Opening the cowl area

Today I opened the cowl. It took a lot of drilling with spot weld cutter. The rusted area is now clearly visible

And from the other side:

As we can see the same spot is damaged also on the left side of the car. Not as badly as the other side though. The cowl cover is mostly solid, only ends rusted away.

I guess I have to start planning some patches here.

Windshield removal

Completed the pillar bottom and painted it with a protective paint.

The upper part then. It was soon clear the windshield has to be removed prior any other repair or tear down. Ford used a thick layer of butyl sealer in these. The factory repair manual states under section 'Windshield replacement procedure': "... 3. Unsnap the upper moulding retainers using the special tool and remove the outside top moulding. 4. Remove the outside side moulding retaining screws and remove the outside side moulding. 5. Remove the outside lower moulding retainer retaining screws. Remove the outside lower moulding and retainers. ..." Sounds pretty easy and straightforward task, eh? The special tool mentioned was pictured in the manual and was easy to made, it is only a shaped piece of flat metal which is supposed to slide under the moulding and release the retainer. The lower moulding was actually held by the retainer screws and was easy to remove. All the rest sat tight like glued on the butyl sealer and the tool was useless until the excess sealer was taken out. Most of the retainers were rusted and they bent easily and that helped a bit.

Butyl sealer glued the mouldings to the frame.

After the side mouldings were removed, I find traces of the original blue color of the vinyl roof. The original color code for the car is C which stands for Sky View Blue with an option code 78 which is Blue Vinyl roof. Also the option 55 - Black Hood was selected for this car.

 

Next I had to remove the windshield. Again the manual states "...If the glass is not broken it can be removed by using a piece of small diameter piano wire to cut the butyl." That was actually true, the piano wire, guitar strings, welding wire etc. I tried did cut the butyl. The problem was the butyl was so soft and sticky it stayed there and reattached no matter how hard I cut with a piano wire. The solution was to use 2mm steel cable and pushing pieces of cardboard to the seal using a kitchen knife and a spatula. Slowly working there was finally more cardboard pieces than butyl in the seal and I was able to remove the windshield.

Now I was able to observe how badly it was rusted under the windshield and proceed planning the repair.

Pillar bottom

It took few days for me to create the next patch.

Bending and fitting and reusing the existing curved part that wasn't completely rusted away.

It fits and I spot welded it in place. I'll complete the seams tomorrow.

The result looks good. The upper part is waiting to be fixed next.

Kick panel patch

Next to do was the inner side of the pillar bottom. The one that comes against the kick panel. I tried to keep the dimensions and shape as close to the original as I could. The door seal will set against the lip and I didn't want to move that.

After few trials and errors I ended up with a patch I accepted.

It fit and the pillar was supported again.

  

And from the other side.

I left the seams bit thick. They won't be visible from either side in complete car.

Hinge pillar and sill panel part 2

Making a patch for the sill section took a while. Thick sheet was a bit hard to modify. I cleaned the boxed interior of the sill, removed all the rust I could and gave it a protective coating.

The patch fits quite nicely and I spot welded it in place.

Hinge pillar and sill panel part 1

It's been a busy weekend with schools endings in Finland. At last I started with the lower end of the hinge pillar and the sill panel under it.

Me downplaying the degree of rust. Serious planning underway. Surplus military clothing is proved to be excellent choice for garage works.

Here we can see the area after rusted spots are removed.

The sill panel was originally made 1/16" (1.6mm) thick sheet! I had 1.5mm sheet on shelf and started bending a new patch.

There's only a limited amount of rust in each car

Welded the pieces back together, cleaned surroundings and painted the area. Good enough considering it won't be visible in complete car.

Then the next rusted spot. This one is the worst area I've found in this car. Had to ponder the situation for a while where to start and how.

I removed the driver's door and ripped off patches that were poorly welded to hide the rusting pillar. I think I'll fix the lower section first. Wondering should I remove the windshield before I even try to fix the upper area.

Boxed structures part 2

Continued welding today and cleaned and painted inside the box.

And then I started bending the next new part. It fits actually quite well. I'm using a strong neodym magnets stripped from old hard disks for holding the sheet in place. Just don't try to weld too close to the magnet.

Boxed structures part 1

Continued with the right side boxed structure under the fender. Before taking the photo I have already removed the plastic filler someone had used here to fill the rust holes.

The reinforcement sheet in front had to be removed.

Here we can see the 1,2mm sheet is rusted through. The rusted section is next to be removed.

..and again the 1,5mm structure is gone at the rear joint where three layers of sheets have been spot welded together. I have already started opening the layers in the photo. After cutting the rusted section off it was a straightforward task to make a new piece and start putting things back.

 

Fits nicely doesn't it.

I thought I'll just fix a wheel bearing

I returned recently from New Zealand and brought a new stub axle, front brake rotors including hubs, set of pads etc. from there. The stubs that were installed when buying the car were ruined by some of the previous owners. It looked like someone had tried to fit wrong sized wheel bearings with an angle grinder. I had already changed the left side stub axle and hub and started to change the right side this time.

At this point I felt I just must do something for the rusting body. The car looked sad. Notice the driver's door misalignment as a result of the damage during the shipping and quick fix after that.

The car leaned a bit and I wanted to check the condition of rear leaf springs. I removed them and took them to the workshop, which was the right thing because the other master leaf was halfway cracked cut. New master leafs were made, one extra leaf inserted per side and the rest renewed.

 

 

While working there near the fuel tank I noticed a small fuel tube leak. Emptied the tank and removed it. The tank was actually in good condition, just needed cleaning and a new protective paint.

Now back to the rusting body. First welded patches for years.

And then the other side, which was a bit worse.

I hope the rest will go as well as this one.