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

coming on a treat norman

OK here we go with today’s work. I didn’t spend long in the garage today. The first areas to be tackled are the rear of the inner sill to floor and wheel tub. I had to make one of the repair panels out if two pieces due to the complex shape. The plug weld holes will be done later when i repair the door step. The other side was straight forward, the welding isn’t pretty but will be fine when cleaned up. Here are a few pics showing the areas and repair panels.

















This area will be tackled when i can summon the strength to fit the door.


The next area to tackle is the rear screen pillars, this is the worst side. I started to clean up the area to see what was required, it’s been “repaired” before. Yes low temperature welding, cardboard and body filler. The cardboard funnily enough was from an air sander box. The construction of this area is totally stupid, two layers of metal tapering to a 1mm gap at the bottom with nowhere for any moisture to escape until it has rotted a hole in the base. Anyway i cut a couple of pockets and treated the sound metal with hydrate 80. The other metal will be replaced. I also welded up a couple of holes which I had to chase a bit! Here are some pics of the mess.














That’s it for the weekend, I don’t think I will do anything tomorrow. I will need to order gas on Monday as the needle is hardly lifting now. I don’t want to run the bottle till it doesn’t deliver as that will leave me stuffed!
I need to have a grinding marathon inside the shell, clean it up and apply primer, that should cheer me up. As always feel free to comment or offer advice etc, all the best for now, Norman

Good work Norman. Lesser men (me) would have walked away a long time ago.

Grinding really is a pain in the . But you’ve got this 👍🏻

It’s probably better not to see all of the grot at the same time!

Getting there now

I only had a couple of hours in the garage today. I opened up the hole in the screen pillar a bit more to get back to better metal. I cleaned up the area as well as i could, applied hydrate 80 and applied weld through primer then etch primer. I had to make a couple of repair panels. On the window edge i filled a couple of pin holes but i have another which won’t patch and have decided to cut the metal back, it’s really too thin to weld. Here are a few pictures to get the general idea.




















You may recall i said this was the worst side well it’s not. I was looking at the other side for reference and it’s a whole lot worse! I know what to do now so hopefully the other side won’t take as long to do. Who am i kidding, we shall see.
I should be able to get a decent amount of time in the garage tomorrow so hope to make decent progress. Please feel free to comment etc, all the best, Norman

Here is todays progress, i made up repair plates for the rusted sections. I cleaned up the rusted areas and treated them with hydrate 80. It took a LOT longer than I expected to complete. Here are some pics of the work.














OK, now onto the other side, i have cut the screen pillar open and removed the rusty sections. I have cleaned up the rust as well as i could and applied hydrate 80. Some of this side is worse, some of it better than the other side. Anyhow here are a couple of pics as to where we are. I will need to make up repair sections, I don’t know when i will get back to the car as i have other stuff to do this week.







So that’s it for now, another day in the continuing saga! Please feel free to comment etc. I am starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel so don’t switch the light off. All the best, Norman

That looks very impressive, almost invisible repair!

OK back to the other screen pillar. I cut the rust out and treated everywhere i could get into with hydrate 80. I made some repair panels and fitted those. There was a really rusty part inside the bottom of the of the screen surround. I decided to cut a pocket in the inside of the car and tackle it from there. I would have had to cut a lot of the wing outer to do it from the outside. Here are a few pics to show the method. Probably makes more sense than my ramblings.
































I didn’t try to tidy the welds inside the skin as you can’t see them. I also ran out of powerfile belts. On the other side i had to repair this area of the pillar, the other side needs the same work. I may get it done tomorrow.


So that’s it for now, many thanks for the encouragement etc. You may recall i was going to order gas last Monday, well i decided to use the bottle till it died! I am still using it, there must be a fair bit of gas in the bottle even when the contents gauge says zero! All the best for now, Norman

Hi Norman, great work as always. Those pillar repairs are spot on. Plus, with the car at that angle, it's clear to see just how well those wheel tubs went in. Top work all round I'd say 👍. Regards Dan.