PROJECT VOLVO

 Well, the weather has finally caught up with me and I have run out of time to finish that boot (trunk) floor  and spare wheel well repairs before the winter so I have decided to leave it to the spring (see previous post). I have now turned the car around so as to work on the off side issues, including the side cowl, bulkhead, front floor pan and rear inner sill. I have made a start on the cowl. Another typical amazon rot issue is the side cowl. I think that this is a consequence of all that muck that gets thrown up and trapped behind the front wing, and the notorious leaking windscreen corners. The side cowl is under attack from inside and out.  I had two areas to repair on the offside (having already repaired the nearside some time ago), the  lower quarter, and the join between the cowl, the bulkhead (firewall) and the inner wing.  To begin, I used a heat gun and a scraper to remove as much of the old underseal as I could, finishing off with some panel wipe. I...

I have been working at every opportunity to complete as much of the boot floor repairs as possible whilst I still have some good weather. I am restricted in that my garage isn't that big and to work on the rear of the car, the up and over door needs to be open. I am not sure how far I am going to get with this job before winter really sets in, but I have sorted the rear wheel tub to boot floor repair. Here is a shot of what I started with. I had also found a smallish hole towards the front edge. I cut out the rot up to marked lines using a angle grinder/disc cutter and a hacksaw. We had a bit of a domestic crisis last week when the central heating boiler packed up, just in time for winter! The diagnosis was the control panel and given the age and general condition of the boiler, we decided to replace it. What am I telling you this? Well, it turns out that the old boiler casing is made from 1mm mild steel. That's handy... After fashioning some card templates (I'm finding Shr...

I have finally summoned up the courage to buy a sheet metal shrinker stretcher. This is a tool that I have had my eye on for months, trying to work out if I needed one and if so which brand/model should I go for. Now that I have to try and fabricate some more subtle shapes to repair the likes of the rear wheel tubes and later the windscreen lip, the time seems right. I went for this one from Metz. A sheet metal shrinker stretcher is a specialist tool that allows the fabrication os compound curves and the forming of curved lips such as wheel arch repairs. There are a number of options out there, but I chose this model for two reasons: firstly, it has a deeper throat than similarly priced models which I thought would give me more versatility in the long term. The second reason was price. I managed to get this for £120, the same or cheaper than comparable models, even those on eBay and the like. On the down side, it is little bigger and quite heavy, but this doesn't bother me. Before ...

My new 1mm sheet steel has arrived, along with some additional angle and flat bar... but more of that in a moment. Using the refined ply forms , I have now made the boot floor rear edge piece again and I am much happier with it.  Going for the extra gauge steel was definitely the right decision and this new panel feels much more substantial. I have had a full test fitting with all panels, which is looking pretty good. The next issue concerns the rear inner arch to which spare wheel well side and floor is to be attached. There is some rust here and so this will need to be repaired before the really serious welding/reconstruction of the boot floor can begin. Although only a relatively small area, complex curves and profiles need to be created. I realised then that I had need of more fabrication tools. Here then is a description of how I fashioned a DIY sheet metal brake; a means by which I can easily and precisely create folds in sheet metal of up to around 90˚or so. This constructio...