Got my spare tyre.

 

Now I can get a puncture and be happy :p

realised the civic has leaked into the boot from somewhere in last night's torrential rain - think it's the rear lights...

 

Found part of the external trim between the window and the lights was loose (probably from when the last owner had the rear screen replaced after it was smashed by an errant golf ball).  Popped it back into place and the boot now appears dry again...   ;-)

Found part of the external trim between the window and the lights was loose (probably from when the last owner had the rear screen replaced after it was smashed by an errant golf ball).  Popped it back into place and the boot now appears dry again...   ;-)

 

Always the simplest things that can make the biggest difference.

Took the battery on my trusty geriatric mobile in for a charge. One of these days I'll fit a proper Klaxon to replace the kids hooter i keep in front basket to wake up dozy under 45 year olds, who have lost thir sense of spatial awareness .

Fixed the transmission and clutch on my daughter's runabout...

 

Involved making some spacers and then botching and fitting a new freewheel on the rear axle...

It just fell off! Honest!

I was quite surprised at how easily the four bolts holding that rack on, undid. I was expecting to really have to fight them; but they just... unscrewed. Not used to that. That's all been set aside for cleaning up later, and I started poking and prodding around in the area that freed up.


Front of the body is a bit tatty, but shouldn't be too complicated to fix.

Moving forwards, the back of the cab has some... er... I'll politely call them repairs, for now. Judging by how the back of the cab is eaten away -- that skin, and the floor -- in those corners; I suspect they've just been slapped on over the top of rust-holes.





Then I climbed up to inspect the known rust on the roof; and in doing so, leant on the back of the roof.

scrunch

Oo-er.


It looks more and more like a teabag the further I hit it with the wire brush!


Then, on to the ominous sections of the roof. Now, there was a Large tub of P38 in one of the storage lockers when I first investigated the truck; and I think I've discovered where most of it has been used.





Some hammering and prying la... is that bloody newspaper?! Why, yes, it is!



Yet more hammering, scraping, prying, and sanding...




 

Let's see what's behind door number 38

(You can tell what's coming, can't you?)

Ha!


Good grief.




Mmm, crunchy!




Cleaned up as best as I could, and slapped some primer on it -- like I did with all the other spots I've brushed and sanded -- in the hope of delaying the rust a little longer so I still have something to attach repair panels to when I've made them. I forsee lots of cutting, joggling, welding, and fettling.



(Original Post )

Edited 14 July, 20169 yr by Tamber

Wow that's going to take some work!!

It's good that you have the skills to do it yourself. I had to pay someone to do mine

My boot floor and rear arch looked like this:

 

Rotted through, patched by welding to/over the rust then covering in underseal, repeat, repeat.

 

No newspaper in mine though.

Wow that's going to take some work!!

It's good that you have the skills to do it yourself. I had to pay someone to do mine

I figure, by the time I'm done, I might have picked up some skill in sheet-metal working.

 

My boot floor and rear arch looked like this:

 

Rotted through, patched by welding to/over the rust then covering in underseal, repeat, repeat.

 

No newspaper in mine though.

Ooh-er. It's always fun when it's been "repaired" by slapping a patch on over the rust, giving the oxidation some piece and quiet to do its dirty work in.   I have a few layers of patches in a similar fashion that all need to come out to assess just how bad the back of the cab and the floor is. (Well, I know how bad the floor is... )

Snow foamed the Leon and the Bimmer today, first time I used that stuff, great fun!

no one hurt , although the lady that drove into me got taken away in an ambulance ...... claim culture .

Pic 10 mins after accident , other traffic filtering past , me going straight over junction , her turning right into me.

Ouch. Sorry to see that!

Is she abit mixed up? I mean, you cant just crash into somebody and get a claim. Doesnt it have to be the other persons fault

Fitted a new drivers door lock mech, yes, it is a Seat of the noughties problem too.

Oil change and air filter change on swmbo's Scenic. Simple tasks on French cars, not really any such thing.

I drove it like I stole it.

 

 

.....will pay the price at the pump later.

Edited 19 July, 20169 yr by RainbowFire

You ever have one of those days where you step back and say to yourself "What the hell have I done?!"

Today was one of those days.

Let's rewind a little bit, and start from the beginning.

* Wibbly wobbly rewinding effect *

Got myself a new toy; cordless grinder. This did not bode well for the truck.

Today was meant to mostly be a recon mission; figure out where the rotten bits are, and work out a plan of attack. So on went the wire wheel, and I started whizzing off all the filler.

Some bits turned out not to be so bad under all the filler.

And some of the bits that were bad, didn't appear so bad after all.

(Remember that remark. We'll be back here later.)

However, there are definite signs of advanced rot at the back edges of the cab.

Signs of previous repairs, too. (It's a bit hard to see, but it becomes a lot more obvious later on.)

And, of course, the rotten cab floor.

Naturally, I exposed the full rotten-ness of the driver's door while stripping all the body-filler; of which there was a not-inconsiderable amount. This all had to be chopped out.

I've seen teabags with fewer holes!

Some tin-bashing later...

I should note, my hand-held joggler tool will just about move that 1mm, but not by enough; so that's all been joggled by hand. It's not the prettiest job, but it'll do. I don't think it's too bad for someone who has never done sheet metal work before.

(I have an NVQ2 in fabrication & welding... platework, that is!)

Some fettling required.

Now, as I didn't have a long enough lead to reach all the way across the car-park to run my welder, I've given that patch panel a quick blast of primer, and left it with the other panel I have (for the roof) to deal with later; when I can either throw an extension lead over into the next unit, or tow the truck over to the workshop to do the welding.

So! Onward and, er, downwards, really.

Remember that bit I said didn't seem too bad, earlier? Yeah, well...

AAAAAAAAA...

...AAAAAAA...

...AAAAAAA...

...RGH!

And that's when that whole corner fell off. :-D

All of that fuzzy bit looks to be a repair to the structure of the cab; there's a bit of box-section, and then a patch over the top of it. None of which was painted prior to becoming sealed away, so it's all instantly rotted again. The inside of the box section feels to be full of flakes; and I'm still deciding how much more I need to chop at.

My plan of attack for the box section, at the moment, is to wire wheel the snot out of it until I can figure out where everything's joined together and how much I'll need to remove. I'm also thinking of taking a small hole-saw to the box section to allow me to clean it out, inspect how bad it is on the inside, and also apply Waxoyl to the inside of it. (I have a pressure-can with a spray hose for reaching in and splattering the sludge everywhere...)

Holy crap you have a job ahead of you there!!

Holy crap you have a job ahead of you there!!

Just a bit! Got to deal with this as one small job at a time, or it becomes a bit overwhelming.

Wrapped 5/6 of the interior plastics so much less walnut! One more piece to go. 

 

Hopefully going to give the A3 a god wash tomorrow and try using Carbon Collective Oracle on the plastics for the first time. 

 

Lots of plans in the pipeline. Excited to start modding a car again. 

This weekend:

 

Replaced the broken foglight, replaced the broken glovebox, replaced the dodgy rear plate lights.

 

Had the roof down

Washed it then hoovered and cleaned all the interior...

Completed wrapping all the old-man walnut plastic trim this weekend, all fully brushed aluminium now - much improved interior! 

 

Also gave the A3 a good wash and applied Oracle to the black plastics, much darker instantly. Waiting to see the longevity. 

Drove it to work for the first time in 3 weeks! :(

Completed the mod to end all mods - tape aux kit!

Just until I can get an RNS-E for the A3 anyway.

Not me - But Nick Grimshaw managed to put his "non-skoda" merc g-wagon on its side... figured this was a good a spot as any for it

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/nick-grimshaw-flips-car-while-swerving-to-avoid-a-cat-a3326901.html

Flipped it at "no more than 15mph to avoid a cat" apparently...

Hhmmmm....

New back bumper with PDC that works!

Went to Super Cheap to buy a fire extinguisher to put in Rusty and accidentally bought a new head unit to replace the Japanese language one in SWMBO's Premacy.

 

 

 

De-badged the rear of the A3 and fitted new plates front and rear as the old ones were tatty as.

Then gave it a good clean and a layer of Autofinesse Temptation topped with some BSD.