Wilma FB project

[Brett027]

Disassembly proved a challenge. Everything in the bottom 6inches of the car was rust and a fair bit everywhere else too. Once She was stripped of her finery I put her on an Ebay purchased rotisserie. Took a lot of jacking and patience to get her attached but it has proven to be a great investment. When I finish Project 2 (EK ute) I'll sell it off. Mounted on bonnet hinges bolts and back spring eyelets.

[Brett027]

Rotisserie rear mount.

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[Brett027]

Its about this time that the full extent of rust revealed itself. I bought the car in Sydney, I was told it came from Queensland, and it was assembled in Adelaide. It had been in rain and maybe salt and the underside showed plenty of stump hits too.

The floor pan was shot, the inner and outer sills useless, A and B pillars unusable, doglegs gone, rear quarter bottoms shot, parcel shelf including rear window join gone, big holes in the box tubing for the rear springs and of course the rear boot / beaver panel was crud. Oh, I forgot the firewall each side and the plenum setup along the front windscreen. Unfortunately also some major structural beams under the floor ( pretty much all of them). Fuel tank was a bit second hand on top too. Doors and guards were better but had repairs to do too.

Six months was starting to look a bit optimistic.

Photos of rust. You get the gist. Nothing new from what I've seen on the forum already.

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[Brett027]

Before mounting on the rotisserie, I braced the car using rhs tubing. About an inch square in the old measures. All welded inside door holes so I could mount doors with bracing in place. Welded a piece from A pillar, B pillar and to wheel arch on C pillar/dogleg each side. Then one from A pillar to A pillar welded to first brace, then finally from B pillar to B pillar, again this one welded to the first brace. This meant there were no cross braces to roof etc getting in the way and all of them were welded to each other. I had no movement or stresses the whole time car was on the rotisserie and would recommend this approach if there was something solid enough to weld it to. Later when doing the rear parcel shelf and replacing the floor section under the back seat I added another brace between the doglegs.

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[Brett027]

I don't think I've posted enough rust. So here's a few more!

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[Brett027]

'Nough rust. You've all seen it all before.

About this time, I came across a rear cut. It appeared to be in good nick and included spare tail lights, back bumper and importantly a good fuel tank. I grabbed it, thinking that there was enough rust in Wilma's rear end to warrant buying another. For a short while I contemplated doing a cut and shut, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. Piece by piece was the go. As it turned out there were some great cuts in it, but a bog artisan better than Michaelangelo had mucked around on the beaver panel, lower guards and dog legs but I got everything I needed.

[In the Shed]

Geez Brett..........
You've got your fair share of rust there with Wilma. Sounds like you have had a bit of experience fiddling with cars that will no doubt help. Look forward to watching your progress.

Regards
Stephen

[Brett027]

Hi Stephen, never encountered this scale before.
This is the cut previously mentioned.

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[Errol62]

Oh my, need to go and lie down after seeing that. Worse than my panel van. Looks like the same rotisserie as rob (ardiesse) has.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[Brett027]

Rust work started on the sills. All the work done replacing the inner sills was done with the car sitting normally, with weight on jack stands and blocks and not the rotiserie. To help with structural support, one sill was done at a time. I bought Stark Automotive sills ( there's a picture of one in copper weld through primer in a previous post). Just enough flooring was cut off to access the cross members and support arms, the ends of these were cleaned up and the sill tacked in. I knew that some of these structural members were going to be replaced or repaired later but you need some reference points. It becomes a bit chicken and eggish with so much rust, but its only welds and if its wrong the 1mm 100mm cut off wheel is very capable of sorting it out. Having an inner tacked in place provided the starting point for the A and B pillar bottom repairs.




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[Brett027]

Once the inner sill was in place, A pillars were next. Not having cars to look at and never having done this before, meant that A pillars bottoms were probably the most challenging task. Some may recall questions on the forum about how the inner sill and outer k frame mounts work. Old timer restoration was a particularly valuable resource for me. Thanks Blacky, and also Dave White in Canberra who had a car that I took photos of. There were a few PMs to forum members used to get an idea of how the angles worked. I had purchased left and right mounting blocks from different suppliers and it turned out that one of them had the shorter angled part that fits against the sill cut wrong. Lots of head scratching and not at all helpful when you don't know what you're doing. Fortunately I had enough left of the old bits and a rusty A pillar cut that made it obvious that the mount was wrong. K frame ( which had arms repaired by then) was used to ensure mount was positioned correctly.

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[Errol62]

Those Stark inner sills look good. I wish they had been available when I put new ones on my van, but may do as you say and cut them off and replace, as I haven’t done the outers yet.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[Brett027]

It's hard to recall the order of things 2 years later, but I'm reminded that I sorted out the arms on the K frame before I started on the sills. I welded a brace across all 4 arms to provide a reference point for repairs. This worked well, but unfortunately I didn't take any photos at the time. I do remember spending a good week getting the k frame arms and cross arm etc welded up. Clay had posted about the need to use the k frame as a jig for setting the sills, so this became a foundation task. It was about this time that I met a fellow restorer based nearby going through similar challenges- Dave from Orange Betty fame. Covid has got in the way this year from catching up on progress and fat chewing!

[Brett027]

Clay, I'm a great fan of Sasha's stuff. It's always high quality and trouble free.

Next was A pillar bottoms. I bit the bullet and bought Stark A pillar kits. These were about $300 retail per side, but they are made of thick metal that matches manufacturer specs and I didn't have the gear to shape the pieces using that gauge steel. They come in two pieces in case you only need an inner or an outer, but I needed both so first job was to weld the 2 bits together. Then make the appropriate pillar cut and tack in new bit. Happy, then final weld. It was that simple.

[Brett027]

Thanks Tim. Its getting there.

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