Thought I would start a new page for the reconstruction work, Having removed all the outer parts that were in the way the little rust trap was revealed so today I cut the rotten part out of the top and cleaned all the debris out. Also gave the under guard area a good going over with a wire brush to remove all the loose dirt, sticky BS and loose paint. A fair amount of dirt in there. Looking better now The lower part is still relatively solid so a little more clean and grind first The light spots are the holes that were originally visible from the engine bay. This piece will need to be cut out and replaced. This level of rust damage is not seen.  It appears as little bubbles in the paint, Cleaning the outer part back and repainting the area is a temporary measure only as the cancer is still in there growing slowly. This is why I decided to  go in hard and treat every place I could and stop it coming back. Another day of cleaning the panels. Coming along nicely. Slightly o...

 It was all going so well, the "easy" task of straightening the pushed in face and making it like new. The few visible little rust holes to clean up and weld in some patches. In the last page I mentioned some classic Minx rust spots and posted a few pictures. However as with all rust what you see is just the very tip of the iceberg as a much larger amount is out of sight waiting to sink SS Titanic.  Now these rust spots do not start where you see them inside the engine bay where it is warm and dry and being a Hillman an oil film tends to cover surfaces. The problem started with the Rootes design that has a little dirt trap under the guards up out of sight where it can't be seen. Now if you hose out underneath on a regular basis and avoid roads where salt is added in winter there will not be a problem. So the hidden part collects "stuff" which holds moisture, and as we all know Fe + H20 = RUST. Eventually the little shelf rusts through and dirt and moisture enter...