MK1 Body Repairs

[FrankHoney]

Hi folks, just a short update. After trying various garages and getting every reaction from not interested to telling me " we dont do welding" (McLarens in Kirkintilloch) to pretending to know what they were talking about I have finally found someone who seems keen and knowledge able. Carl at CBS Autos in Nelson ( thanks for the recommendation Richard N) is going to assess it at the end of this month and he will hopefully save it depending on how bad the rot is and how much its going to cost me (gulp!). I will update with the results in due course. Thanks to all the posters again for their input. Regards Frank.

[drumtochty Eddie Cairns]

Best of luck at least you have done your homework and it seems there is someone who is ticking the boxes of your quality plan.

[FrankHoney]

Yet more updates!. Well I took the mxr to Carl at CBS on the 28th Sept. He and Anthony put it on the ramp and said firstly " was this done previously by that guy in Dundee?, it's the same bodge as Richard Nicol's" and then said to fix it at least 3.5K but probably closer to 5K!. I said thanks for your time and drove back to Glasgow with a heavy heart. I waited a few days then thought I will stick it on eBay for parts. As luck would have it a chum phoned for a blether and I told him my tale of woe. He gave me the name of the lad who welds his old rally cars and said phone him, see what he says. So the upshot is the car is going tomorrow to Indy at Singh's Garage in Renfrew for full interior strip, inner and outer sills, rear quarter panels, front inner wings welded, paint and reassembly for a good bit less than Carl quoted. Indy asked me if it was okay to photograph the process as he liked his customer's to see what work had been done. Fingers crossed I might finally have a good result. No doubt more updates to follow.

[drumtochty Eddie Cairns]

Ok it may never be a show car but you get the feeling that either the people down south were perfectionists that thought the cars would never be 100% correct or they just did not want the hassle.

I'm sure your guy will make a fine job of it but it will never look like one for the fresh imports from GoodwoodSportscars.

It's good to keep another car on the road.

[FrankHoney]

Eddie my thoughts exactly. I think it was too much work for Carl to be bothered, either that or he is asking big money and people are willing to pay. I don't mind paying a fair price but I don't like being ripped off either. I am very attached to the car and have had some great runs in it so really want to keep it as long as I can. If Indy makes a good job then I will look at getting other work done, a new hood, suspension upgrade, etc. You are right in that it will never be as clean as a fresh import from Stevie at Goodwoid Sports cars but considering how little I paid for it, even with the repairs, its still cheaper than one of Stevie's.

[FrankHoney]

Well at last a further update if anyone is still interested. The mxr has had new sills, partial floorpan both sides entire length, four new jacking points, new inner front and rear wings, most of the lower bulkhead replaced, front crossmember repaired and an entire respray!. Indy has given me a CD showing all the above from initial cutting of the rot to new metal being welded to paint being applied. I will post some pics when I figure out how to from the CD. Here's one from my phone I took last week. It's having a final polish. I just need to find someone in the Glasgow area who fits hoods and I will be sorted for spring.
Edit; can't upload pic, say's the file size is too big. Can anyone tell how to upload pics (in very simple terms!.

[drumtochty Eddie Cairns]

Go to

http://www.photobucket.com

Set up a free account

Up load the pictures there.

Chose a picture you want to show here and doubleclick on the photo.

A new page will come up with that photo, go over to the left hand side and click inside the IMG box

The when you want to show that photo on MX5Scotland click the post button put some words in the on the next line do CTR V

That will paste the link back to that picture on photobucket.

You can then go back to photobucket and do the same with other pictures.

If you have photo editing software you may want to resize the photos before you upload them.

In that way you show pictures here without taking up too much room on the MX5Scotland server.

[FrankHoney]

Hopefully link to the pic this time.

[FrankHoney]

Some of the repair work.

[FrankHoney]

[FrankHoney]

[FrankHoney]

[FrankHoney]

Eddie
As you can see it sort of worked. For some reason the link when posted upload the pictures rather than the link. I wont post any more (120 of them) but if anyone else wants to see the rest then p.m. your email and I will send them on. Regards Frank

[drumtochty Eddie Cairns]

Correct readers do not want to see the link they want to see the pictures.

The car was pretty far gone but looks a lot better now.

All those underneath areas need covered with wax / stone chip and the internal cavities need done with cavity wax now!

Nice job.

eddie

[OldSpice]

Flippin 'eck..that looks corking!
Top man!

[mgrays]

Looking like gas welding .. or he is a genius with TIG welder. Odd to find anyone using gas now as MIG welding is so cheap and easy. Gas welding allows you to melt the parts together and is in many ways better but it does give heat distortion issues.

Hope he did undercoat in white paint for the yellow.. hard to tell in those lights but I suspect he did not..

Anyway good to see another yella one saved. Good work

[FrankHoney]

Old Spice, thanks for that. He has made a decent job considering the amount of work involved and I am well pleased.
Mgrays in answer to your query, its gas welded and I think he maybe is a genius!. When I saw the car cut up I reckoned he would never get it back together but it looks mighty fine. As for the paint your suspicions are wrong. He actually pointed out a nearside repair which had been done (years before I bought it) where the undercoat used was grey. I had never noticed the different shading on the yellow top coat until he pointed it out. He used a white undercoat when he resprayed it. The pic doesn't show the colour properly and he had only polished part of the nearside when I took the pic. The rest of the car is quite flat.
Eddie, last but not least Sir, he has stonechipped the arches and underside, put the arch liners back on and waxoiled the cavity's so all good. It's going back in next winter to have the suspension stripped, shot blasted and painted (need to save up some more money first)

[OldSpice]

Frank,
Would you mind PM-ing me with a broad idea of costs at Singhs?
Won't go further, G'teed.

[FrankHoney]

Old Spice PM sent.
Regards Frank.

[Dave4011]

HI Frank, I have a Mk1 Monaco that needs some work done which is not too far from what you had done, could you pm me with contact details for Singhs and a rough guide to costs etc, I am in Irvine in Ayrshire, thanks. Dave