Rust Repairs

 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 the very hidden (and unpainted)  places inside. Quickly rusting and after a short period of wonder a hole appears under the bonnet where I took the picture.

It is even difficult to get a picture of the problem place up under the guard near the windscreen pillar:

As you can "see" you can see nothing. This picture was taken with the camera above the left front wheel looking rearwards.

A better picture under the bonnet of the little result we can see

Doesn't look that bad.
Except the cavity behind it is full of "stuff". Let's call it road dirt :-)

The visible hole is where it got out and no doubt there are a few other holes out of sight that would have drained the moisture out. The up side of living in the central parts of Australia is the heat and the low humidity....did I say very dry as well. Cut of the H20 and rust stops.

Now while I can't see the top of the little mud trap I can grope around with my hand (being careful of sharp bits of course) and diagnosed that about 80% of the top has rotted away. I checked the right side as well and strangely it did seem to be largely intact. One little win.

Now because there is one very rusty Rapier in my shed with the front guards already removed because of the same problem I can show what happens.

Left side from engine bay (Rapier)

Left side again (Rapier)

Left side with outer guard removed (Rapier)

See small holes where guard was attached.

Also the rot extending in a line from the bottom of the boxed section 

along where the inner parts were attached

Looking up from underneath.(Rapier)

Only after looking at the picture did I notice the little rubber bung.

Went back out and had another look.

There appears to only be one on the LHS.
The Rapier parts book does not list any of these parts 

as they are assumed to be part of the "body shell"

Part no H.108280 for my Rapier

Perhaps I should just order one from my friendly Rootes dealer.  😄

The next port of call for the invading water is down here,(Rapier)

and of course into the sill area eventually making little bubbles under the paint.

Not wanting to be one sided, this is the other side on the Rapier

From the front, looking through into the driver's side footwell

A view looking down showing all the damage (Rapier)

Same from the side.(Rapier)

I started cutting away the rotten metal in preparation 

for welding in new parts.

The Rapier  pillar looks quite intact, but

the hole in the front and the larger hole in the top of the sill area 

show that the damage continues in that area as well.

The pictures of my rapier show clearly where the damage occurs and illustrate how difficult it is to get in there to repair. 

This makes it easier to understand why panel shops hate clients fronting up with a "few small rust spots" and wanting a price to "fix" the problem. They know that a simple little job can become their life's work.

An example would be this little rust spot on the right guard.

So back to the Minx. My choices at this point (apart from parting it out) are around how I am going to fix it. The "correct" approach would be to remove the left guard and repair the damage underneath.      On this model Minx I suspect that would require the removal of the nose cone  across the front and the guard to gain access. These parts are welded in place so a difficult job at least a few days work. Then cut out the rotted box parts.

Like modern surgeons I am going to investigate the possibility of repairing using keyhole surgery techniques. That the bottom of the guard also requires a bodged rust repair fixed will colour my choices.

Time to think about it for a few days

While still considering all options I decided to run the wire brush down the channel on the edge of the guard to better locate the spot welds that will need to be drilled out if I am to remove the guard. The ones at the lower front extremities will be a bigger challenge 😀

Found this. After the cloud of bog dust dissipated.

So the plot thickens and the simple "little" rust repair has become a much bigger job.

Perhaps both front guards and the front sheet metal can be removed as a unit.  Need to go and look.

2nd September 2022

As those following will have guessed there is not an agenda for this Blog. 

The posts flow as the work progresses, the only objective is to see this little Minx finished and back on the road....Soon 😊

It became apparent that the "nose cone" needed to be removed before the spot welds holding the guards could be freed. This nose cone on the series V and VI models was a face lift so to speak and was attached over the previous sheet metal. It certainly changes the frontal appearance and I do recall a friend flashing up a late 50's Husky by grafting on a similar piece back in the early 70's.

In a way removing it is a help as I will be able to caress the shape better with hammer and dolly with it removed 

The naked front

The spot welds for the guard can now be seen and more important can be accessed with appropriate tools to release.

I had already released the top and rear welds so it was about an hour of drilling out spot welds and adding stress to the remaining connections with hammer and chisel.

The guard is overall not in bad shape, I did take a fair bit of care not to bully it around too much in releasing it because a new one would be hard/difficult/very expensive to find.

My observation in removing it was that it had been replaced early on in the life of the car.

The random placement of the spot welds and some differences from the other side were part of coming to this conclusion.

If doing a car for a "customer" you should never let them see what is required to do this task. 😅

The lower rear part was fairly corroded and had a piece of poorly shaped metal that had been attached over as a "repair". This was the excess bog I had mentioned earlier.

The top rear corner also has some part rotted away.

Looking from the front at the lower part of the A pillar

Should really put something to reference the picture in the frame so I can figure out what I am looking at later 😉 This is the main reason I needed to totally remove the guard. View  from above of the structural boxing. The bonnet hinge mount to the left and the front of car at top of picture.

The top of the box is pretty much totally gone. Confirming the grope examination with my fingers.

The accumulated debris can be clearly seen. The very dry climate in Longreach has prevented this causing any further rusting over the 9 years that it was my daily drive to work car.

This part can now be repaired properly and treated to prevent it happening again.

The inner lower portion of the A pillar looks in fair condition. Cleaned up and painted it will be good.

The lower part where the A pillar and sill join is also in reasonable condition

Closer view.

Cleaned up and painted before putting the guard back and it will be good.

The top guard mount flange where it attaches to the inner guard.

The flange with be replaced with a new piece worked into shape with hammer and dolly.

This will enable the guard to be reattached by plug welding the in drilled out spot weld holes.

All these discoveries are "good" in that they can all be simply repaired.

Hopefully this is as far backwards we have to go.

Now the repair and refurbishment can really get started.

Two days work to get to this point.

The remaining doors will be removed and the entire body shell media blasted back to bare metal.

Having gone this far to fix this rust spot it seems the best way.

I was trying to avoid removing the engine and gearbox but that is only another hours work to get them out of the way so will be done as well.

Like most cars of the era none of the unseen body parts were painted before assembly. So all internal parts of welded on sections and parts out of sight remained unprotected. All good until moisture finds its way in there. The repaired shell will have everything painted where I can get at it and internal parts treated with Fisholene to stop the rust forever. This including spraying it inside the various pillars, chassis structural sections and sills.

Fisholene remains as semi liquid and gets into all crevices and joins. Unlike the spray on US sourced products that harden, crack and allow moisture to get underneath.

Along the way all the BS (Black Stuff) that the DPO forced into all sorts of places will be extracted, the places treated with rust converter then primed and painted. Fisholene will be sprayed into all the welded seams I can't get at to physically clean out.

Fisholene not hard to find:

https://www.bunnings.com.au/white-knight-1l-rust-guard-fish-oil_p1564299

https://www.mitre10.com.au/killrust-fishoilene-1l