So I’ve managed to finish the drivers side boot floor – after a bit of a delay due to an incident with the grinder and my finger leaving a bit of a nasty gouge nearly down to the bone!

It took a bit of time to weld carefully and neatly, followed by a light grind and then linish back to a smooth neat join. I’m fairly pleased if I do say so myself.

I then was able to get the full heritage arch welded in too, ready for the stiffeners to be welded onto it and the floor. Progress has been exciting at this stage!

This time it’s a repair panel for the seat base / boot floor.

Originally this was cut out to remove the worst of the rust, but with a repair panel in hand, and some time cleaning up the rusty floor section, I decided not to beat about the bush and cut out all signs of rust.

A lot of trimming later and the panel is ready for welding.

Bonus – photos of the painted battery box and one of the arch infill panels.

So I made a start on cleaning up some more of the floor to make an assessment on the level of rust and whether a full floor replacement is needed, just inner sills or just one or two tidy patches.

I also cleaned up some more of the boot floor including the battery box – I have found the Bilt Hamber’s Deox Gel is really good at cleaning away the rust followed by Hamerite’s Kurust to treat any residual rust and then coated in Upol’s Zinc 182 while I continue working until I get ready to prep the whole floor.

Needing something to more carefully shape panels over and following a friend’s great idea, I set about finding a section of old railway track. I collected a 14″ length which was only lightly rusted. I cleaned this up, neatened up the edges and rounded the corners. I removed all of the rust and smoothed the top surface. Finally I gave the non-used surfaces several coats of paint and the working surface a light coating of oil to prevent rusting.

Another small welding job completed. This one was one of the easier jobs on the car. It was also some good practice for butt welding joints to aim for a filler less finish. Sadly my welding is not 100% so I ended up with a tiny bit of distortion even using compressed air to keep the panels cool.

I’m still very pleased with the results though 🙂

Also I had my latest laser cutting arrive; this was a pair of boot floor stiffening plates where the subframe rests on the boot floor.

After fitting the arch and floor repair section for probably 10-15 times, I finally had a fit I was happy with and could do a final trim of the repair panel before using the butt welding clamps to hold it in place.

I then rolled the welder out, got it all set up and proceeded to put some tacks in place to hold the panel, before finishing off the seam.

Having ordered the necessary panels from Somerford Mini, which arrived next day(!) it was time to get cutting more of the rot out of the boot floor to suit the replacement arch and boot floor repair panel.

I also needed to do a small repair to the bottom of the rear 3/4 panel where it joins to the rear panel.

It was time to get cutting the rot out of the boot floor and determine which panels were needed for the repairs of the rear end.

On top of the needed arches, a Valance, both closing panels and stiffeners, plus either a whole boot floor or repair panels for each side.

Having stripped off the underseal it was clear that the rear arches were somewhat rusty.

Upon closer inspection, there was no other option for it, but replacement arches…

The lower section of the front panels was also lightly rusted so I set about cleaning it back to inspect the extent of the damage and review whether a new panel would be needed or not.

Clearly it’s a bit rusty but its actually still very solid. It’ll get more attention in the future.