At last I have some pictures of my daughters car for you all to see, hopefully these will be in before/after sequence. *crosses fingers*

When we first went to look at the car....note the droopy bumpers! lol


...broken light




...bit of rust on rear passenger window sill



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At that stage, it had a lovely musty smell and rumbling rear passenger wheel bearing. Took it for a bit of a drive and liked the way it stuck to the road.

Finally got it home and the rust removal/repairs started in earnest....

Rear sill at the top - under raised hatch...I had to remove the entire section.





More to come...

This was more cancerous than it looks (isn't it always?) the rust had eaten all the way through the pillar on driver and passenger sides, only have a before of drivers side though...

Looks much better! Did you cut out the offending metal and weld in some new? Make sure you spray some protective wax in the pillars in case there's any exposed metal on the inside after welding

There was more rust on the passenger wing, rear, to the left of number plate, drivers wing and a few other places, but I didn't get any pics of those, just got stuck into it and fixed them. (easiest first, because I've never done any of this sort of stuff before) If you take notice of the patches of primer on the following pics, you can see where the rust used to be.

Here's a couple of pics, taken today, after it's first real wash and polish. I'm quite pleased with the (nearly) finished project.





We still have a few bits and pieces to tidy up to get it's roadworthy, but it's well on the way....then a respray.

MJ wrote:Looks much better! Did you cut out the offending metal and weld in some new? Make sure you spray some protective wax in the pillars in case there's any exposed metal on the inside after welding

I haven't learned to weld...yet , so rust was ground out, painted with rust converter (some sort of acid, that stops it in it's tracks), then repaired with a mixture stainless steel mesh, fibreglass and body filler.

Ah right. Just be careful with how much metal is removed from around the windscreen as that's a structural area.

Yep, I was very careful to only remove what was necessary, the A frame parts had holes that I could put my index finger through, so didn't have to remove whole sections in those places. I only removed the whole section of sill at the rear, under the raised hatch (in between my fingers in the finished pic) so around 7 or 8 inches of sill was removed.

Looking good! IMHO you got the best-looking standard-spec 300s down in Aus - Mk2 GLTs with Leo rims - fantastic!

Have you got round to doing the rear window sill? I've got problems there on both my cars

Tom

Figgy - lovely car, and impressive cosmetic work you're doing to it.

But - and I hate to be a downer after all your hard work - these two quotes just don't add up:

Figgy wrote:the rust had eaten all the way through the pillar on driver and passenger sides

Figgy wrote:I haven't learned to weld...yet , so rust was ground out, painted with rust converter (some sort of acid, that stops it in it's tracks), then repaired with a mixture stainless steel mesh, fibreglass and body filler.

If it's your car, and you're prepared for the consequences when (in a worst case scenario) your A pillars crumples like tissue paper in an accident - then that's your choice... But you're 16 year old daughter? I wouldn't let any kid of mine go any where near it in that state.

You have to realise what those A pillars are designed to do. They're to maintain the integrity of the passenger compartment, to stop the roof caving in on your head if the car rolls, or stop the whole top of the car being scraped off if you run into the back of a van or even a roo.

It needs welding properly, by someone who knows what they're doing.

I agree with Ronnie. I learned it the hard way. Even though my car was built in 2000 and no welds or rust it was a write off. So get those pillars welded properly if the day comes when the strength is needed you have bigger chance to survive it.

And little reminder...
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii20 ... uva012.jpg

couldn't agree more with the above I'm afraid, those points can be quite weak in a crash anyway but I wouldn't want to drive a car that I knew had a serious structural flaw... best to get it welded by a decent welder (preferably someone who welds safety cages or has a good background in car chassis work)

Thanks for the comments guys...I know you're all concerned about the safety of the pillars now, I need to clarify my comments some more to set (hopefully) you at ease.

The rust in the A frames was spotty/holey, a couple of holes - on each side - were enough to poke a finger through, once ground out, the surounding metal was in very good condition.

EDIT: The penny finally drops! I've just re-read all of the topic and will clarify further....the rust was on the outside skin of the pillar only, not all the way through both layers. The inside/underneath is in excellent condition....(could poke a finger through the top/outside, into the cavity, but not all the way through both layers and out the other side).



Tom I have done the rear sill, under the raised hatch, I will try to take a better picture to show you later on today and will add it in here when I have.

Imagine this you have two pieces of tube or something similar. They are same length only difference is other has hole on one side (It doesn't really matter what size it is but bigger hole shows results faster). And if you start bending them (tubes fixed ie. to a vice exatcly same way right at the end of tube) with same pulling power. Which you think starts to bend first and where.

It's not irredeemable. Obviously the screen has to come out. All the rot cut out with an angle grinder. New metal let in, smoothed, painted, screen and trim put back - probably about £500 sterling, whatever that is in aussie dollars.

You can save money by doing the preparation and the finishing yourself. But leave the cut and paste to someone who is a good automotive welder. It needs to be as strong as new or there's no point doing it.