A very crunchy SF Forester

[datsunfreak]

Why did you not get donor strut towers off that red car? Was the the concern over the in-between panel rust? 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I see threads like this and I think - why bother? But if it makes you happy...

[Noll]

21 hours ago, datsunfreak said:

Why did you not get donor strut towers off that red car? Was the the concern over the in-between panel rust? 

 

I would have liked to, but they were rusty in the same spot they all are (not the best pic sorry, only one I happened to take showing the rust):

 

Plus even if they were perfect, they are still the dumb design of like 4 different layers, no primer on the inner metal, barely any sealant, holes thru some outer layers that are almost designed for water to get to the inner ones, etc. Rust would 100% happen, and I wouldn't want to go to the work of putting in new towers just for that to occur.

 

Whereas, a single layer of 1/8" plate can't trap moisture 😛

 

2 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

I see threads like this and I think - why bother? But if it makes you happy...

 

I'm kinda dumb sometimes tbf 😛
But in reality it mostly comes down to - even if I sourced a nice one on the west coast, after a few winters here it would be getting crusty in the same spots they all do anyway. This way, i fix all the design flaws etc while I'm at it so I end up with a car that will last wayyyy better than how they came out of the factory.

[Noll]

More headway the past few days; made a bracket for mounting the filler neck and test fit it, which complete the right rear strut tower (final welding of those lower slices will be when it's removed from the car before final welding), and built the world's most overkill quick-release strut tower bar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

20 hours ago, Noll said:

 

I'm kinda dumb sometimes tbf 😛
But in reality it mostly comes down to - even if I sourced a nice one on the west coast, after a few winters here it would be getting crusty in the same spots they all do anyway. This way, i fix all the design flaws etc while I'm at it so I end up with a car that will last wayyyy better than how they came out of the factory.

Can't argue with that.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I didn't mean the dumb part.

[Noll]

No worries lol, figured you meant the other bit 🙂

---------------

 

Got the p/s rear "pocket" below the bumper all cleaned up and fixed. Few layers here that needed fixing, but happy with the end result (doubly so because it'll never be seen anyway).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The quarter repair panel had the roll in the arch become too side where it met the bumper, causing it not to lone up (worse than it looks in the pic). Sliced, welded, and cleaned up that area to line up better:

 

 

 

 

 

[Noll]

Went on holiday for a month, but back now and back at working on this thing 🙂

Rear bumper was previously ripped and repaired by somebody, and the plastic weld is failing at the ends. Putt some zipties in mostly-hidden places for now until i eventually find a nicer bumper cover in the right color:

 

 

 

While on the trip I picked up a driving light switch meant for a 2020 Mazda pickup, one 3d-printed adapter later it fits in the empty slot I had and I think looks half-decent:

 

 

Ok, back to welding. Decided to make some filler pieces for the rear pocket areas so that mud/water/etc can't get thrown back behind by the tires and potentially cause rust:

 

 

 

 

 

Still wasn't happy with one corner of the p/s rear quarter so pulled it off and revised it:

 

 

 

 

Cut out all the bad and re-built the driver's rear pocket:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside was crunchy too, so cardboard template time:

 

 

 

Made about 4 different bits and welded them together to be the inner repair, as it was much easier than trying to connect them in-place:

 

 

 

factory plastic drain clip thing was long since AWOL, so I made a new little drain that should be protected from getting blocked:

 

 

 

Welded in:

 

 

 

Outer skin welded in too, as well as the front closing panel and the same filler piece as the other side:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress may be slower for a while now because I have a *lot* of rust to fix on a 1973 Mini for someone, and paid job has to take priority. I'll be doing stuff here and there on the foz as I have time though.

 

[EDM620]

Swamp drainage...

[datsunfreak]

At least on the Mini all those bits can be easily bought new...  😄

[]2eDeYe]

Wow that is a rusty rocker lol

[Noll]

On 1/4/2024 at 5:15 PM, datsunfreak said:

At least on the Mini all those bits can be easily bought new...  😄

 

Indeed, makes life wayyyy easier than some of the bits on our datsuns haha. That said, i'm making the floors and inner rockers from scratch, because I gave the owner the choice of that or pre-made and he said he wanted to help support me improving my skillset and equipment - as well as the money for the floors he sent some extra for a bead-roller so I had the ability to put very long bends in panels etc now - super cool guy to be doing the work for 🙂

(in an amusing coincidence a friend then shipped me a bead roller he wasn't using for free, so I used that $$ to buy a shrinker and stretcher instead, as they also make my life easier and open up what I can do by a lot)

 

have made exactly one thing on the bead roller thus far, a repair panel for the rusty bottom of the trunk lid, and i really like it! Makes it possible to make so much stuff I never could before, and I am rather happy with the result for my first-ever time using it to make a piece lol:

 

On 1/5/2024 at 8:53 AM, ]2eDeYe said:

Wow that is a rusty rocker lol

even better, that's the inner structure that's not normally exposed to the elements lol, that was after I cut the outer sill off (or rather cut off the over-sill that had been welded over top after the original sill rotted off).

this was the before, and the other side:

 

 

 

 

I'll probably end up starting a thread for the Mini, just need to have time and energy line up at the same time to do a write-up of all I've done thus far on it.

[Noll]

Ok, some more progress so another update! Some parts of some pics are blurry as my phone's camera is slowly dying unfortunately, will hopefully get another before *too* long. Still good enough to show progress though 🙂

 

One of these things is not like the other:

 

 

 

Cut out the big section of trunk floor that was bad, and replaced with a cutoff from the junkyard car I chopped up a while back:
 

 

 

 

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Given this will be a totally hidden area (paint/undercoating on the bottom, paint/sound deadening/the foam trunk subfloor up top) I didn't bother trying to make the join or weld cleanup perfect, just took the top off the weld so sound deadening will sit over it nicely.

 

 

The reinforcing panel on the rear looked fine but decided to drill it out and remove just to be sure, and am glad I did:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, good enough for where it's for for the car it's for 🙂 . This will get undercoated and then the crash bar and bumper cover cover it all up anyway. Did a basic weld cleanup of the bottom too:

 

 

Other rear corner needed a little repair too, only a little rust visible from the exterior but as always it's worse than it looks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The frame rails are getting totally replaced as mentioned previously, so don't mind that rot 🙂 . Currently working on finishing up the rear strut towers, and then I can remove them for the final time, finish the right inner arch tub, and then move onto the rear frame rail replacement itself.

 

[Noll]

Oh, and more mini progress, got the bootlid done and quite happy with the result. Will need a skim of filler, but with MIG on such a big flat panel that's inevitable.
(I will make it its own thread soon, i promise 😛 )

 

 

 

 

 

 

(oh and the larger panel gap at the bottom is how it was before, pretty sure the bottom lip of the shell there has been messed with before; that area needs rust repair so i'll make the gap even when i sort that)

[Noll]

Ok, time to stop procrastinating (have been busy too tbf) and update this again. Been working here and there when I haven't been feeling up to Mini work but still wanted to accomplish SOMETHING. Highlights/progress from the last month:

Decided to re-do these front sections of the strut towers - they were the last original metal (aka thin af compared to what I've built) and I just wasn't a huge fan, plus was going to make some bits to fill the too-big gaps before welding anyway, so time for overkill.

 

Having a shrinker and stretcher really has opened up what I can do/made stuff much faster and less work. All 16ga for these bits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And formed the other bits,cut off the last of the old, and welded it all in.Quite happy with the result.

 

 

 

 

 

The very last bit that needed doing before the towers were done was the d/s rear section, so got started on that.

 

 

 

 

Figured I should test-fit the interior trim before I committed, to make sure everything would fit. This snowballed into putting in pretty much all the rear lower interior and taking some pics - fair ways until this can all go in for good but this was a nice motivation boost to see how it will all be when done 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy with fitment, so welded in the piece I cut out of that trailer fender. Some tweaks and a side filler panel and the last strut tower was done! Well, as done as they can be in place, I needed to weld the backsides of everything and do a bunch of cleanup before final install, plus there was some other stuff to get to before that too.

 

 

 

 

new braided softlines showed up; should both be nice for pedal feel, and are 2" longer than stock so I know I'll have zero issues with the strut top lift at full extension.

 

 

 

 

Back to metalwork, made up the very last brace piece for the strut towers I had forgotten, welded it in and removed the towers from the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back when i first fixed this area, the goal was more "make it solid but asap to get this thing on the road". The timeline has extended a lot since then and i'm at the point where i want everything to be the best it can be above all else, so time to redo it as overkill as possible. 16ga sheet for this too, making the top bend was a bit of a PITA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On to the internals. This was all technically fine, but again just made to be 'good enough' last time, so wasn't happy with it. The left brace section is the factory shape, but I figured it made more sense for it to come out to meet the outer layer so they could be welded together.

 

 

 

 

Some templates, then bits, then rebuilt the other brace section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mangled the hell out of the seatbelt stud plate getting it off but the stud itself was fine which is what matters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quite happy with the end result there, much thicker than stock and the outer bit is all one piece instead of two overlapping sections (fun fact this is why older subaru rear quarters and strut towers rot, seam sealer fails at that overlap up where it's impossible to see with the strut tower in place, salty winter water gets flung up by the tires and gravity makes it run down into the seam, seam rots out, water runs into the cavity back there and starts to rot out the rear arches from the inside out).

 

Just started on the other side inner arch today as I hadn't built that at all yet. This side will also get the same big upper section as the other side replaced, wanted to start with the inner arch though as the filler neck passthru has to be in the right spot to work.

 

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53537438822_31e988aa34_b.jpg]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EDM620]

Nice work, keep up the progress

[Noll]

ty!

Mostly working on the Mini, but did squeeze in a lil process on this between that today.

 

Needs some adjustment ofc, but new 'endcap' piece of the rear right inner arch (for lack of a better name for it) built and cleco'd in place roughly. With this in place now, next time I can start building the right third inner arch from the quarter panel inwards to this bit and the filler neck section; probably the most technical part of the inner arch shape, so once that is built the other 2/3rds will take no time at all.

 

 

 

Dunno exactly how it'll turn out until I do it ofc, but i'm thinking something like this:

[Noll]

Lil more last night, made a couple bits for the arch and tacked it all together. Last couple bits to make soon then full welding and cleanup of this section (nothing will be welded into the car until all the internal structure is repaired though ofc).

 

 

 

 

[Noll]

Made the last panel of this section, and fully welded + cleaned it all up:

 

 

And made a couple more bits (the front bit needs some bends put into it still ofc):

 

Before going any further I want to weld in the first bit to make sure it remains positioned 100% how I want, and to do that I need to finally weld on the outer quarter panel repair panel (so I can paint/seal the backside before i get rid of the access to it with the arch tub install), so that'll be the next job.

Edited March 4, 2024 by Noll

[Rustbin]

I like rereading your posts. I hope life is treating you good and not sucking up all your project time.

[Noll]

On 8/5/2024 at 11:31 PM, Rustbin said:

I like rereading your posts. I hope life is treating you good and not sucking up all your project time.

 

Many thanks! Life has been crazy busy for a bit, and the Mini that I've been being paid to do a load of rust repair on has been eating up all my garage time unfortunately, but That should be done within a month or so hopefully and I can get back to working on and posting about my own stuff. The foz has basically just been languishing in its corner of the garage waiting for me to get back to it, although come to think of it there is some progress beyond what's posted here that I have some pics of from earlier in the year that I should make a post about.

 

Once the Mini is done I'll be back on it properly, as well as doing a bunch of stuff to my Z, Lada Niva, etc and a bit of metalwork on my partner's FB RX7.

[Noll]

Ok, the old progress pics as promised. This stuff is all from a good few months ago, but it's nice to get the thread up to date for when I'm able to return to this project properly.

 

---------------

 

Grafted in a section of rear floor from the car that donated its rear frame rails:

 

 

 

 

 

Cleaned up all the surface rust around the filler door area, and welded on the quarter repair panel:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inner structure back in, and re-did some of the stuff that was done way back when this was just meant to be a quick-and-dirty fix as opposed to a full overhaul:

 

 

 

 

 

Welded in for good:

 

 

 

 

Making the rest of the inner structure etc to complete stuff in this area:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decided I should make some contour gauges to make sure the curvature of the quarter panels actually match each other (weld warpage and so on), so bent up some metal and used the shrinker-stretcher to curve it. A little adjustment was needed to the quarters but I got them nice and close to each other, well within the bounds of a skim of filler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got the bumper mounted up and adjusted the rears of the quarters so the curve of the wheelarch lines up nicely:

 

 

 

Wasn't happy with how the right-side rear 'dogleg' was sunken in relative to the door, so ordered another patch panel to cut that section out of and re-do that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the inner structure, finishing stuff up:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mocking the strut towers up:

 

 

 

 

And removing them one last time to clean up all the welds and prep them:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And welded in! Plug welded all the factory spot weld holes to begin with, then stitch-welded everything too for good measure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut out the rotten seat-base floor section for better access to stuff:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And started cleaning up and fixing the new rear floor/frame sections:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, made the final inner wheelarch filler panel to finish the right side:

 

 

 

 

 

With luck I'll get the Mini done soon and can get back to working on this again.

[datsunfreak]

Please tell me you are going to put 16 coats of undercoating on these when you are done...  😆

[Noll]

On 1/22/2025 at 5:40 PM, datsunfreak said:

Please tell me you are going to put 16 coats of undercoating on these when you are done...  😆

oh, 100% haha. Mastercoat sealer/paint (This stuff), quality seam sealer, plenty of undercoating/stonechip protection, then absolutely dousing the underside of the car and all of the cavities/voids (inside frame rails, empty area inside the rear quarters, etc etc) in Fluid Film is the plan, and recoating fluid  film every year. Not letting it rot again after the amount of work I am/have put into it lol.

 

[datzenmike]

lol I thought you said Mastercraft. In the early '70s it was Ziebart rustproofing. My '68 had the plastic plugs all over it where it was sprayed in.  By mid '70s it was used engine oil. Many people, myself included would by a POS 'winter car' and park the good one. My first one was a $100 '55 chev Blue Flame six. Later a $150 '65 Pontiac (or PawnTicket as Garth would say) with bald winter tires. My 521 lasted 8 years in spite of Ontario winters. Onterrible.... I sure don't miss it.