I was working on the front end but as a boot hinge I had ordered arrived in the post I switched ends. The boot lid looked like a much easier project, I figured if I had a go at that and made a good job it would boost my confidence moving forward. I had watched a video where Bad Chad Hiltz had repaired a similar area with fibre glass bridging compound so i thought I would give it a go, it also gave me the chance to try out the new battery powered sander / polisher that I had picked up from Temu.
I started by using my angle grinder with a stainless wheel to get rid of the rust along the lower lip, when I did this holes appeared. Not massive ones but there were plenty of them, I hoped the bridging stuff would do the job, it did it much better than I hoped. It's basically body filler with a load of chopped fibre glass in it, you get a really strong repair. I wanted to do this area first as it's hidden when the boot is closed so I figured nobody would ever know if it was less than perfect. it went on really nicely, I used 80 grit paper on my sander and the excess came off quickly, I was left with a surprisingly smooth finish. Sadly I didn't take any photos, my phone was indoors and it was hammering down, I just wanted to crack on.
Once it was rubbed down I went over it with p38 body filler, which then got sanded again to leave a finish that I think I am happy with, I will have a better idea when it has some primer on it. while it was drying I turned it over and gave the outside a good sanding to remove the rust and dodgy primer that somebody else had put on over the original red oxide stuff. I'm delighted to say the sander did the whole job on one charge of one of the two batteries it came with. It's a variable speed machine, it came with absolutely loads of sanding pads and polishing accessories. It was only 27 quid, an absolute bargain. The great thing about it is that it uses the same batteries and chargers as my 3/8 90 degree ratchet driver so I have 4 batteries that can be used in either machine and 2 chargers. I am very happy with both pieces of kit.
Anyway, when I came to do the hinges it quickly became apparent that there was no way the old ones were going to come off so I ended up cutting the hinge pins to separate the two halves. I could then leave the upper parts attached to the boot lid, fix the lowers to the car and then put new pins in. It's gone rather well but I need to get some new bolts as the originals had to be drilled out.
The primer went on quite well but the basecoat not so well. The aerosols have quite a small circular spray pattern rather than the large fan shape of a proper spray gun. This makes painting a large area really difficult, it kept going sort of stripey, not an acceptable finish by a long way. I found that by spraying from a larger distance helped and I managed to get a finish that I thought was good enough to lacquer over. I left it for 24 hours then gave it a couple of coats of lacquer it looked really good.
I gave that 2 days to dry and then turned the thing over so I could spray the edges. It all looked great until I lifted it back up and discovered that the lacquer wasn't hard like I thought it was, it is now ruined and will have to be rubbed back and started again. This has caused me to rethink the whole approach. I will now spend the winter just doing metalwork and will take the car to my mate's place in the Spring and spray the whole car with a proper spray gun and 2 pack paint. I am not going to waste any more time messing about, I can use the cans on the interior areas like the door shuts so it isn't wasted but the outside will now be done properly.
With that in mind i set about repairing the front passenger door, the only one I have managed to remove from the car so far. The bottom of it was completely rotten, it had no strength and looked pretty nasty. I cut out all the stuff that had gone too far and then treated the rest of the door with Vactan rust converter before going any further. Next job was to ake a repair panel, I made a cardboard template first and then cut some 1mm steel sheet to match. The bottom end was folded over so it matched the cut out part ready for welding in place. It came out quite well,I had been a bit concerned about doing this job but it worked out easier than I thought.
The near side rear door was an absolute nightmare to get off, all 6 bolts were solidly rusted up with no access to the back of them to get any penetrating fluid on them. All had to be drilled out, which was a massive pain. The door itself wasn't as bad as the front one but still needed a large patch piece welding on and some dents needed attention too. It went much faster than the front door as I had a bit of practice by now and used the same techniques. I still have to get the other two doors off, which is proving to be another challenge, the bottom of the driver's door is the worst one of the lot, I may end up looking for a replacement, it might save a lot of effort. I still have to weld in supports for the electric window mechanisms, only a small job but I need to get some metal strip of the right size. It's minus 3 at the moment so I can't see me getting to it just yet.
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