A little bit of welding (lots of pics)

[MonkeySpanker]

Failed the MOT & fancied a bit of a project to keep me busy, this may not make much sense to anyone else though.









Started chopping the bad bits out.........



Lots of filler & bad jacking!!!







Getting down to it now....this is the 'good' side too













Then start putting strength back in, treated the rust with Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 & etch weld zinc primer.
Made an error when cutting old sill & new sill so had to reweld a filler strip in.......make mistakes when you're tired/hungover.















Door still fits!!!









So far that's it, wheel arch to be repaired & some plates to go on for floor/sill at front. More to follow as it gets done.

[pewe]

Nice job!
Amazing how compulsive it becomes when Messers Angry Grinder and Welder are out isn't it???
Keep the pics coming.
Cheers, Pewe.

[MonkeyDust]

Nice work

[MonkeySpanker]

Getting closer to finishing this side









There's still some plates to go on underneath & inside the wheel arch but nothing major. Then spot of filling, seam sealing, stone chip, Schutz & cavity waxing to finish.

[MX-5 Lazza]

Good work!

You look like you know what you are doing so I'm sure you don't need to be told but don't forget to protect all those cavities and especially, remember drain holes in the sills

[pewe]

With welding skills like that ever thought of building a kit car?
Plenty of info/inspiration over on locostbuilders.
Cheers, Pewe

[MonkeySpanker]

Thanks for the comments, I must say that it's not all my own work (I hate welding upside down).

Few more pics of the story so far.....some filler, seam sealer, rust treatment & etch primer to be followed by stonechip & Schutz.



















Hoping to get some primer/guide coat on over the weekend before having to get it out of the garage to do some extra jobs.

[MonkeySpanker]

Starting to look like a car again



Stonechipped & Shutzed







Primer



Just a few rattle cans for now....needs to get out the garage.







The other side need's a lot more work.....more to follow

[New POD]

Daft question. Where did you get the panels ?

[GC8]

Not a foolish question at all. Also: do they offer an equivalent for a Mk.2?

[MonkeySpanker]

New POD said:

Daft question. Where did you get the panels ?

I got the panels from eBay, not bad fit although the bottom of the wheel arch doesn't quite line up with back of sill. It's not bad though considering the price. There are some panels for the Mk2, wheel arches are readily available, sills not so much but I'm not sure if you can modify a Mk1 one. Also if you're going the 'unstitching' route this particular sill would need some trimming to fit but again for the money it's pretty good. It's also bloody heavy & thick.

[snotrag]

FYI I found the repair panels that autolink do very good. I've done pretty much the same to the sills on mine.

[GC8]

Autolink for NB sills and arches Simon? When I last saw pictures on Nutz you had a gold NB, I think?

[snotrag]

Sorry no, mine were for an NA like that.

I had a '99 for a couple of years, that went in 2012. Exactly 12 months ago I bought an NA Turbo in a bit of a state, nearly finished rebuilding it. Had complete new sill down one side, and end section of sill on the other, plus some patches underneath.

[MonkeySpanker]

snotrag said:

FYI I found the repair panels that autolink do very good. I've done pretty much the same to the sills on mine.

Yes they're autolink panels.....the wheel arches are some sort of galvanised metal by the way they weld up.

[MonkeySpanker]

We started on the other side ........













Started chopping.........









Then began putting some strength back..........





Joe 'The Weld'























Nearly there, some seam sealing & undercoating to go on then fill & spray arch. More to follow as & when.

[threespires]

Superb work, well done. Great to see an MX-5 restored & not sold for its parts. Too many early cars are being scrapped., especially serviceable cars.

[MikeOxlong]

I wish I had the skills to do this myself. My sills are just starting to bubble, someone has been at them before but obviously not properly. Even getting them sorted sooner rather than later is going to be plenty of money. I'd love to learn how to do it but hacking my p and j up without a clue what I'm doing isn't something I want to do.

[MonkeySpanker]

threespires said:

Superb work, well done. Great to see an MX-5 restored & not sold for its parts. Too many early cars are being scrapped., especially serviceable cars.

Thank you although I can't take the credit for the welding that was my mate Joe, I was maker of plates, cutting & cleaner of panels
There's not many left of the original Mk 1's so thought I would try to do my bit.....it's not been an easy task & can understand why people don't bother. I'm hoping that some do after seeing that it can be done.
Luckily for me I've got friends & some of the skills to be able to do my own repairs otherwise this would have been ruinously expensive. There were a lot of bad repairs & that's the real problem, some people don't want to pay for a decent job.

[MX-5 Lazza]

Wow! That car was as rotten as any MX5 I've seen saved! Good job!