Rust Repairs

Although the body looked pretty good on this South Island car, there was a bit of rust showing on the front panel (an older repair), front guard lower edges, LH sill, LH door corners and rear wheel-arches.

Left front Sill

I started with this because it was an obvious WoF issue, being the only structural rust I could see so far.

It didn't look too bad.

But the chipping hammer never lies and soon I could see that the front 300mm of the sill was badly perforated on the outer & lower faces.  The inside face had a thick layer of underseal and looked okay from under the car.

Started out by cutting out the rusty areas and drilling the spot-welds on the lower seam.  Watch out for that (factory) plastic fuel line clipped inside the sill!

But drilling the spots turned out to be a waste of time  You can see where I stuck a screwdriver through from the inside, which means part of the inner side, the seam and the bottom & outer will need replacing.

Front Panel & Guards

The bottom of the LF guard was likewise rusted and, although this could have just been treated and left as is for the WoF check, I reckoned the sill rust would probably extend forward of the sill behind the guard.

Uh-oh. Nasty.  This is behind the LF guard.

A note here that sill/lower guard rust is almost always more extensive on the left side than the right.  This is because of the camber of the road and the fact we drive on the left in NZ - so most of the silt, leaves, water and crap ends up sitting on the low - left - side due to gravity.   Most of the right side is virginal on this Zodi.





The front guards came off reasonably easily, although some of the mounting screws & studs broke off due to rust.

I do my best to save these studs/screws (CRC, easy does it, sometimes heat)

 because replacing them is a PITA

The LF guard had been welded to the front panel - probably when the old "repair" was done below the L headlight

So I had to resort to the cutting disc.  Front panel looks real ugly in this shot - it is double-skinned and so a prime breeding ground for the dreaded oxidization process.

This is the LF guard.  You can see it needs a big patch to the outer skin, but the inner stiffening is okay.  I'll need to unpick the fold and separate the sections slightly to do the patch. The RF guard is much better, but will still need a patch.

The front panel has rust in the inner & outer skins both sides, and the lower part has been pushed in by some sort of collision.  This is a very important area because it is where all the air is taken in to cool the radiator, so I will be getting this back in shape and making sure of maximum airflow.






Well, I guess that's enough to be getting on with.  I'll post pictures of the repairs through the coming months (i.e. when I get 'round to it).  Comments or tips welcomed.