1963 Singer Vogue, seeing doors in my sleep!!!

Hi, I am using 1mm stainless discs. I had thought about overlapping and cutting through both layers but didn’t feel confident enough to try it. I have been reading through your thread on the pop, that is quality work. I still have a LOT to read. It looks like a big budget build, i am trying to do mine on a shoe string. I am quite looking forward to applying primer and doing the bodywork. I would feel i am getting near the end. I don’t however have the patience for that level of perfection on the roof, doors etc. All the best, Norman

Today i made the next repair panel and tacked it in. I think when i did the wheel arch i put too much curve in it. This has led to me hammering and pulling it about, i have put a bit of distortion in it which may have been caused by welding. I think i can correct it by cutting a couple of slits in the flange, we shall see. Here are a couple of pics.





Now as you all will know who follow this i jump around from one thing to another. I am looking at the boot floor which i need to clean up prior to priming. Some clown, I assume the previous owner has painted the car with what i can only describe as household gloss paint. It catches fire easily if you are welding near it, goes really black and stinks. I started to strip it today with a hot air gun and paint sploper (don’t ask me what a sploper is but my auto spell likes it) most of it was coming off easily as i suspect no prep was done. The rust hadn’t been removed and had been painted over . It took me a couple of hours to get to this stage. I am not sure how i am going to get to the seat bulkhead as i am stretching which isn’t helping my back much. Once i get the most of the white paint off i will attack it with a polystrip disc and clean/key it ready for primer. Once i have this cleaned up i will attempt to fit the wheel tubs. This will take some jiggery pokery to fit and i will need to make some infill panels. If my back is ok i will get to this in the next day or two. Here are a couple of pics of the progress.





Yes i know, crusty or what! I have also found a few small holes that need filling and some welds that need tidying. I will attend to them in due course.
So that’s it for now, please feel free to comment or offer advice god knows i need it. All the best, Norman

Today i was back at the boot floor, i cleaned up the metal as well as i could. It was a bit of a stretch getting all the way to the back. I had a few holes to fill, one was about a half inch in diameter and it filled no problem. The other was much smaller but i ended up chasing it all over the place. I had a piece of copper behind it to prevent this but i was wasting my time. I got the grinder out and cut a piece out of the floor. However when i started to weld it up the edges of the boot floor were just burning away again. So back out with the grinder and cut a bigger hole, I am getting fed up with this now, anyhow I managed to weld it this time. Here are some pics for your amusement.










You get the picture, i think some of that floor is very thin. Here are a couple of pics with the hydrate 80 applied, you can see in the second picture that some of it is already turning black.





I still have some work to do in the boot corners but i wanted to apply some kind of protection meantime. I think i will try to fit the wheel tubs next, i will probably have to cut more metal out to get them in as they are bigger than the originals. When they are in i will see what’s needed in the boot corners.
On another subject, it was flipping cold in the garage today, about 4 degrees. I certainly felt it and stuck the heater on for a while. The heater also helps with the cure time of the hydrate 80. That’s it for today, more exciting stuff tomorrow ha ha. As usual feel free to comment, all the best, Norman

Wait till you get it in the first coats of primer, it will suddenly make it all worthwhile.

Hi Norman, I absolutely know how feel....and you've certainly done the right thing in walking away from it for today. A few years back while restoring a mk1 fiesta, I did something wrong while welding in a repair patch. Instead of walking away from it, I carried on with anger and made a total mess of it. It was 3 o'clock in the morning when I finally gave in and walked away.

Tomorrow's a new day and you'll be able to take a freash approach. Have you thought about mocking up the whole wheel tub in thick cardboard. That way you'll be able take the cardboard mock up apart, then use it as templates against what you've already fabricated and make the necessary adjustments??

Also a nice method for butt welding in panels.

Congratulate yourself sir for doing the right thing and walking away at the right time. Maybe take a break from it for a few days? When you go back to the car you will have fresh eyes and a clearer perspective.

You’ve been doing a great job of it so far so don’t be too hard on yourself! 👍🏻

I think I would cut off the outer part of the tub and get the tub fitted to the chassis rail or whatever it welds to. I would then sort the outer part of the tub as you’ll see exactly what you need. On my Escort I’ve cut out the outer part of the tub and continued the tub straight out to meat the outer 1/4 panel. This is how most rally cars are done to increase wheel clearance.

You may not want to go that far but with the cut tub in position you can see what you need to make to Get the tube to meet the outer arch lip.

You are doing a bang up job mate - you'll be so pleased with the results... once you get there that is.

Restorations taking 10 plus years well, ahem, speaking on behalf of a friend like it's because we get so hacked off that we take some time off, then life happens, then other shtuff and before you know it a week, a month, a year has gone by... you get back out there aaand repeat - obviously none of this knowledge is based on personal experience you understand.

I admire guys like you that keep plodding on and getting the job done - you are an inspiration to me to get out and work on my stuff....... I mean to my friend to pull his finger out.......