michaelodonnell500]

The bootlid is in pretty good condition with the exception of this corner.
I'll add a few more photos later as it has now ben fully welded and mostly filled.The cut section was seam welded and the outside edges were spot welded.
I was very lucky to get a shot of a spot welder. Made it alot easier and quicker








Door sanded back, primed and ready for topcoat. It's now already top-coated and currently lives in the spare room with the newly painted bonnet, much to the delight of my wife!!











The front is trimmed and ready for welding. there are a couple of patches needed at the front of each inner arch before I can weld this on. Hopefully get this done at the weekend.

[thepuddlejumper]

Michael what kind of paint are you using.

Ralph

[michaelodonnell500]

Hi Ralph.
I'm using cellulose. I resprayed the 500 last year for our wedding and bought from this place:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180462503002&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
They were very helpfull, spoke to them on the phone a few times as there was some confusion over the shade of red/orange!
I will be working on mixing some hammerite for the floor and parts of the underside as it should make the joba a bit easier and be more durable.

[robinoz]

That's alot of welding and good welding glad my resto didnt need that much as what I weld I destroy keep up the good work looking good

[Kent126]

Wow this is looking great! Keep up the good work, and keep the pics coming! 

Tom

[Floyd]

this work is awesome mate, keep it up, im glad mine wasnt this bad(mind u my mini was lol)

Will continue to follow this with excitement

[eben80]

Awesome stuff. Tell me please, what kind of welder are you using and what is the spec of the sheetmetal that you are using to replace the removed bits?