Rear door

Work has started a little later than expected as I needed to do a bit of re-work on the front door. This rear door in particular has previously had poor repairs with lots of filler. The door has been chemically stripped and phosphate coated so I can now see what I am working with.

Body filler concealing the corrosion on the bottom of the door skin

Corrosion on the seal holder and closing panels

Door in place to check fit before cutting

Bottom of door skin cut away

Replacement repair panel held temporarily in place with clips to allow for any adjustments 

Boot lid

I needed some space in the garage, which is at a premium, to continue work on the doors. The boot lid has been off for a long time now while I welded repair panels in the top corners of the boot aperture. Water collected in these corners and finally rotted through allowing water ingress to the boot floor causing a lot of unseen corrosion which can be seen here. Now these repairs are complete, the boot lid has been stripped back to bare metal and is quite good condition, there was only a small amount of corrosion along the inside bottom edge which holds a black nylon trim in place, I guess this holds moisture in place also? A coat of rust convertor cured this nicely and a coat of etching primer for the rest followed by first skim and flat and another coat of primer. That’s it for the boot lid for now, it is temporarily refitted so it is out of harms way and gives me more work space. You may notice Gradulux blinds in the back window – more on these later.

Boot lid in final primer coat

Painted in base coat and clear with new badge and original chevrons

Heater valve

Heater valve finally started leaking this week so a straight forward job of removing the matrix and swapped for a new one. I took the opportunity to flush out the matrix with a weak caustic solution. Good water flow now and a substantial amount heat being blown into the car.
 

Front door repairs

All welded, skimmed with fine surface filler, seams sealed with flexible PU sealer and first coat of 2k etch primer, still needs a bit of work but going on the car to try the fit.

Inside of door now painted and waxoiled, started to build up locks, window regulator, trims and seals etc.
Very pleased with the paint finish.

Front door repairs

Not all repair panels are available to weld in, I had to make these to repair the back edge near the door lock.
 

Front door repairs

Some of the repair panels being welded in place.
 

Front door repairs

Doors been chemically stripped to show the full extent of the corrosion, nice clean metal left to weld to.
 

Front door repairs

Last thing to come off the door is the top leatherette trim, this is held in place with a two piece finisher which clip together. As always being dissimilar metals, stainless steel on mild steel, a fair amount of corrosion occurs between the two. In hindsight a soak with wd40 eases the separation. A small gasket scraper does the job nicely to ease away the top stainless trim to reveal 7 pozidrive screws which secure the base of the trim. Once removed the leatherette can be pulled away from a glued strip of felt in the recess. It also revealed the usual stress fractures in the top corners of the door skin.

Removing top trim

Stress fractures

All that remains is the door lock mechanism secured by 3 screws, the lock barrel held in place by a horseshoe clip and the exterior door handle with 2 m6 nuts.
Off now to be chemically stripped and phosphate coated before repairs start.

New balls please!

During the door repairs I noticed the front suspension going a bit stiff. A straight forward replacement of the front suspension spheres sorted this out. The 59bar nitrogen gas in the top half of the sphere had lost pressure through a deteriorated diaphragm. Always good practice to replace the hydraulic seals when a component is refitted, at the most you would have to replace four here as there is a little extension piece which fits between the sphere and the suspension cylinder and invariably comes off with the sphere. Cleanliness is paramount during this operation, clean all the loose build up of crap from around the top of the cylinder before removal, the last thing you need in your hydraulics is some grit floating around. (I used compressed air, but watch your eyes and use goggles)

From Wikipedia:

Pressure flows from the hydraulic circuit to the suspension cylinders, pressurizing the bottom part of the spheres and suspension cylinders. Suspension works by means of a piston forcing LHM into the sphere, compacting the nitrogen in the upper part of the sphere; damping is provided by a two-way 'leaf valve' in the opening of the sphere. LHM has to squeeze back and forth through this valve which causes resistance and controls the suspension movements. It is the simplest damper and one of the most efficient.

N/S/F suspension sphere

O/S/F suspension sphere, the extension piece can be seen here