1986 Rover SD1 3500SE Police Car

Nice repairs

Thanks, it feels good to actually do some constructive work to this thing, as ive had it over a year and really done nothing other than strip it down!

Found another hole in the bulkhead, so welded that up.





Then i got busy with the drill and paint removed scratchy pad thing and got any remaining light surface rust off. Had a good look inside with the torch and its in remarkably good order considering the the condition of the panel above. Its actually better than on the drift car.







Then i treated pretty much all of it with rust killer. I'm using bilt-hamber hydrate 80 which is meant to be pretty good, we'll find out if it is.

Started making a roll over spit rotisserie thing. Ive seen lots of photos online and a few plans available to download, but i got bored researching. So armed with a rough scribble of what i wanted i went to my local fabrication engineers and just bought what looked like the right size stuff and had it cut to roughly the right lengths.

I bought the swivel casters second hand off ebay. They are each rated at 150kg running load, so 8 together = 1200kg! So plenty strong enough.



I collected the steel this morning and tacked some of it together. Then once id worked out where i needed various hole drilled, i marked and centre popped them and took them back to the fab shop for them to drill the holes as i don't have a big enough drill.










So last thing today i welded it up. I happy so far. Obviously it may need further bracing and i still need to attach it to the car, but its gone pretty well so far.



I know how I'm fixing it to the front. I'm using the original jacking points which are welded to the chassis rails. I had a surplus of old Rover jacks so i cut off the solid square bar that slides into the jacking point and drilled a hole through them so i can fix it in place.



Ummmm crusty!



Once finished i can rotate the car 360 degrees and have it fixed at horizontal, vertical, and 45 degrees each way and either way up if that makes sense.

Scuttle repair looks very tidy

Thanks chaps, might be while till its finished, but I'm going for 'proper job' rather than speedy restoration!

Ive braced up my cross beams for the spit

Rear



Front



I also modified my trolley frames. I moved the cross piece more between the wheels to distribute the weight and keep them more stable. Now ive done this i don't need to run a bar to join the front and rear trolleys (i hope).

So with that done i bit the bullet and stuck the car on the frame compete with all 4 doors and front and rear subframes. I was pretty nervous, but it went smoothly. I left the doors on so i could see if the shell bent. Couldnt see any movement and all door gaps stayed the same, the only flex was it the rear mounts and a bit in the front cross beam which considering the extra weight of axles and doors is pretty encouraging.



So i dropped the subframes.



Look!!!!! It turns, and it hasnt fallen over! I could only go to 45deg so far as i need to raise the car up a bit and the means getting the engine crane out.



A glimpse at the underside.



Took the doors off and pushed it up against the wall so that i could get the drift car back in the garage. The caster wheels are excellent. Hardly even need to push when moving the car, and when i let go it keeps rolling! The car turns pretty easily too. I was doing it with 1 hand. Cant wait to flip it fully.

Good work, the spit looks fantastic, I'm sure you will miss the rust and general curse word getting in your eyes and mouth!

OK, first a warning. This post is rather pic heavy as i got carried away taking photos of various rusty bits and shiny metal. But i like looking back on the stuff ive done. It helps motivate me when i run out of enthusiam!

After trying to work out a sensible order in which to tackle things, i decided to just get stuck in with the passenger footwell. I exposed all the crustyness and then got to work cutting. I peeled up the outer wing and removed some of the inner wing for better access. Ill repair the inner sill and inner wing later when i do the sills.

Footwell



From underneath



Rust gone



Patch 1



Welded



Patch 2 made with a 90 deg return





Welded



View from underneath



Now for the crusty seam. There was rust starting to blow the seam apart so i cut it all out. Then i remade it in two pieces. It took a while to get the gentle bend in the top panel but i did it eventually with the metal folder, vice, and an old wood chisel.

Rusty areas being cut out



Welding in a patch



Putting the shaped piece in ontop, then plug welding through then all primered





From underneath



Next i found a nice crusty scab in the seam where the front inner wing meets the chassis rail. So i hacked that out.



The chassis rail is thicker steel, approx 1.5mm thick. So thats what i used to make my first patch.





Being thicker steel i could actually do some proper seam welding



Then put a 1mm steel over the top and spot welded through, cleaned up and primered.



Swung the car over and started on the other side. Its slightly worse here, but thankfully the rust hadnt got up to the inner wing seam. So i did it exactly the same as the first side.









I moved onto the drivers footwell. The seam here had held up much better and only required attention an area 1" long. Again i did it in two patches and plug welded through. Here the first patch is in and I'm holding the second



Welded




I started cutting out the drivers footwell floor, but realised that the chassis stiffner outrigger thing (not sure what you call it) is a bit bent, so ive cut that out too. Ill then repair that, weld in a new floor patch and then weld the stiffner back on to nice clean metal.





And here is just a nice photo of some rust under the front that I'm trying to ignore!

Ive learnt alot from reading Tony's posts so yeah its great feedback!

Made a patch for the footwell with the 90 degree flange for the inner sill. Welded that in with plugwelds onto the chassis rail. The small stiffner had taken quite a bash and was bent, so I straightened it as much as possible. I then decided to cut one particularly bent part out and replace it with new 2mm steel sheet. Then I drilled holes in my newly welded floor pan and welded the stiffner back on. Lots of zinc again.















Then I moved onto the rear passenger floor where it meets the heelboard. There are also two reinforced brackets which hold the front edge of the fuel tank to the underside of the car. The seam here between the floor and heelboard had blown apart with rust. I had hope to save this but it was a bit crusty, so I cut the whole flange off and then remade it.

Rusty area



All cut out



New flange for the heel board welded on at 90 degrees



Some faffing about making a new patch and then welded on



All done






Then on to the driver side. This was much rustier and the flange had blown apart, then started rusting up the heel board. This was a bit of a problem as the heel board has some groves in it. I was gonna put a flat plate in here, but I thought id have a go at replicating the groves first. My initial attempt of making the patch then hammering in the groves failed, as I hadnt appreciated how much the metal would pull in at the top when I hammered in the depressions. So I ended up making two groves in separate pieces of metal then welding them together, then finally I could cut it to size and fold up the flanges.





Took my time joining the two so it didnt distort. I hate doing invisible repairs as I worry I'm going to sand all the strength away. So I welded both sides and was careful grinding it flat.

Checked the groves spacing before I then trimmed it to fit and put the flange bends in



Didnt go too silly cleaning it up so it stayed strong

Very thorough repairs, and excellent attention to detail, the car will be good as new once your done