In December I purchased a second hand bulkhead which looked fairly solid, the only work that it really appeared to need work was the top corners which didn't look to great. Unfortunately the more I delved into it, the more I have found that is wrong with it, on the plus side it isn't bent like the one I took off!!
Unfortunately I didnt take as many pictures as I thought I had done....or Ive lost some but hopefully it will give you all an idea of what ive been up to
Here are a few pictures of the corners, top rail and one of the footwell strengtheners after a slight bit of grinding and a bit of poking around which showed me roughly what needed cutting out. I initially thought that where there were only small holes, just under the top corners for instance, I would get away with just spotting weld on but that just reviled lots of thin metal and rust so I ended up cutting more out but I didnt get any pictures of that.
On both corners I made up templates using cardboard and measured the holes to try and make sure that I got them in the same place, I then cut out a large section of the front piece:
As you can see, the inner piece of the bulkhead is very rusty and the strengthening for the windscreen is completely gone in places. My first job was to cut out this inner piece to good metal and fabricate a new top piece making sure it was just as strong as what should have been there, and it stood in the originals position as some of this is used for the door seal mounting. Where the Windscreen brackets are mounted sits some pipe inside of the bulkhead, for mine I borrowed some 1/2" greasepipe from a piece of plant at work and welded it in before anyone realised
This meant drilling out the spot welds which held the door seal mounting in place to pri out the rotten bracket before slotting my replacement in and spot welding it in place.
Using magnets I lined my replacement front plate in place and when I was happy tacked it in the 6 places (4 corners and the middles on each long side) to hold it in place. I then replaced the side piece which was also rotten on both sides, same again really, cut out the rotten pieces, measure up for new and tack it in. once the side was in I slowly welded up the front and the side. I repeated the process for the top and the back (dashboard side) on both the drivers and passengers sides, both corners were very rotten and where possible I used Hammerites "Krust" to try to stop and protect the bulkhead steel from any more rot.
Once I was happy I ground the welds up and set about repairing the top rail in a similar manner, however the majority of the rot was around the locating spikes and they had really taken a beating, so I spend a few minutes making some new spike out of M8 bolts on the bench grinder and cut out the rot and welded in fresh metal. I then drilled out the spaces for the locating pins and welded them in place.
The footwell strengthener was a right mess, I could see the extent of the rust and so I ran over it with a wire brush wheel on the grinder and it wasnt even worth salvaging.....in fact there wasnt a lot left. So what I have done here is take some 40mm Box section and sliced it down one way to make a U Section of depth 15mm and welded this in place. I will get a picture of this shortly.
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I think I have now finished welding on the bulkhead, I say I think because everytime I have said that I have finished i always find some more to do!!
I have been cleaning it up ready for painting using a mixture of a wire brush wheel and the Scotch M3 paint striping discs, expensive but effective! I have also cleaned up both wings, some of the filler put in by a previous owner was a little worse for wear so I have replaced some of it while other bits I have actually straightened the dints out.
Tomorrow I am going to have a look at repairing the hole in the chassis that I found on Saturday, I was going to take the fuel tank off but that is proving to be too difficult since the tank got knocked on hollinsclough resulting in the brackets being bent! Oh well! Wish me luck folks!
