The outer sill to closure panel is now all done...
Next i made the outer sill section that fits around the jacking point, The other ones iv done on the right side, where made using a wooden template and beating it in to shape, this time (as my welding is getting better) i thought id try something different.

I used an old jacking point and bent a metal strip to fit around it, then i drew around this on the new sill section and cut this metal out so i could weld the shaped strip in there. (all went well)

Some photos....

Outer sill tack welded in place..


Then stitch welded all round and plug welded


Then dressed the welds back..


Then gave the area a good clean and scuffed it up with 80 grit and painted with epoxy 121..


Now making the jacking point outer sill section..





Now offered up for fettling and small adjustments for welding..


Iv also bought a new tool to help with making repair panels, its a cheap english wheel (£300) not the best but im happy with it and it will work well with the small repair panels im making, i did use it to help with the jacking point sill section.

 

The outer sill around the jacking point is now welded in place.

After fettling and some small adjustments i got a good fit for butt welding, then it was tack welded in place.


When butt welding you need the new panel to fit with a small gap (thin cutting disc gap size)


If this gap closes up during the welding i re cut the gap with my disc cutter before welding the next bit.

Now all welded and dressed..


I the welded in another bracket joining both inner sills..


Then i welded in the sill section at the joint area under the door..


Im now left with one section to fabricate and weld in place..


When this section has been done, i can then go back inside the car and sort out the transmission tunnel and front floor pan rust out....

 

Really really nice work.
one day I just may have an appropriate area and I'll be coming back to this for the lessons. Thanks for sharing the processssss!

 

The last section of the rear sill is now done,
So all the rear part of the sill and the closure panel is now in good condition (rust free)....

The fabricated sill section..


Now welded in place and the welds dressed back ready for the 121 epoxy


From the joint under the door to the rear closure panel all done and rust free..


Now back inside the car,
the front floor pan area isnt as bad as the right side was, but the transmission tunel is worse than the right side was !

Over view of the area..


Floor pan area..


Transmission tunel area..


Im going to start with the transmission tunel,
the rust runs under the seat frame, so i will have to cut part of it out to get access to the rust.

TO BE CONTINUED...........LOL.

 

Bravo. 3/4 of the way round

 

I started removing the rust from the transmission tunel today....
It didnt take long to get a large pile of thick rust, as can be seen on the left of this photo !



The rust gose under the seat frame so i drilled out the spot welds, and cut a large area out to make sure i had room for the repare..



With this large area of seat frame removed, iv now got access to see how far the rust gose,
so i make a cut in the outer metal and lift it up to see whats underneath..



As you can see from the above photo, im near the end of the rust, i repeated this at the other end and now know the extent of the rust repair needed,
next was to remove part of the floorpan..



Thats as far as a got today.....

Still lots to cut out before i can sort this transmission tunnel rust out,
The nuts with the bolt threads protruding along the top of the tunnel are the gearbox mounting bolts (x2) the other two nuts are not used and blanked off with a rubber bung.

 

I got myself a floor pan repair panel from ebay but haven't had time to get the seat out and carpet up yet.

In the nicest possible way I really hope I don't find a view like yours when I do 😬

My XE died (properly died, new engine dead) a few weeks back so have had enough of cars right now!

 

Yea mine is a 2003 model, I hope mine doesn't look anywhere near as bad as this. I had the floorpans done last year as they where rotted out. The mechanic who did the job said other then the floorpan it all lookede pretty good.

 

mine is a late 52 as it has the 4.2 engine so quite a similar age.

the passenger side was already done when I got the car, as were both rear arches. I'm not convinced any were done particularly well though so I'm very apprehensive. With the short days and damp weather I'm not sure I will get to sort it until next year. My garage is too small to work inside so I need to be able to drive the car out complete the job and put the seat back in order to put the car back in the garage at night.

 

I don't think my car has had any real repair work to the metal apart from the floorpans that I had done. I do have a alrge bubble coming up on the passengers rear wheel arch though which I need to get sorted at some point. The rear wheel arch fills with water because the vent lets in water. The whole inside has corodded heavily so I attacked it with a dremel and painted it up with epoxy mastic. It still fills up with bloody water though but the mastic should at least help it somewhat. I know it's not a permanent fix though but it will do until I can get a second car and then get the entire car done in one go. The rear wheel arch lips need attention and so do the sills. Apart from that there isn't actually much rust on the car that I can see. Where the door hinges attach there is some rust but I'm pretty sure that is just surface rust, still I do want that looked at. Really though the car isn't in that bad condition, it's just showin git's 19 years a little. I will buy some panels for the arches probably next year so I can have them at hand. There is some subframe rust on the rear arches whcih is very common, this will require the suspension being dissmantled so I will do a full suspension rebuild at the same time. The rear subframe mounts look in rough shape so I will buy some new ones, one of them looks to have a plate welded in so I guess it had failed at some point, looks very strong though. I wander if I can just get new parts fabricated in thicker steel as the factory parts look rather flimsy to me. The subframe also needs some attention, I guess that will be replaced when I do the suspension rebuild and rear rust work. When you add everything up there is a hell of a lot of work to do.

 

It is worth checking the front cross bar below the radiators. Just remove the black plastic undertray from the front bumper and you will be able to see it. That was the worst area of mine. Looked awful but once I attacked it with wire brushes, etc it was only surface rust. I stripped the lot back to bare metal applied some kurust, then some etch primer and repainted. No need to clear coat as that part of the car didn't get done in the factory. I used a 2k base coat though so it should be a bit harder.

 

Kuddlesworth .. XK Owen ,
Hope you are more lucky than me with the rust issues.

The transmission tunel rust is due to bad, or none existing seam sealer between two of the steel layers above the exhaust heat shield
(when looking up from under the car)

This photo showes the small fillet of seam sealer , as i removed more steel/rust this fillet was no longer there so water etc had access between the two layers and over time rotted them out !
After this repair i will be pulling back the heat shield and applying seam sealer right along the tunel.


Back to the repair...........
I started to cut out the second rottet steel layer, this reviled a third steel layer, this was in original good condition..



The three layers..


The area was all cleaned up,then i put some rust removel gell on for 24h to clean out the rust pitting..


Then painted with 121 epoxy..


The none painted part is the exhaust heat shield, you can see this because the outer third steel layer dosnt run the length of the tunnel..

This is the area now, all ready for the new repair panels..


Now i need to make the panels........

 

XKRDAY, what tools are you using to do your cuts?

Yours look really neat, I would expect an angle grinder to be much less accurate.

Given I already have a decent size hole to start with, do you think tin snips will be man enough to cut away the rusty metal to enlarge the hole?

Cheers,

Owen

 

I dont think the snips will do, i have some, but found they are only useful for trimming the welding wire..

I use a 5 inch grinder (with the gard removed so i can see what im cutting) and a 1mm ultra thin cutting disc,
i also use a dremel with a 90" attachment and a 38mm ez speed clic metal cutting disc.


I use the grinder where i can, then use the dremel if i cant get in with the grinder.
i mark the cut with tape or pencil and take my time (and keep to the mark)

i dont cut to deep and some times i use the dremel in the corners and to go over the grinder cut if im not deep enough.
The 90" attachment for the dremel is a must have (for some of the work iv been doing) and the variable speed of the dremel is very usfull.

 

Iv now started to work on the rust repair's again (after a littel time off).

First i welded in two patches (easier than one big patch)


Then protected with the 121 epoxy


Now to make the top two repair patches using paper templates . (again easier than making one large patch)



After roughly cutting around the template it then needs lots of small adjustments (fettling) to get a good fit.


Next was to mark and drill the spot weld holes in the repair patches,
then to protect the back with 121 epoxy and some weld through primer (at the weld areas)

Also removed the 121 epoxy inside the car and applied weld through at the weld areas


Next was to tack weld the two patches in place and do the spot welds


Making sure to keep the 1mm gap all round the weld area.





Next was to fully weld the repair patches in place, this was done with stich welds about 1 inch long then moving to a different area and repeating the process until all the welding was completed.
The weld was dressed down and the area cleaned and scuffed up ready for the 121 epoxy.


The transmission tunnel is now looking much better with no rust ........


Now i need to weld the seat frame back in place ..

 

I have so missed the regular updates - I was beginning to wonder if you had thrown in the towel.

Lovely work as always. Hat off to you, sir!

 

No not throwing the towel in michaelh, im to far into this now for doing that ..lol
Just had to put the rust repairs on the back burner for a bit, so i could catch up with diy jobs around the house etc.

Iv now started using epoxy weld through primer, and i prefer this to the upol one, just wish i bought some sooner.

The seat frame still needs welding back in place and i need to go under the car and paint the repair area with epoxy 121 then apply some seam sealer.

A photo of the epoxy weld through primer with very littel burn back showing,
this is from under the car looking up with the exhaust heat shield pulled back


To be continued..lol

 

Been under the car today,
And giving the transmission tunnel area a good clean and prep for the epoxy 121.
(photos taken looking towards the engine bay)





I bent the exhaust heat shield back, but it was still difficult to access this area.

Now the epoxy 121....





It will get a second coat of the epoxy 121, and then the seam sealer applied...