PollyMobiles Rebuild

[SuperUno]

You can increase caster using using an adjustable mount for the rear mount on the front wishbone.

 

[Low Rider]

You can increase caster using using an adjustable mount for the rear mount on the front wishbone.

Yup. Plus lowering the rear wishbone mount also provides a nice amount of anti-lift too, which helps if you have a lot of power. It's a trade off being a bit more pro-dive under braking but it helps a lot under the heavy acceleration a turbo provides.

 

[SuperUno]

That will explain the spacer blocks that came with the kit, I didn't use them in the end. You can gain a lot of caster, more than enough to have to totally redo the tracking, especially if you use the adjustment in the mounting holes and a large pry bar when doing them up.

 

[pollyp]

after swapping the wheel studs on the other LH side and fitted 8mm spacers on all wheels, gave her a good wash on a nice day and obviously had to take a photo

I think the LH lower arm is slightly longer than the RH arm cos both front wheels have the same 1.2deg camber and yet the RH wheel sits in the arch like this,

whereas for the LH wheel, I actually had to adjust the top camber plate outwards (whereas the RH camber plate went all the way inwards) in order to match 1.2deg and visually the the wheel seems to poke out 1-2mm more?

I'll have to measure if both arms the same length and if the arm mounts are both equally the same distance from the sills/arch

 

[John_D]

after swapping the wheel studs on the other LH side and fitted 8mm spacers on all wheels, gave her a good wash on a nice day and obviously had to take a photo

View attachment 54212 View attachment 54213

I think the LH lower arm is slightly longer than the RH arm cos both front wheels have the same 1.2deg camber and yet the RH wheel sits in the arch like this,

View attachment 54210

whereas for the LH wheel, I actually had to adjust the top camber plate outwards (whereas the RH camber plate went all the way inwards) in order to match 1.2deg and visually the the wheel seems to poke out 1-2mm more?

View attachment 54211

I'll have to measure if both arms the same length and if the arm mounts are both equally the same distance from the sills/arch

More likely that the suspension mounting points on the chassis are slightly out to the body panels....

 

[pollyp]

More likely that the suspension mounting points on the chassis are slightly out to the body panels....

I'll give it a checkover tomorrow

 

[pollyp]

new LSD oil arrived

 

[pollyp]

drained the LSD oil and measured the position of the hub, arm length, arm mounts & arch top relative to the sills using a laser level.

not too much bits on the gearbox plug

gear oil still mostly golden and reused most of it except for the last 1L to leave out any sediment.

so according to all the measurements, the left/right wheels & hubs are exactly the same distance from the sills and aligned the same camber, both arms the same length. so suspension-wise the wheels are fine.

what I came to realise is that the front of the car is actually skewed/bent to the right and making the arch deform like this

and this body offset issue is further explained by the fact that the front end has been involved in a bad smash in her early life.
the front panel was badly fitted to the front structure (making the bumper all wonky) and the front structure has signs it's been probably swapped & MIG welded to the chassis.
both these factors would've resulted in this wonky front end.

meh nothing much I can do about it. least she drives perfectly straight.

 

[Huggy444]

You talk about stiffening the rear to reduce understeer/induce oversteer.

You probably know this and I may be stating the obvious.... But increasing the rear stiffness reduces the rear end grip and this only makes it understeer less because the rear loses grip first.
This will ultimately make it slower, but feel better to drive.

Hopefully that makes sense

Sent from my LG-H850 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[pollyp]

You talk about stiffening the rear to reduce understeer/induce oversteer.

You probably know this and I may be stating the obvious.... But increasing the rear stiffness reduces the rear end grip and this only makes it understeer less because the rear loses grip first.
This will ultimately make it slower, but feel better to drive.

Hopefully that makes sense

Sent from my LG-H850 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

yup I know that inherently our fwd micras layout will naturally understeer.

there's only a limited amount of ways I can max out the front grip without more extreme measures like different tyres or repackaging weight distribution. still so much to learn & settings to test.
so I then stiffen and compromise the rear end to make the overall balance more neutral/oversteery towards my preference over most of the track so I feel more confident in her.

my current thought is start off too stiff at max settings to limit roll, weight transfer, tyre flex (tbh I'd like to fit stiffer springs) and slowly soften the front end to regain front bite towards neutral/oversteer feel.

I'm not after lap records, although tis a nice bonus & reassurance that somethings going right direction.
The feel & enjoyment of driving & trusting her in that zone is more important to me.

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

there's only a limited amount of ways I can max out the front grip without more extreme measures like different tyres or....

I was going to suggest more tires but given how close it is to the inner arch this would probably need new wheels... So I won't.

my current thought is start off too stiff at max settings to limit roll, weight transfer, tyre flex (tbh I'd like to fit stiffer springs) and slowly soften the front end to regain front bite towards neutral/oversteer feel.

I understand why you're starting stiff then working it off but I think I'd go at it the other way, loosen the arbs right off then stiffen them up where you need to get the balance back.
I remember reading something that calculated how much weight transfer happened due to body roll, in the typical case it was actually really small, on the other hand the ARB works by increasing weight transfer actually reducing grip (unless there's other things in play as with mini's skewed roll).
Slacking off or removing the arbs even if just experimenting I figure should tell you what the underlying suspension behaviour is without it being masked by the arbs and give clues as to the next development stage. IMO only...

 

[SuperUno]

I run the standard ARB's now, yes you get more body roll but we get more grip and confidence in the car.

 

[pollyp]

Aye I'll also play round with fitting the standard front swaybar back, or removing them all to see what happens and where the baseline handling is.
Looking at the suspension footage, I feel I should keep front tyre pressure high to reduce sidewall flexing.

 

[SuperUno]

Tyre pressure for me the following has worked very well with a mix of tyres and sizes. (All cold) Front 31psi Rear 26psi

 

[pollyp]

I'll play round with the pressures too. I find my front tyres fold in too much & scrub the side walls in tight bends when pressure is under 2.5bars.

Tday I removed both swaybars, went for the same drive in the countryside and compared video at the same bends. The damn cockpit camera lost power again.

So visually, on both setup with/without swaybars the body & front end rolls exactly the same amount. the inside rear doesn't lift up as much over bumpy bends but it's only very slightly at such low speed. Driving on normal roads the effect is very minimal.

The most noticable different without swaybars is the sluggish initial 0-5deg steering (the body has to sway abit till it's finished weight transfer before changing direction), and when exiting corners it's more understeery as it loses grip.
but when steering is above 5deg and still within the tyres cornering limit, the nippy steering behaviour from extending the ball joint & correcting bump-steer is still there.

So the sway bar seems to help more with the initial turn-in response and the corner exit.

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

My first thought was to stiffen up the front shocks but I think that would potentially lose grip as well.
You said it understeers on exit as it loses grip, there should be as much or more grip with the swaybars off...
What's your wheel alignment settings? My mini magazine says reducing front toe out will delay turn in but it's quicker transitions we seem to be after. Rear toe out can induce oversteer but you only want a tiny bit, but I guess with beam axle it's fixed.
Is it the front, back or both that is taking longer to settle into the corner Paul?

 

[pollyp]

My first thought was to stiffen up the front shocks but I think that would potentially lose grip as well.
You said it understeers on exit as it loses grip, there should be as much or more grip with the swaybars off...
What's your wheel alignment settings? My mini magazine says reducing front toe out will delay turn in but it's quicker transitions we seem to be after. Rear toe out can induce oversteer but you only want a tiny bit, but I guess with beam axle it's fixed.
Is it the front, back or both that is taking longer to settle into the corner Paul?

stiffening the front shocks will make it understeer more cos the unsprung wheels won't be able to keep up with the terrain, skipping over any dips most of the time = less overall grip relative to the softer rear end.

with no swaybars the overall balance tends to understeer more often as I apply more throttle on exiting which locks the LSD abit and moves weight backwards away from the front.
it feels as though the rear has more grip most of the time cos without a rear swaybar, both rear tyres stay on contact with the ground more often, guiding that light rear end of the car which is only 35-40% of the weight.
the front end has a harder task with the same tyres trying to steer 60-65% of the weight as well as handle the torque.

when I turn, it takes afew millisecs for the car to roll, settle, then react. it turns in nice but if I push too hard, the front end easily overloads and understeers first before the rear.
when I wiggle the steering at speed, the rear end is quite wobbly.

front is 1.2deg camber, 0.20deg toe out.
rears are fixed standard camber with abit of toe-in.

 

[pollyp]

comparison of the swaybars while they're off the car

whiteline front bar is 2mm thicker all the way through whereas the standard bar has a thinner flat center section.

compared to the standard rear paperclip, a whiteline rear bar is the same thickness as a standard front bar.

gave the front abit of wirebrush and paint. cba to finish the rear bar cos it's only gonna rust anyway

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

when I turn, it takes afew millisecs for the car to roll, settle, then react. it turns in nice but if I push too hard, the front end easily overloads and understeers first before the rear.
when I wiggle the steering at speed, the rear end is quite wobbly.

That sounds like the rear roll centre could go higher, ie the centre of gravity has quite a bit of leverage and therefore has to move further until it encounters resistance from the springs, it's also going to mean it compresses the outside spring more...
Good conversation, thanks

 

[SuperUno]

Why 0.20 toe out? On a fully poly bushed front end I would go with 0.00 toe i.e. dead straight

 

[pollyp]

That sounds like the rear roll centre could go higher, ie the centre of gravity has quite a bit of leverage and therefore has to move further until it encounters resistance from the springs, it's also going to mean it compresses the outside spring more...
Good conversation, thanks

when the car is static, the panhard is flat meaning the roll center (about the middle of the rod) is exactly level with the rear beam axle while the CoG is around the height of the rear seat backing.
perhaps move the rod mounting further up the chassis?

 

[pollyp]

Why 0.20 toe out? On a fully poly bushed front end I would go with 0.00 toe i.e. dead straight

to help preload the tyre sidewalls abit and make the initial turn-in abit sharper.

 

[pollyp]

the oil vapour catch can has been getting less effective recently. found the PCV was getting abit sticky & making it harder for the small vacuum to reopen the valve.
so flushed it with carb cleaner and it reopens alot better now.

regreased bushings on the whiteline sway bars

sway bars reinstalled and test footage coming soon

 

[pollyp]

recorded the car through the countryside in this red hot sunny weekend before and after the sway bars were fitted.



ok the differences with a much warmer tarmac has changed the feel since a cooler run last time.

without the swaybars it still feels sluggish near the center but on a hot day she grips hard into a corner without squealing but rolls abit.

with both swaybars reinstalled, the middle of the steering responds sharper, rear end is stable with I wriggle at high speed and she feels level/planted during turns but when I push her through a corner I notice the front tyres tend to squeal more loudly with a hint of understeer.
can't push her hard enough on blind country roads to notice much difference in oversteer/understeer but from the noisy front end, maybe the front bar is reducing overall front end grip till they scream at me?

 

[pollyp]

taking snapshots of exactly the same point of each corner before & after fitment, you can definately see how much the sway bars reduces body roll

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

when the car is static, the panhard is flat meaning the roll center (about the middle of the rod) is exactly level with the rear beam axle while the CoG is around the height of the rear seat backing.
perhaps move the rod mounting further up the chassis?

If you can without the panhard rod creating weird suspension behaviour, I understand they are best behaved when parallel to the ground. It would possibly tell you if it's worth pursuing developing a watts linkage.

As a smaller move I might test the car with no sway bar front and either the standard rear sway or the whiteline on the rear, the whiteline is likely to be overkill with no bar on the front but it might tell you better which end the body roll is coming from. Looking at the photos above in gentle curves there's a difference in roll at the back but not much at the front and then again in a harder turn they don't seem too different as the roll has settled on the springs.
I'm not much with adjustable springs(never had them) but would adding preload at the back help? ie it settles on to a harder initial spring, it may also bring it back to neutral steering but likely loose rear end grip a bit. Just thinking...

 

[pollyp]

If you can without the panhard rod creating weird suspension behaviour, I understand they are best behaved when parallel to the ground. It would possibly tell you if it's worth pursuing developing a watts linkage.

As a smaller move I might test the car with no sway bar front and either the standard rear sway or the whiteline on the rear, the whiteline is likely to be overkill with no bar on the front but it might tell you better which end the body roll is coming from. Looking at the photos above in gentle curves there's a difference in roll at the back but not much at the front and then again in a harder turn they don't seem too different as the roll has settled on the springs.
I'm not much with adjustable springs(never had them) but would adding preload at the back help? ie it settles on to a harder initial spring, it may also bring it back to neutral steering but likely loose rear end grip a bit. Just thinking...

I believe there's space above the original panhard mount to redrill and mount it higher & closer to the chassis rail to alter rod angle / roll center.
panhard & watts have their ups/downs and there are maybe other better options out there but major development like converting to watts, independant multi-link, etc is simply beyond my current budget of urm £zero save the task for when I'm abit richer.

On track, she understeers abit during long fast bends no matter how much I soften the front pressure or dampening.
my options are either:
- buy a stiffer rear sway,
- buy stiffer springs,
- or a better progressive option imo would be to fit the original softer 20mm front swaybar so there's still some sway control but the rear is relatively stiffer.

Just running a whiteline rear would be a twitchy overkill tbh.

The rear spring preload is simply provided by the weight of the car at the rear. Moving the spring perch up/down simply alters the static ride height/arch gap (cos the cars weight compresses the spring by the same amount) and the dampers droop/bump travel ratio.
The only way increasing spring perch can actually increase preload/spring rate of a soft spring at static height is if the dampers were "droop limited" or have zero droop at static height, but that itself would cause it's own problems.
Suspension needs abit of bump & droop travel to allow the tyres to follow the terrain.

 

[pollyp]

just realised I made a bugger of an error with my recent laser alignment after changing the geometry.

since extending the lower ball joint has shifted the front wheels closer inwards, that meant my original laser jig calculations are void and need remeasuring/recalibrating, which I forgot to consider.

so according to my original chart for original suspension geometry and only rear spacers, I thought a reading of 25mm would give me 0.2deg toe out

but actually with the new geometry, when I aligned em to 25mm it gave me 0.35deg toe out! oops

so now with the recalculated jig readings and 8mm spacers fitted on all wheels, for the 0.2deg toe out I'll next have to set the jig up to 23mm.

 

[pollyp]

wheels aligned & ready for tomorrow

 

[pollyp]

my £50 old rotary laser level for leveling my alignment platform was having issues spinning, like not enough power (even with new batteries) or bearing was sticking abit.
didn't have time during the day to fix it so continued aligning my wheels with the previously levelled platforms.

so obviously I took it apart to try lube the bearings and then this damn plastic pulley broke

so had to machine a pulley out of some spare bits

but it was too tall

so tried to pry it back off and the damn cheapo shaft broke

damnit so I'll have to take it all apart and remachine a whole new shaft/pulley.
I had to break apart the shaft to remove the bearing and omg this is where they cut costs alot in material choice.
they literally made it out of what I can best describe as shortbread biscuits lol can almost snap the pieces with fingers

guess I'll be rebuilding my laser level after the trackday.

 

[John_D]

my £50 old rotary laser level for leveling my alignment platform was having issues spinning, like not enough power (even with new batteries) or bearing was sticking abit.
didn't have time during the day to fix it so continued aligning my wheels with the previously levelled platforms.

View attachment 54310

so obviously I took it apart to try lube the bearings and then this damn plastic pulley broke

View attachment 54314

so had to machine a pulley out of some spare bits

View attachment 54311

but it was too tall

View attachment 54312

so tried to pry it back off and the damn cheapo shaft broke

View attachment 54313

damnit so I'll have to take it all apart and remachine a whole new shaft/pulley.
I had to break apart the shaft to remove the bearing and omg this is where they cut costs alot in material choice.
they literally made it out of what I can best describe as shortbread biscuits lol can almost snap the pieces with fingers

View attachment 54309 View attachment 54308

guess I'll be rebuilding my laser level after the trackday.

Mazak, a very cheap zinc based alloy, or as it is 'affectionately' known in the trade, 'monkey metal'

 

[pollyp]

Mazak, a very cheap zinc based alloy, or as it is 'affectionately' known in the trade, 'monkey metal'

hehe monkey metal, similar to diecast models.

 

[pollyp]

washed her in the blazing sun and swapped the wheels over

needed to burn off some fuel from a brimmed tank so went for a blast in the countryside and handles well with minimal bump steer. I noticed she started to lean & hesitate briefly at 5k which is odd. fuel delivery? poor spark from dizzy cap or plugs?
back at home opened the bonnet and ahh it was my oil catch can lid top that's popped off

cleaned the dizzy cap and checked the plugs. they're abit meh & crusty white from burning oil. didn't like the look of a crusty darker wet cyl#3 plug

so replaced em with new plugs regapped to 1.1mm
after fitting the catchcan lid back on and refreshed the plugs, it no longer hesitates at 5k

spotted kasandra in a pic from last forthnight by a bloke who owns the nice bright candy red 200sx

 

[pollyp]

Teesside Autodrome - Evening Trackday 19-06-17

arrived at 4pm on a really hot evening.
unpacked and prepped the car the same setup as last time.
Corey in his green micra and Neil in his silver lotus arrived.

went to briefing and got ready for warmup laps.

17.05 Warmup laps
15/30 dampers
50/50 brake bias
90% fuel
2.5/2.6bars cold

warming the brakes & tyres upto temperature



rechecked the tyre temps at the pits, not hot enough yet, need more hard laps.

17.16 Session 1
15/30 dampers
50/50 brake bias
90% fuel
2.6/2.6bars warm



Lap times:
0.56
0.59 traffic
1.02 traffic

Remark:
- good balance on a hot track with a hint of understeer
- at 04:17 the red 200sx broke down and was red flagged
- tyres now hot at 2.7bars

17.40 Session 2
15/30 dampers
50/50 brake bias
85% fuel
2.7/2.8bars hot

increased rear pressure to see if that makes the back end more loose

Lap times:
0.56 traffic
0.58 traffic
0.57 traffic
1.01 traffic
0.57 traffic
0.57 traffic

Remark:
- it was a very congested track
- tends to oversteer at the bumpy 1st corner
- being smooth at 1st corner keeps it stable
- 01:30 overtake black vauxhall
- 03:30 overtake black fiesta
- 03:50 locking the inside rear with higher pressure
- 05:10 passing black mx5
- 05:48 lock the inside rear again
- 06:00 passing black mx5 again
- 06:15 red 200sx broke down & red flagged

I gave Corey a ride down the carriageway and back at the pits I spotted Frankie had arrived in his blue micra and was also signed up to take it on track

18.20 Session 3
10/30 dampers
60/40 brake bias
80% fuel
2.7/2.7bars hot

dropped the rear pressure back down to 2.7 since it just made it lockup more and instead softened the front dampers to reduce understeer over fast bumpy transitions



Lap times:
0.56
0.57 traffic
1.07 traffic
1.00 traffic
1.01 traffic
0.58 traffic
0.55

Remark:
- turns in better with softer front dampers
- 02:45 catch up with frankie in blue micra
- 03:30 overtake frankie
- 04:02 oversteering on the bumpy 1st corner
- 04:30 stuck behind an ambitious silver bmw
- 05:45 shake my head at the bmw lol
- 06:30 overtake silver bmw
- 07:05 car released from the pit too early
- 07:10 locking wheels under bumpy braking zone

back at the pits, Frankies micra just cut out power through the corner. maybe an electrical problem. it started up ok so battery is charged and no overheating and revs fine.
while it cools down, I take him for a passenger ride.

18.53 Session 4 with Frankie
10/30 dampers
60/40 brake bias
75% fuel
2.7/2.7bars hot



Lap times:
0.58 traffic
0.56
0.57
0.57 traffic grey e30
1.00 traffic
1.03 red flag

Remark:
- slightly reduced left turn body roll with frankie balancing the weight
- 03.20 frankie pulled off handle, which Antony had pulled out from last time
- releasing clutch abit slower during 2nd to 3rd to reduce shock load on the gearbox
- 04:45 grey bmw e30 going wide
- 06:10 clio broken down

 

[pollyp]

19.23 Session 5
10/30 dampers
60/40 brake bias
75% fuel
2.7/2.7bars hot

last run on a clear hot track with the setup feeling better



Lap times:
0.56
0.56
0.55
0.57 traffic
0.57 traffic
0.57 traffic
0.56
0.55
0.56

Remark:
- 02:55 car released from pit too early
- 03:40 catchup behind Neil
- 04:15 overtake neil in silver lotus
- 05:10 overtake blue puma
- brakes take 4-5 laps to glow orange

didn't have time or energy in the heat to bother trying to remove the front swaybar but she handled gr8 tday with no issues.
packed up and returned home

 

[pollyp]

even with the wheel spacers, the front tyres are rubbing the chassis at full lock whilst parking, think I'll need to consider lengthening the lower arms

front left wheel geeting soo hot, one of the white tape has peeled off

front tyres looking the same as last time

rear tyres also appear the same

compared to the fast wider sweeping tracks like blyton, cadwell, combes (gentle wear rate), the last few track evening at teesside has been very aggressive on the front tyres (steep wear line near the end) especially after correcting the roll geometry and it turns in much better but it's wearing abit more even. both front tyres wearing the left side more from tilting on the clockwise circuit.

the rear tyres not wearing much but since last time at teesside, the middle of the tyre is wearing faster from the high 2.7bar so should maybe soften the pressure.

brakes are also wearing out faster at teesside.
the leading ends of the front pads are crumbling more

rear pads don't wear much at all

changed oil & filters

 

[pollyp]

the passenger handle was ripped off the car during trackday so I'll reattach that some other day.

measured & modelled the new spindle for the rotary laser

machined it out of spare PVC

and now the laser level can finally spin freely

 

[pollyp]

met william tday who I saw at teesside autodrome in his luvely candy red 200sx with some boost pipe issues.

 

[pollyp]

time to sand & respray these rusty arches

 

[pollyp]

while wirebrushing the arches & sills, I noticed some bubbly crusty areas.
so after after afew prodding it quickly crumbled away and ended up cutting these bits off :/
the 2014 temporary welded sills held up ok for 3yrs but I guess it's now time to rebuild it all

oops got abit carried away and cut the entire rotten sill off.
not gonna bother with recreating the 3-layer sill lip, I'm just gonna weld a nice smooth single plate underneath. save time & money

 

[pollyp]

inner sills were also rotten so I finally cut all of this much off and can begin reconstructing with fresh metal

 

[pollyp]

welded the inner sill.
omg welding from underneath a car on jack stands is soo cramped with this helmet and annoying with those weld sparks on old dirty panels flying everywhere stinging my hands & neck :/

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

I believe there's space above the original panhard mount to redrill and mount it higher & closer to the chassis rail to alter rod angle / roll center.

I think that would be a good next step, especially as it is reversible. I figure you'd want to raise the mount twice the height you want to raise the roll centre.

On track, she understeers abit during long fast bends no matter how much I soften the front pressure or dampening.

Everything is happening at one end in that situation so it seems inevitable, if it wasn't you'd be going faster in which case the same thing would happen at a higher speed.

 

[pollyp]

I think that would be a good next step, especially as it is reversible. I figure you'd want to raise the mount twice the height you want to raise the roll centre.

Everything is happening at one end in that situation so it seems inevitable, if it wasn't you'd be going faster in which case the same thing would happen at a higher speed.

aye lots more to test with.
yup the main thing holding me back is understeer. also my mechanical balance vs aero balance would change at different speeds.

 

[pollyp]

carefully cut & bent 3 sheets of steel into the same profile

welded together to form the long sill

but the weld had slightly warped it :/

grinded it flat before it's curved

bending this long sheet with a gentle curve was a massive PITA.
I tried clamping it onto the worktop with a massive pole but it was actually bent buckled and bending the sheet by hand was really hard. getting angry with insufficient tools/clamps I almost gave up.
tried again with this short pipe and slowly curved it as much as I can.

I've lost so much time trying to bend it, I was suppose to have it all welded ready by now

rather than waste further time trying to match & butt weld the sills on neatly, I'm at the "fookit" stage and just slap it on, weld & paint black.
an extra 50mm is missing off the end but will complete that later, I just wanna get the damn thing on.

matched the original curve as best as I can

but the inner sills actually curves in slightly at the ends so there's more big gaps I'll have to fill in tomorrow

I've got a cruise meetup on saturday and with so much to do, I'll be lucky if I can finish this & make it in time :/

 

[pollyp]

completed welding the sills to the chassis.
while welding the inner sill, bits of the sealant used to seal inside the cars floor had caught fire repeatedly and damaged my boot/fuel filler remote handle abit :/ had to put fire out with water sprayer after each weld.

grinded the welds flat, and painted

just have to cover the ends tomorrow and it's finished in time for saturdays convoy to the scarborough cruise meet

 

[John_D]

completed welding the sills to the chassis.
while welding the inner sill, bits of the sealant used to seal inside the cars floor had caught fire repeatedly and damaged my boot/fuel filler remote handle abit :/ had to put fire out with water sprayer after each weld.

View attachment 54444

grinded the welds flat, and painted

View attachment 54442

View attachment 54443

just have to cover the ends tomorrow and it's finished in time for saturdays convoy to the scarborough cruise meet

When you fill the ends Paul, leave a central 25mm or so round hole in the centre of the closing panel, which you can later seal with a rubber bung, for access to spray Waxoil into the cavity and prevent the chance of future rust in the same area......

 

[LiamC]

When you fill the ends Paul, leave a central 25mm or so round hole in the centre of the closing panel, which you can later seal with a rubber bung, for access to spray Waxoil into the cavity and prevent the chance of future rust in the same area......

Yeah that exactly what I'm doing to my recently done sills, have to be careful to make sure that they're a good fit though because they're right in the way of spray off the wheels

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[pollyp]

Good idea john.
Actually while it's open for easy access, I'll grab some waxoil n spray right down the sills before closing it up. If I need access in future, I'll drill a hole when required.

 

[pollyp]

in halfords a 400ml can of waxoil was £10 while a 600ml spraycan of undercoat with waxoil was just £8.
obviously got the undercoat cos I'm spraying the whole sills too.

sprayed inside & outside. patched up the hole, resprayed the rusty arches aand we're done

phew just in time for tomorrows meetup. that was cutting it close and I'm soo exhausted working flat out for the past few days.