fordcortina Tag Posts Index

Welding back the scuttle

With everything having a generous, dry coat of paint, I put seam sealer along all the edges that needed it, similar to how the factory had it. I also cut out the

Closing the first layer up on the scuttle

With the rust cut out and surrounding metal treated, I got to work welding in ptches of metal. I learnt my lesson on the previous side, where I had tried to create

Open up the left hand side of the scuttle, a rusty surprise!

Spurred on by the feeling of accomplishment of finishing up the left hand side door frame I moved to the right hand side, starting with the scuttle. From the outset

Finishing up the left hand door opening

With the scuttle welded back in place I could proceed with closing up all the last of the places where I had cut rust out around the door frame. First a piece was

Finally closing up the scuttle panel

After quite a long time, my last post was in May, I got to closing up the scuttle panel in December of 2024. I made use of plastic tile levellers to hold the piece

Using plumbing supplies on a car

My hair brained scheme to route whatever water leaks behind the windscreen rubber out may work, or not, time will tell. I am definitely not ready to solder plumbing

Welding the repair panel in

After much back and forth, test fitting and finally some paint, the bottom has a decent coat on, I managed to get something welded in place. I still had to tweak

Patching a small hole in preparation for welding the replacement part in

I had some small details to finish before welding in the patch under the windscreen cowl. There was a tiny hole to patch and I marked the places where the holes

Using tiling tools to hold a part in place

As is probably expected the part I cut out warped a bit and does not fit back in position perfectly. I picked up some of these, they are meant for leveling tiles,

Refining the patch panel for under the windscreen

With the rough shape I started refining it until finally I could get the piece I cut out to fit over it. It took quite a bit of back and forth, offering the two

Getting a rough shape for the replacement panel under the windscreen

I pondered a long on time on how to get started with this piece. Eventually I just took the bits I had cut out and used them as a guide and cut a section of plate

A lot of work for little visual difference

Not an lot of change visually but I did spent quite some time welding in thin strips to replace the rusted edges that I had cut off / back to get to clean metal.

Starting to patch up the rust under the windscreen

Cutting out rust from the inner layer meant I could now see through and into the cab... I chased down the last bit of rust into the engine bay as well and made up

Peeling away another layer to find even more rust

I tried cutting away the least amount of metal, so that replacing it would be somewhat simple, unfortunately I found more rust after I cut the first piece out, so

Cutting out some a portion of the windshield cowl and inspecting the inside

It took a while but I finally managed to gather up the courage to cut a large hole in what, on the surface, looks to be good steel. It's actually not as bad as I

Cutting out a small part of the windshield cowl

It was quite obvious that there was rust on the edge of the windshield, so I cut out a small section to see what I might have to deal with. After a lot of

Rust, rust and rust

The more I scratch the more rust I find, there is nothing to do but to cut it out. This time it is right at the top of the drivers side door pillar by the upper

Shaping metal to fit the cut out from below the windshield

Using the template made from masking tape before, I cut out a piece of metal plat and tried to figure out how to get it to fit the shape, it's not obvious from the

Sorting out the rust lip for the door rubber

Moving further up the door pillar I started by cutting out rust from the joint where the door seal goes onto. This took some grinding and sanding to get all of the

Tidying up the lip for the door rubber

Even though I did not get much. done, the curve piece I welded in is the last part to go on to the outer sill before I try and coat the inside from back to front