1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

Oh it was all about cost cutting on this particular example. I'm not sure how the other 2 doors dealt with it, but certainly on this Austin it was a case of doing the barest possible they could. I'm surprised they didn't just glue matching vinyl to the back of the wing and left it all open.

Bumper shelf is, I think, spot welded in place to the outside of the face/valance. I don't think it's a sandwich construction like the wing trim seam but that wouldn't surprise me. I imagine they went with whatever method rusted best.

I reckon you could easily hide the indicators behind the grille so they're visibly separate from the headlights. Something to consider, certainly given the propensity for the sidelight units to rot out and rot the wing out around them.

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Today I was going to have a go at finishing that wing. Thing is, it's all fiddly stuff and I wanted to do something simpler and bigger today. Fortunately, the floor moves independently of the car so that's a big simple job to put right. Probably. First job, knock out as much rust as you can.
20170715-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Also discover the extent of the fibreglass inside the car. This lump was nearly as big as my hand.
20170715-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I won't be doing the front floor today as my panel hasn't arrived yet, it's in transit still. The bashing of the sill did knock off even more of the floor pan.
20170715-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

This is what I'm left with after all that. At the back corner there is a substantial patch repair, the rot has been cut out in the floor and it is fitted fairly well but fibreglass was used as a seam sealer instead of, you know, seam sealer. Perhaps it's just a really old repair, seam sealer wasn't always so readily known as a repair thing. Regardless, that repair at the back is *really* solid so I've left it alone. I checked out the other floor and sill repairs and those too are done quite well with the rot cut out before the panels were added, they just need some finishing work really.
20170715-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170715-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Next job is to clean back the edges and see just how far the rot goes. Surprisingly, the rot creep wasn't actually as extensive as feared. I need to get in at the corner and clean up that repair and do a bit more work on the inner sill piece just to finish it all off.
20170715-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170715-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Scary bit next. Angle grinder time!
20170715-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Yikes. That's a BIG hole. I only just had enough spare steel to make a patch for that after moving my cardboard template around on it a few times to be sure.
20170715-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170715-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

After some more cleaning and tidying of edges I could set to on the welding. I'm overlap welding this rather than butt welding. It's not going to be a pretty repair but it will be strong and weather proof once its done. Originality is not important. The welding went quite well, access was easy and apart from a couple of awkard poses required because of how small the car is, it didn't give me any real problems. This is part way through the welding, I just got on with it rather than taking pictures at every stage.
20170715-11 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I was also sure to check for penetration of the welds from the other side and make sure I wasn't damaging the wiring loom that runs through this sill. As I understand it there should be a closing panel between the outer sill and the point the inner sill meets the floor. It's missing completely on both sides. The intermediate sill isn't too bad, there's a couple of points that could do with patches, but nothing more than 2" or so square.
20170715-12 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Welding completed and dressed back I seam sealered it all... then remembered I needed to make a new seat rest strengthener plate since the old one was quite crusty. It's fun welding in the same area as fresh seam sealer, you get lots of pretty flames and noxious smoke. I also noticed after putting everything away today that I missed one puddle weld, I'll catch that when I do the next round of welding.
20170715-13 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170715-14 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

There's more welding to do on the floors and inner sills, but it's only small pieces now. The welding I did today has returned the strength to the floor so it doesn't flex alarmingly now. I'm really pleased I got this dealt with so quickly. The other things I was doing today was a little interior work. Here's a picture of the bottom of the driver's seat, if anyone has the missing bits, please do shout up as I'd like to be able to adjust the seat without unbolting it each time.
20170715-15 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I got the contact adhesive out for the repairs to the rear door cards. To make sure everything stuck really well, I stacked some old brake discs on them. Then put them back in the car along with the seats. All this will come out again when I finish the floor welding but I can't do any of that until the new panels arrive so I'll move on to the boot floor next probably and just keep everything in its place in the meantime so I don't lose any of it.
20170715-16 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170715-17 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170715-18 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I didn't set anything on fire (apart from seam sealer) today. I'm practically a professional fabricator at this point

I now have a lot of want for an Austin
The pace you have set for the repairs it will be on the road before you know it.

My old man had one when I was about 11 (Years ago) which he had to always leave in gear cos his house was on a hill and the Austin had no handbrake that worked.

Glad you have rescued this one and I have bookmarked it

Sat having my lunch after having just received the body panels I'd bought and the new throttle cable. I won't get any welding work in today but I should get some underseal removal done and some other little non-essential jobs sorted to save me time later.

Underseal removal COMPLETE
20170718-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Ended up using a heat gun after trying the usual methods and, once you got the temperature just right, it scraped off like cake batter which was quite satisfying. I chopped what was left of the old trumpet off and set it aside, just in case. I couldn't find my spotweld cutter, that's something I'll be using to unstitch the panel for the inner wing repairs. Found a bit of hidden grot in the three layers of bulkhead, inner wing and trumpet.
20170718-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Also found the reason for the A pillar rot is down to a small hole on the inner wing the other side. The tender bit at the bottom of the inner arch holed too. Neither of these items are bad, and very easy to repair since access is so good.
20170718-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Was a messy job. I'll probably be fitting new discs and pads when the welding is done, the ones that are on are servicable but it wouldn't hurt to change them. Tested the brake lights today and they don't work, this could be a stuck switch or just the fact the braking system is incomplete and has no fluid in it. I've not looked into what kind of brake switch is fitted, if it's a pressure operated one there's definitely not enough pressure in the system to operate it.
20170718-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

After lots and lots of wire wheel and flap wheel action cleaning off crusty deposits and paint remnants, I had the panel ready enough for welding. Gave it all a unifying coat of zinc primer so the problem areas are easier to see. You'll also note the remnants of the old wing have been removed, I just have a few spot welds to cut through to release the old wing flanges before I can fit the new one. I'll be removing the wing stay to repair it, there's only a little rust damage and it's not a difficult job so it makes sense to clean that up and reuse it rather than buying a new one.
20170718-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

This is the worst of the subframe mounts. It looks quite scary at first but the construction of this area is fairly simple. I'll unpick the layers and replace the steel and when this is secure and the subframe bolted back on to it I'll move on to the other subframe mounts. That way I shouldn't have to drop the subframe if I'm careful.
20170718-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Had a bit of a fiddle with the controls in the car and the indicator relay woke up! I've got indicators on one side only at the moment, the other side is still having a nap.
20170718-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

The last thing was trying out one of the 13" slot mags in the unit. They look SO GOOD. Unfortunately they're the wrong PCD so we'll stick to the steels and chrome hubcaps. I'm planning to repaint the steels cream which should look nicer against the purple and chrome. I'm not a fan of silver wheels.
20170718-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

i always find this sort of repair the most satisfying, chop it all out weld new metal in a bit of paint and sealer and job done, no messing around grinding back, planishing, prepping and painting.

keep the good work up.

I've been reading your threads since the time of the Polo. It's amazing to see the casual way you now talk about the business (read dark art) of welding compared to just a few years ago and the way you have attacked this with gusto rather than giving it a wash wishing you had the skills to tackle the harder stuff. Can't wait to see this roadworthy- keep at it!

great progress

while thicker steel is undeniably stronger than thinner steel, when you join said dissimilar guages together with weld, in an environment that is continually stressed, you will find it will defer energy to the weaker steel and fracture down beside the line the weld.

Not really, no. All welds crack along the edge of the weld line first as it's the weakest point. I would however add extra metal at the bottom of your repair as its not very strong as you have it currently.

Not wanting to be disrespectful of your welding but as that particular part is structural I would recommend getting someone who is more competant to check it/ re weld it where required as it does not look the best bit of welding to be honest. Sorry to be a bit negative but some things need doing 'right' rather than 'ok' - hope you take this as intended and not as critcism.