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

That is looking good and you do not see it. I sometimes use a piece of 20mm plywood and make a hole in it and then hammer the metal to a swag hole- Important is that you have a heavy bench to do or do it on a thick concrete floor.
Amazing amount of work on that car! Keep up the good work!
Peter

Here is the work from the last few days, can’t believe it has taken so long. I made the strengthener for the other sill and repaired some bits that needed sorting.








I treated the area with hydrate 80 and will paint it with etch primer.
Now I went to trial fit the sill, it’s a pattern sill which neither fits or anywhere near it. The fit is so bad you wouldn’t think it’s for this car. I did manage to kind off fit it but it doesn’t look right. Tomorrow I will refit the doors and see what’s going on. I am not looking forward to that as they are heavy, they still have the glass in and probably a big tin of filler also. Here are a couple more pictures.








That’s all for now, I will report tomorrow with any further progress. Please feel free to comment or offer any advice. Norman

Here is the latest instalment, forgot to take pics but anyway i finally managed to get one of the sills on. I pulled, pushed, hammered, swore, stared at It trying to work out how i could achieve a reasonable fit. I finally managed a reasonable fit that i was happy with. The bottoms of the door are bulged with rust and filler which i will take care of later.








That’s all the pics i took today, i had a few problems along the way. I was spraying what i thought was etch primer but it looked a bit silvery. I had lifted the wrong can, it was wheel silver and not etch primer. One other problem i had was when i had fitted two doors to one side of the car, it shifted the balance of the shell and I couldn’t turn it over. I called on my long suffering wife to help me. We managed between us although I wasn’t happy how it was sitting. I jammed a workmate under one side to help support the shell. When i had the sill fitted i removed the doors which gave me better mobility. There is an even gap between the bottoms of the doors and the sill although it doesn’t look like it. I still need to work out how the ends of the sill go. Unfortunately when i got the car the inner sill, strengthener and most of the outer sill was missing. There is a million spot welds as you can see keeping it all together.
That’s it for today, please feel free to comment good or bad. Thanks for looking and for the encouragement. All the best, Norman.

OK here’s what has gone on today, I finished the off side sill by bringing the outer, strengthener and inner sill together. I spot welded the outer to the strengthener and the inner to the strengthener. It looks ok and is strong. I may weld the three flanges together as a belt and braces job. I have started the near side sill now and have treated the inside with hydrate 80. I have trimmed the inner sill to fit better, spot and stitch welded it into place. I have applied seam sealer to the welds and edges. Tomorrow i hope to fit the doors on the near side and fit the strengthener and outer sill and try for a decent fit. We will see how that goes!
Here are the pics from today, please feel free to comment/criticise, i can take it.

To change the subject we have been self isolating for 8 weeks now and haven’t left the house as i am in the at risk group. I am self employed and haven’t been working during this period. I took the decision the other day to retire which will give me more time to play in the garage. I reallyhope to have ALL the structural welding done soon

Yes, congratulations on your retirement. 👍

some bit of reconstructing like it

Well at last i have both sills on, inner, outer and strengthener. I still have a few odds and ends to weld on the floor and sill ends.








My youngest son paid a visit with my youngest grandson at the weekend. Social distancing was maintained as much as possible. My grandson saw the garage open when he arrived and he was straight in there playing with tools. He asked why i had colouring pens and i said it was to mark metal. He spotted a scratch on the paint and set about with a pen to fill it in. He said i should paint the green bits blue and paint the white bits white again!! I said we could pretend it’s a rally car and you can write your name on the side. He wrote his name on it and then drew a man with a helmet and put him in a car. He is only 51/2 so if you can’t read his name it’s Murray. Now the trick is not to let him draw on it when it’s done.


The next task is to tackle the rear chassis legs which are covered in body filler and underseal. Oh the joys of diy repairs. I fear i will need to chop a lot out before i can see what’s going on.
Please feel free to comment. All the best, Norman

So... When's the roll cage going in, then?

I can relate to trying to find the spot welds. It’s almost impossible on my Austin. And completely randomly placed. I just end up using a old chisel and a hammer. And carefully go along the seems finding them, and then try and drill them out.