You go through all kinds of emotion, right? Like now i want to push this thing into the nearest canal and never speak of it again.

I went and scraped some more underseal off it. It's clearly had rust patched.... with nothing but underseal... in its history.

There are SO many intersecting parts, or rather 'no longer intersecting' parts, and as yet I'm too scared to just start lopping bits off because I might not remember where they need to go back on.

There's no joy to be found from underneath either:

This car is clearly a write off, but we're not going to do that are we, we're going to FIX it. But not today, not today.

I went round the other side to take a couple of photos of the 'good' corner on the other side, got suspicious and shoved a screwdriver through it so that's another bit of screwed up sill to go on the list.

It's getting further away.

Motivation is gone, but it will come back.

ok, I did some stuff... I pointed a needle scaler at various bits and lopped the back off the sill.

There's so much more going on in here than at the previous spot we did.

counting from the right in the next photo; the third bit of metal needs repaired, whereas the second bit is actually fine.

The left hand bit is box section, I guess, but it's not giving me access to the third bit I need to patch.

I can either cut out good metal to get access and stitch it back in, or repair the box section by doing it as two Ls that join underneath.

i can't really weld at the innermost side either because the suspension is in the way... it COULD be dropped, but urgh.

Either that or plate over the lot and lap weld and cry and pretend it's NOT a jacking point :D

Anyway I'm thinking about it.

In other terrifying news this is the fuel filler neck going into the tank:

A 2.5inch clampy thingy will have to be sourced, the one I found on a shelf is too big.

5 hours ago, skoda_cat said:

n other terrifying news this is the fuel filler neck going into the tank:

A 2.5inch clampy thingy will have to be sourced, the one I found on a shelf is too big.

Suitably sized real Terry Jubilee clips are available.

43 minutes ago, Paws4Thot said:

Suitably sized real Terry Jubilee clips are available.

Yeh, just feels like the one thing that’s in reach of being fixed right now.

As well as being something I’d better not forget to fix.

Losing this thing in a fireball would feel pretty sucky ;p

This holiday is basically over, truck work wise. I'm back to the labour mines on Monday so 'progress' (LOL) will slow again, but I might be able to afford more welding gas :/

Tiny victories:

FIXED!

CL servo for the driver's door installed. found the tab on the lock mech for the CL and got a wire in it, that then popped out later. Look, the window doesn't hit it :D

I need to check the DRO on the mill is accurate and make a bell crank to go around the corner.

Hey look the spare is a YOKO!

And it's on the wear stops :(

I need to drop that and give the bracket some care!

Only just come across this thread. I will be watching with interest. Great work and perseverance. :) I know what you mean about the welding (lying on your back getting burns from sparks like bad wasp stings!) And what you often start with can look pretty scary. I had a poorly repaired sill rot out on my T5 van after 10 years. This is what it looked like after a dig around with a screwdriver..

Old sill cut out

Second hand sill (body cut) welded in.

I was lucky my rust was so limited so kudos to you for sticking at it with yours. 👍 You will get there and not many folks will be able to match your story in the pub! :)

yeh, turns out I don't have to cut back too far to get good metal, but the geometry is now killing me.

Happily as it's a project it can sit and moulder for another few months, I have no NEED to drive it for any reason. I just WANT to.

I yanked out the spare wheel which was a giggle because I don't have the 'security key' to undo the bolt, I stuck some grips on it and was BRIEFLY impressed with the anti theft slip ring on the bolt, but then watched as I could slide it off and then just unwind the now slipless bolt out.

I might not bother running a spare, maybe just keep some tyre glue around, or rely on breakdown, but maybe I will. I can't imaging the market for stolen steel wheels in this PCD is very good so I don't think theft is a strong consideration anyway.

I'll see if I can get the bracket sandblasted. it's solid but pretty grotty and the grommets that it goes into the frame with are smoked.

I also found the exhaust rubber at the back is half snapped and the exhaust is wired up. ffs.

I thought it best not to hang the back box on whatever joints are up the front end of the thing so I tried to get a jack stand under but it was too big, but lol this bit was the right length. Witness the crimes committed with wire and snapped rubber:

This is NOT a place of honour:

I had to tickle the mount with an angle grinder to get a generic rubber on, but on it is and if it tries to escape it can have a washer welded on the end to capture it FOR EVER... or maybe some allthread welded on and a nice nyloc nut or something i don't know. it's not escaped yet so i don't need to plan.

At least the half rotten system now sits neatly into the bumper relief dingle and it's one more stupid job ticked off the list of infinite tasks.

They actually came with big circlip like things to hold on the exhaust hangers. There may be some in the box of goodies when you get it...

Sage advice, I'm glad this sticker survived, because it sure is tempting. I think I'm going to end up dropping this to weld more and more and more and more trash,

Like for example this joy I found whilst taking that photo:

It's that joy where the underseal becomes more of a blight than a help, it's held water in against the steel. That repair is going to be right by the fuel lines \0/

This is going to be my forever project, like welding the fourth bridge or whatever.

I'd definitely bite the bullet and take the tank out if you are close to that. If not, you can protect plastic pipes with metal/and or a fireproof cloth. If there is any sign of a leak anywhere on the whole car I wouldn't take any chances. I had a fire extinguisher, a garden hose and a bucket of water next to me when I did mine (and it was a diesel) but I still had a couple of 'moments' with underseal (and occasionally overalls) catching fire! 🤣

That repair looks like nice little fabrication to hone your skills on. :)

I'm just sulking for a bit, I will get back to it. Weather's also traaaasshhhhh so there's not much to do.

On 21/09/2025 at 10:47, Rheumy said:

I still had a couple of 'moments' with underseal (and occasionally overalls) catching fire! 🤣

I had similar with my dad years ago - he'd been doing some repairs to the underside of my mums old car in winter and decided to try and get some warmth into the repair using a candle in a jam jar... well you can guess the rest 🤣

1 minute ago, skomaz said:

I had similar with my dad years ago - he'd been doing some repairs to the underside of my mums old car in winter and decided to try and get some warmth into the repair using a candle in a jam jar... well you can guess the rest 🤣

It's a bit weird to think that the roads we drive on are made of oil, all the dashboards and steering wheels are made of oil, the tyres are made of oil, the fuel is oil, there's oil in the oil hole and the grease in the bearings is made of oil. Then we spray paints all over the thing which is made out of oil and then underseal everything with oil.

It's a miracle the whole LOT doesn't catch fire tbh.

If I don’t take the cover off it I can believe it’s finished. :p

Seriously it will get started and run several times over winter and I’ll keep the battery topped up.

I should fix up the headlight adjusters really, but it’s pretty locked up for winter now. Sorry.

More to come in spring, or if there are crisp days in which I get over excited.

Good luck with your work. 👍

Just to keep you warm in the winter, look at the price of this! Wonder if they actually got that price? I think the pic is from 2023.

Sigh, I'm feeling so wistful about it. I do want to do stuff, but the drizzle and the constantly wet floor and the cold.

I did unzip the cover enough to open the drivers door to crawl in and check it wasn't filling with water or anything.

It's not.

I'm going to try and get the bonnet open tomorrow and start it and run it up to temp, give the battery a bit of charge.

C'mon spring!

If it gets a bit colder, maybe the rain will stop and I can look at dropping the rear axle and fuel tank, but I dunno.

It's still there, under the decaying bag. doesn't seem any more rusty than usual.

I popped the hood, stuck the earth lead on it and turned the key. started right up. what a champ.

I ran it for 10 mins or so, then stuck a battery charger on it which said it was full in less than 10 mins.

I'll do that a couple more times over winter. I cannot WAIT for spring.

1 hour ago, skoda_cat said:

It's still there, under the decaying bag. doesn't seem any more rusty than usual.

I popped the hood, stuck the earth lead on it and turned the key. started right up. what a champ.

I ran it for 10 mins or so, then stuck a battery charger on it which said it was full in less than 10 mins.

I'll do that a couple more times over winter. I cannot WAIT for spring.

That's exactly what I do with my 1995 MX5 over winter.

I wish I could with my eunos turbo but it cuddled a tree that time.

It being nearly spring and whatnot (in my dreams at least) I've been reading the HBoL about removing my rear suspension stuff.

The book is probably talking about the car not the truck and I don't know if they actually share a rear axle or not but the PRINCIPLES will be the same regardless.

Getting to the point, it contains gems like:

Slacken and remove the nuts and bolts securing the suspension strut lower mountings to the rear axle. Discard the nuts, new ones should be used on refitting.

Is there anything magic about these nuts or are they the ones with a sort of oval section somewhere in them so that they JAM when screwed in, removing them releases the jam and they become normal nuts sort of thing? I'm wondering what I can replace them with and where I might source them if I need 'the right magic nuts'.

Are any of you in the know?

I need to make another spreader plate for my other axle stand and get the other side of the rear off the ground and then I can get on with removing the suspension in prep for welding up the everything. This truck is going back on the road in 2026 I SWEAR (and I will swear if it doesn't as well )

Ok, it snowed last night and was freezing this morning but it wasn't actually RAINING so the car got seen momentarily.

No great shakes, but plans need to be made.
I build another wee plate to avoid crushing the sill lip ridge thingy at the bottom and jacked the other side of its bum in the air

The jack my neighbour has perma-loaned me is SOOOOOOO nice to use.

It's mostly brake I think that are going to be the hassle, like what the hell is THIS mess? Some kind of proportioning system?

I THINK these two chunky lads running under the tank are the handbrake, but I can follow them back and see where they go, I hoped I can get them off at the front and and bring them out with the axle.

So I think I will undo the tops of the suspension, crack these bolts holding the axel to to the chassis, figure out where there brakes split and drain them, then hopefully the whole rear axel, brakes, hubs and suspension should be able to wriggle out from underneath. Then we can get the tank and filler out and get to fixing up the sill rears and anything under the bed that needs love.

I'm SO happy to have laid hands back on this thing.

I also stuck the GSXR on the battery tender, because it's almost time for that insanity to start back up.

I popped off the rubber cap from the RH top mount (which split, yay) and found this underneath.

I've poked at it a bit with a screw driver and I THINK there's a nut in there somewhere.

After more digging and a bit of wire wheel, there may even be a suggestion of THREADS!

I'm sure the LHS will be in much better condition...

Sort of possibly saveable...

They're soaking in some de-blocker xl (idk) very expensive penetrant stuff now. I did stick a 17mm socket on one and give it a wiggle, but obviously it's all rubber mounted.. I think there's supposed to be flats on the top of the post so I'll try and clean them up, I expect we put a wrench on that flat and one on the nut and oppose them to back the nut off. Off to youtube to find out.

I'm wondering if I should get new shock absorbers for this or explore going straight to coil overs... I'm not sure how much space there is in those towers. Probably just new shocks so it rides nice and standard. I don't really want to have to go specialist insurance for this thing.

2 hours ago, skoda_cat said:

I THINK these two chunky lads running under the tank are the handbrake, but I can follow them back and see where they go, I hoped I can get them off at the front and and bring them out with the axle.

They are.

tum te tum, choices... I might see what dingbro have.

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/car-parts/shock-absorber-10221/skoda/felicia/felicia-i-fun-797/11187-1-3?criteria%5B100%5D%5B%5D=VA

The flats on the top of the shocks are very narrow so hard to get a good grip on to oppose the nut. I tried penetrant, fire, penetrant, ice spray, fire, and violence which achieved nothing.

So I had a go at the other end with an entirely normal arrangement of bars.

Both sides have had that nut wound off, and if I lightly jack the axle (which maybe I can spell) then the bolt will come out. I've left both bolts in for now because I've not worked out how to drop the axle and I don't want it hanging all the weight on the torsion bar nonsense.

This image currently has me beat:

We've got two wheels at the back and a feed from the front which should lead to 3 connections for brakes. We have 4, whyyyyyyyyy.

One of the hoses loops down to the lower junction for the flexy you can see which loops over to the wheel on the right of the image.

Another hose goes up over the tank and vanishes, apparently reappearing a way down the beam where it goes though a flexy for some reason and then hardlines all the way to the wheel in the left hand side of the picture.

If I undo the union between the flexy and hardline right in the middle of the photo then the right hand (in the image) wheel will be disconnected from the brake system but the left hand one won't and I can't yet figure out what to undo to liberate it :/

I have not put any spanners on the main bolts that attach the axle to the chassis. I'll get there.

Edited 15 February15 Feb by skoda_cat
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