If it does rain, you'll be right it will be dry under the car I honestly don't think it will take you blokes no longer then a couple of hours to fix rd's rust.

How about around 10-ish? Waddya reckon Paul ? Lunch will be around 1-ish I suppose.......

I'm happy to start earlier if you want, up to Benj. PM me your address so I can get there was a passenger last time.

I'm not firing a MIG up in the rain under the car or not, Wet ground Cheeky bugger

Good luck with it. As I said shouldn't take long to sort it out.

Yep, earlier would be fine with me too. Let's make it 9am.

SWC, you can meet me at my place if ya want, and we can go on out to RD's together.

Cheers
BenJ

No probs with 9-ish guys, sounds good. I'll PM Paul my address anyway, just in case

Oh, and I bought myself a compressor today so if you think you'll need any air tools, bring them as I now have the air supply

Great see you around 9 or so

F**k - wish i could pay so little for my bmw to change that... $1400 in just parts from bmw...
paid $400 for non genuine parts from America - stupid aluminum parts... it was two whole wishbones though...

Hi helpers

Just letting you know that Matt (EVL098) can't make it tomorrow due to being called in to work. He is going to drop off the jack and stands though but just in case I will get the car up on ramps and set up the area for work.

Cheers
RD

Well, the team had a very productive day. Paul (SCW), BenJ (The mobile glare filter) and Luke called over this morning to repair the rust.

Before they arrived I thought I would do some pre work and cut out some cardboard templates for the holes.

The first order of business was to survey the work area and get an idea of what to do. Paul disappeared under the car to do the survey bit and came back out announcing a better way to do things. My cardboard templates were now obsolete We then need some steel to do it with, so the ever faithful EL wagon can to our aid once again. As Ben needed practice (according to Paul), he fired up the angle grinder and removed a section from the rear quarter:



With the material available Paul once again disappeared under the car to make templates for the new idea. Once they were created the steel was then cut to size, all with a 4" angle grinder with a 1mm cutting blade. I will have to say Paul was a master with this thing, he even cut curves with it!

A little while later and the RH plate was created and the serious work could begin. After a period of banging, welding and grinding one side was done, then it was on to the other side. That was completed just as lunch was ready. This was the end result of all that banging, welding and grinding:

LH Side





RH Side



Looks a bit different from when I first found it huh? Of course in between all this car work was conversation and smokes (normal ones!)

I have some finishing work to do with fibreglass filler and the black sound deadener goop yet but the base to work with is just brilliant. Once I am done, you would never know that anything has been repaired.

Rach and I would very much like to thank all involved for their tremendous help and good company, we know it was a hunk out of your day spent on someone else's car. Rach is particularly happy that her Fairmont will survive.

One other thing, I was removing the seats (or trying to) when I discovered the drivers seat was both broken AND bent. The track on the outside (nearest the door) is bowed, either from someone very large or being jumped on. One of the bolts has also broken out of the seat base. So I am in the market for another EF Fairmont drivers seat if anyone has one in Sydney. A wanted thread is forthcoming.

Done for now

Cheers
RD

EDIT: Wanted thread for the seat:
wanted-ford-parts-f18/sydney-ef-fairmont-drivers-seat-t79184.html

Last edited by racedirector on Sat Jun 06, 2009 4:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sure am Ash, Paul did a fantastic job!

nice job guys,now comes the painting and fish oil.try to dry the sills out.then fish oil.

Have got 5 cans of fish oil all ready to go. Will attempt to dry them out first though.....