So depressing day today. Lots of work will need to be redone, because I didn't take enough measurements along the way when reassembling. Here's the low down. Cut the repair panel out of the sheet. Very little fine tuning needed to get it to fit. Welded that in... Realised that I hadn't ground down the... Continue Reading →

So the last few weeks were spent repairing the replacement boot floor panel. There were several bits like this from where the breakers had extracted it from the donor shell with a big Skil saw. There was some need for repairs on the edge flange, but other than that it was in good shape, just... Continue Reading →

After about 10 treatments with Jenolite rust remover and a lot of work with various wire wheel attachments the boot floor cross member was primed up last weekend: I've also finished repairing the main repair panel for the off-side inner rear arch. It'll get cut up to fit down the line but it's been easier... Continue Reading →

Visited the timber yard and picked up a 300mm length of hardwood sill to used as a form. Routed it out and started working it with a hammer and dolly. Little bit of of tidying up and it's looking pretty close. Chopped the exhaust hanger off, cleaned it up and transferred it across. Primed up... Continue Reading →

Prepped the cross member end piece for the near-side and the chassis and tacked that in. I took the rear seatbelt anchor point brackets off the back of the rear seat hollow. They won't be needed in the final build and they're just a rust trap. Just in case I welded covers over the original mounting... Continue Reading →

Drilled and cleco pinned the cross member and end plates to get ready for fitting. Cut and after lots of measuring and aligning, tacked in the off side cross member end plate. The nearside is going to be much more difficult. The rot on the nearside is pretty remarkable. I have never seen rust jacking... Continue Reading →

Did a bit of CAD and then transferred to Zintec to cut out the repair panel: Used the same hardwood form and metal rods to press in the dimple: Came out okay, it'll need a bit of chopping down to get it to fit but the length is right: Also repaired the corresponding end of... Continue Reading →

The replacement boot floor cross member has cleaned up pretty well, but the end plates that are welded into the sides of the chassis were pretty bad. After several coats of Jenolite Rust Remover, cleaning back with a wire wheel and reviewing, I'm writing off both sides as too far gone. Other parts of the... Continue Reading →

Slowly working on putting repairs back in. The arch vents here were cleaned out and treated with Jenolite rust remover and primed up on both sides. Working on the drivers side at the moment because this is the better side. I have to keep reminding myself of that. Towards the front of the arch there... Continue Reading →

So the original boot floor in the Rallye is out. It looked like it had a load of bricks chucked in it at some point in the past and then was driven over a section of Belgian Roubaix at pace. It was a mess of dented and distorted metal to look at every time you... Continue Reading →

After a bit of searching I tracked down a pair of the boot floor reinforcement spars that some good soul has reproduced to a good quality. That'll save a chunk of time so well worth getting them. Took the car outside and with the rear bumper off, started to clean up the inner rear arches... Continue Reading →

Drilled the spot welds on these brackets out the back of the Rallye. A good chance to admire the quality of the paint and having sanded it to realise that the interior was painted white at some point in the past. Looking forward to sanding this handprinted mess off and getting the interior smooth again.... Continue Reading →