78 Kadett C Saloon - V8 turbo.

Hi All,


This update has been painful due to photobucket URL lengths suddenly increasing! FFS!

Anyway Ive managed a few hours on the Kadett last weekend so here goes

After previously chopping all the rot from the wing mount the next stage was to begin shaping the repair panel to fit

Said repair panel



Chopping commenced



Bit by bit leaving me a closer fitting more manageable shape



Then more trimming





Happy with the rough shape i chopped the panel in half to make final fitment easier



Once I was satisfied with the i welded the first section in







The welds now need cleaning off



fortunately the inside seam doesn't need as much work



The next mission is obviously to fit the other half of the wing mount. However for ease of access i think i need to address the issue with the headlight surround first.



This will require some further head scratching



and one of these if i don't make one



Thanks for looking

James

Thanks Vilppi the pattern panels aren't great but they are a start at least!

I'm going up to my workshop now so hopfully I will have some more updates later

Evening good people!

Progress from today....

I started by grinding back the welds on the wing mount





Then flatted them back with the DA sander





finally giving the bare metal some acid etch primer



next on the agenda now that part of the wing mount was in place was to weld in the scuttle repair section i had made previously

So I cleaned off the edges to be welded with the air file



and primed up the back of the repair section as well as drilling some spot weld holes



welded it in place







It follows the line of the scuttle ok



then ground and sanded the welds again







And primed the area



It needs some finishing but I'm happy to move to the next stage at this point





While the paint was drying on the scuttle i was curious to find out what condition the N/S wing mount and surrounding area was in.

This previous repair didn't fill me with hope



Nor did the filler in this area again



However I'm please to say id doesn't appear to be as bad as the O/S





Although it isn't great I'm happy enough





Especially as the wing mount isn't as bad as the O/S



And the shape to the headlight surround is still there (just)



The A pillar/door jam area is bad here again





while i was in the mood for digging about i attacked the O/S rear arch



Can i just say if you are thinking about 'repairing' something in this way please just don't bother



I decided to get more involved - grinder out





cleaned it off with the DA



crispy



so i cut it out





and chopped some more from the sill to see how bad the inners were



leaving this



Then i cleaned off the inner arch lip





and put on some rust killer

Haha yer I guess so

Let's hope so I've still got some way to go but I'm getting there slowly.

Where do you get panels from for 1 of these these days

Great work by the way

Thanks! Panels are available from TJ Motorsport, retro power, or Dr Manta they have a good selection but are based in Europe.

Also Aly Mac on the kadett C forum makes regular trips to Europe on panel runs. And very occasionally bits come up on eBay like the two wings I just won!

Small update

I collected some front wings last week for a reasonable price





Then Friday night i actually got some time on the car not before I'd tucked in to the obligatory coffee and biscuits though



not as cold as i was expecting which was nice



Anyway my efforts started here cutting away some more of the O/S sill



To gain access to the strengthening support inside the outer sill and the inner sill which was looking crispy



a slice with the grinder



Then drill the spot welds out. It must have been spot weld day at the kadett factory as there were a few all in one area.



For those that don't know what a spot weld drill looks like this is my favored weapon



With more of the outer sill removed i could see exactly what needed cutting out and replacing





I cleaned some of the grotty areas off with the power file to see how deep the rust went then marked up the area to be cut out.



I took some measurements off of the strengthening support between inner and outer sill before removing it to gain access to the inner sill



began to clean off the inner sill



before measuring and cutting out the rot from the inner sill



more sanding of rust



once the area around the cut away section of inner sill was rust free i could make up the repair section



it fits as so



Happy with the fit i brushed on some rust killer behind the repair section then tacked it in place





And welded it home



once it had cooled i cleaned off the welds



and brushed on some more rust killer



Previously i had noticed another classic (sh!t) repair in the rear o/s wheel arch



so while I was tidying up i took a closer look



Hhhmm i wonder what lies in wait for me once I've ground all the curse word off that



This is how i left the old girl



I've now ordered an O/S sill, and an A pillar as well as a pair of headlight surround repair panels so i should have what i need to finish the O/S now ;D

Hopefully i should get a reasonable chunk of time on the car next weekend fingers crossed.

James

Excellent work, and a perfect example of how to break a job down into smaller sections