ICCCR2016... Come and say Hello!

Anyone in Holland in a few weeks time? Come and say Hello, it would be nice to put a face to a username or email address. I will be in the camping area in the white C5 Tourer with this flag flying... bring a bottle if you like ;)

See you in Holland!

June updates and rear indicators

Not too sure if a couple of previous posts have somehow been deleted. Not a lot of progress on the rear door but it’s looking good, I will post some pictures later. I purchased a couple of brackets that had disappeared from the rear indicator supports, made from mild steel they soon rust away. The brackets support the outer trim and spring clip in place, without them everything just falls apart. The earthing point for the indicators was badly corroded so I decided to renew the wiring to the indicator and relocate the earth point to inside the car, the same earthing point was used for the heated rear screen.

New bracket as seen from inside

New bracket seen from outside

New earth wire and connector on indicator

Rear indicator refitted

Rear indicator refitted

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.