SWU - Matt's 1976 Sprint Auto

[Matt Cotton]

Hello all.
I have recently purchased SWU - a 1976 Sprint Auto from fellow Oxforshire club member and friend Mark Creed.

The car has been in club ownership for sometime - Mark purchased it 6 years or so ago from Andy Gee, who had completed a light restoration of the car. Mark has had really good service from it and it has been well maintained, but the all year round use has taken its toll on the bodywork in places.

I've been hankering for a project for a while - mainly due to the inspirational resto's and excellent threads from James Sheppard! - but time, ££ and space to store another car have always prevented this- I didn't want OPD - my 1500HL of 17 years to be left outside to deteriorate... So I took leave of my senses and decided to take it on!
I have since found a secure garage for OPD, so SWU is now in my garage and work is underway.



Initial inspections carried out didn't really reveal any horrors - nothing that wasn't obvious from Mark's appraisal of the car. The front end is still quite good, aside from one or two repairs required to the inner front wings. The headlight panels are also good, although have been repaired in the past and don't look original - I will ponder this and leave as is for now.
The chassis legs were replaced in 2012 and are still sound - so that is a positive, and the floors seem all sound.
Doors are all fine as is the interior and I think mechanically sound - Mark was using it regularly up until sale.

My main focus are the sills and the rear end. The back end of the sills are rotten - inner and outer but the reinforcer looks salvagable from what I can see. The arches especially the lower areas are also bad along with the corners of the boot floor - although in general the boot is sound.

So - an evening jaunt up to Stourbridge to see our good friend Alan resulted in all the panels I require and I have kept a set of arch repair panels in my loft for many years, so these will also be fitted.

The sills are going to be professionally replaced, but I have been busy cutting out the grot from the arches and floor and will weld these myself. I have already made good progress so will update soon.


Regards
Matt.

[Matt Cotton]

So, having obtained the panels from Alun, I decided to make a start with the rear of the car, the o/s being the worst affected. Although I can MIG weld, I haven't really used it in anger over the years. Starting with the boot floor I figured would be a sensible place to start as although the welding needs to be strong, it doesn't need to be too pretty and I could gain a bit of confidence first.

I cut out all the rotten areas first along with some previous patches that had been let in.


The extent of the rot didn't really warrant full use of the excellent club repair panel, so I trimmed the panel to fit the area, with a slight overlap joint - not the best I know, but easier for me. I will make sure the repair is fully seam sealed after welding.

At this point, while trial fitting the panel, I couldn't work out the exact position of the repair panel in relation to where it is spot welded to the lower wing. Knowing the panel quality and fit to be excellent, I didn't want to fit it to find that the panels didn't marry up. To add to the problem, the lower rear wing is also very rusty, infact the lower seam is non existent - so I couldn't use this as any kind of guide.
So I parked the boot corner repair, and concentrated on the lower wing repair and that of the rear wheelarch too.

In general the outer wing is reasonable and I am sure this hasn't been previously repaired - there is no evidence of any repair sections being 'let in' before. I cut the rotten areas out along the lip, trying to retain as much of the original metal as possible. The leading edge of the wing above the sill had rusted out completely.
Removal of the outer section revealed, unsurprisingly, not much left in terms of the inner arch lip (aside from a lump of P38). I ground out the rot and will need to make some repair sections before the outer wheelarch panel is fitted - I have kept a set in the loft for many years.
I then moved onto the lower wing panel. Again, wanting to retain as much of the original steel as possible, I cut down the club panel to fit. At somepoint the car has been fitted with new bumper corners, however the fitment is not in the same place as the original and new holes have been made. I will fit originals back on, so decided to cut just above the bumper mounting holes so as i could use the mounting bracket to help align the new panel. I have joddled the edge of the original panel to overlap the new panel to try and prevent too much distortion.









Trial fitting the lower wing panel, along with the wheelarch repair and boot floor panel with clamps and self-tappers revealed the exact position of the boot floor repair panel - I needn't have questioned it, but I am glad I held off welding it until this point.



Then out came the MIG....more to follow...

[Reg]

Fab progress Matt.. Looking forward to lots of pics Sir, we all love resto progress pics!

Thanks for the update report..that really is a lovely colour.

[dollyman]

Ditto above, great work so far

Tony.

[tangocharlie1]

Good Luck Matt

[Matt Cotton]

Thanks for the encouragement gents! I will keep you posted with my progress!

MC

[RSi]

Keep the photo's coming, great to follow it

[Matt Cotton]

So, having trial fitted the lower wing panel and boot corner repair panel I was ready to start welding. I have a Clarke 151TE welder, which hasn't really seen much action in the years I have had it - so I'm pleased to be able to test it out!

First off, I tack welded the boot repair panel in place..



I then 'joined the dots' and seam welded the rest in place. This was quite straightforward - welding nice new metal to good original metal in the boot floor.

I drilled 7.5mm holes in the bottom of the lower wing (where it attaches the boot floor) and as above, tack welded the upper panel to the joddled original and then spot welded the lower to the boot floor.





After grinding down the welds in the boot and the rear wing with a flap disc on a grinder, I was pleased with the results. The wing will require filling along the joddled edge, but for now the wing is painted with Epoxy 421 anti-corrosion primer - lovely to apply. Unlike other primers it isn't porous, so is fine for long term application before paint it applied.



I then went back to the boot area and using my skills in CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) made up some templates for the patches required towards the rear panel area. Having transferred these to steel, I then welded in place and also made up a few lower sections for the internal stiffener where it is tacked to the lower wing - this area had corroded. These small panels were welded in, butt welded to the original panels where I could - not as easy and I really had to turn down the welder to low settings to try and prevent burning holes. I got there in the end, but patience was required. Again a light grinding with a flap disc cleaned up the welds.



These areas are now all coated in Epoxy 421. I will thoroughly seam seal these areas once I have repaired the N/S - then the sealant won't dry up inbetween times.




While the paint was drying, I decided to take a look under the 'D' post vinyl to see what horrors were lying underneath. From the outside, some bubbling was evident along the top edge of the wing where the chrome strip clips in. Having removed the vinyl, and following a good clean up with a strip disc on a drill, I was pleased that no holes or real nasties are present. I have ground out the grot and applied some Bilt Hamber Deox rust treatment for now. I am glad no further patches are required here and the edge of the roof also seems fine.




Next job on the list is to repair the o/s inner wings before the outer repair panel is fitted. I may not fit this fully until the new sills have been fitted - not sure if some adjustment may be required..one to ponder.

Till next time....

[dollyman]

Dont forget most body fillers are porous as well Matt, unless they have fibreglass in them.
Looking really good so far

Tony.

[Matt Cotton]

Dont forget most body fillers are porous as well Matt, unless they have fibreglass in them.
Looking really good so far

Tony.

Thanks Tony. Yes, good point that about the filler. As it stands I think by the time I've dealt with the grot it will at the least deserve a waist high repaint.. So I may leave the filling in visible areas to a bodyshop... A way off yet though.

[Reg]

using my skills in CAD (Cardboard Aided Design)

Thanks for the update Matt..

[Matt Cotton]

So, the last few weeks -when time has allowed I have been working on the inner o/s rear arch.
The inner lip was pretty much non - existent, save from some filler and a bit of the original, so I cut it all back to good sound metal and started making repair templates and patches.

I didn't think this would be too easy and it has certainly taken quite a few attemps. The horizonal patch was easy enough and just a length bent into an 'L' shape, however the radius edges were more tricky.
Initially, I tried forming them by using a hammer and dolly/anything curved, and this did work to a point, but I wasn't overly happy with the results and replicating a series of patches to match each other was tricky.

Having welded in a couple of patches, I decided to make the next sections in two parts, rather than bashing one piece into shape. I replicated the thin lip first, then the vertical piece incorporating a curve and welded the two parts together... I found this much easier. I temporarily fitted the outer repair panel in place while I did this so as to make sure the two fit together well.





Welding into place was also quite hard. With a head shield on, I struggled to be able to get my head into the arch to see what I was doing. I got there eventually, but I may try and get some welding goggles for this type of activity next time as the full head shield is too large/ my head too big!

The finished result is pretty good and it will spot weld together with the outer panel quite well. There was one area that seems to have lifted a little while I welded (possibly not clamped together tight enough), so I have built that up with weld and ground into the correct shape. There are a few more repairs required towards the end of the cill area, however I will leave these for now until the cills are replaced - these are being done by someone who knows what they are doing!


I finished off by linishing down some of the welds with a flap disc and have given it a coat of Epoxy Mastic paint for now, working it well into the seams. It is quite a thick paint (unthinned) so almost like a seam sealer, however I will go over all the joints with seam sealer in one hit when I have completed the rest of the boot, and the nearside..




Next job is the nearside boot repair.. nice to have a panel here to fit rather than making up small repair sections. We are running out of cereal boxes too!

MC

[new to this]

Matt

Looks like your getting on well,I've got the same repair to do,I bought a inner arch but it doesn't fit,so started making my own not finished yet, as got distracted working on engine

Dave

[xvivalve]

To successfully put a flange on a curve with a single piece of steel, you ideally need a shrinker/stretcher. If you look at the flanges on the boot repair where they go around a bend, you'll see the parallel lines left by such a tool.

[Matt Cotton]

Interestingly I read a thread on Facebook this morning from a chap restoring an mgb. A small patch repair with a radius and flange was made using a M12 bolt. Cutting a slit in the thread of the thickness of the metal and to a depth of the lip or flange enables the bolt to be used to form the flange on the curved metal. This was only a very small repair piece on the rear window frame. Good idea I thought..