May 10th: The first item for May will be the repair of the left hand lower corner of the boot frame. In April some rust damage was found there so the sick material will be cut away and a handmade corner will replace it. As you can imagine making such a corner that actually fits requires a lot of skill. Luckily "the Surgeon" is a very skilled welder so that will work out. As can be seen in the picture below the handmade repair piece is again of exquisite quality. After removal of the rusty material the new piece is welded in position and the section is brushed clean of any surface rust and finished to get a nice good and even surface. Such a small corner is a tough item to work on. For example the accessibility is quite poor and keeping the part in position during the welding operation is a challenge. The repaired section looks very good.

Handmade repair piece for in left hand lower corner of boot frame.	Repair piece held in position. Tricky spot to weld.
Healthy looking left hand lower corner of boot frame.	Healthy looking left hand lower corner of boot frame.

May 11th: The repaired section of yesterday will get its final treatment by applying the orange coloured anti-corrosive coating. When the welder takes a closed look to the horizontal section of the boot frame he finds out why I wasn't able to get all the paint and filler removed last year. The majority of the spot welds are loose and the shallow holes are therefore hard to clean from paint and filler. "the Surgeon" is a perfectionist and he will not leave it like it is. The welds will be drilled out and the holes will be butt welded ensure a proper connection. Any excess weld material is removed and what remains is an smooth surface. Very different from the original condition which showed a crater landscape due to the loose welds. As a finishing touch of course the anti-corrosive coating is applied. Again a solid and pretty end result. The next task is a very tricky one, the reconstruction of the sill seams behind the doors which unfortunately have disappeared during a previous restoration. The left hand side will be the first. For a start a horizontal line is drawn to indicate the position where the sill seam will return. Then the thin line which indicates the seam is taken out with a flex. That's it for today.

Healthy looking left hand lower corner of boot frame treated with anti-corrosive coating.	Healthy looking left hand lower corner of boot frame treated with anti-corrosive coating.
Many loose welds on horizontal section of boot frame.	Loose welds drilled out.
Butt welded section of frame. Solid connection and no crater landscape anymore.	Butt welded section of frame. Looking very good. Treated with anti-corrosive coating.
Line drawn on left side of body where sill seam should be.	Material removal to recreate sill seam should on left side started.
Material almost completely removed where sill seam should be.	Removed material from left hand side of body where sill seam should be.
Removed material seen from body inside (besides rear bench).

May 26th: Today a follow-up will be made on the sill seams. For the left hand side this means that a big portion of material will be cut-out. The relatively large hole which will appear will be filled with a hand made repair piece which integrates the sill seam. Sounds easy maybe but is very difficult in reality. Upon removal of the material of course a new unexpected rust affected section pops up. The material behind the body wall has a missing portion near the pillar. There is no straight forward task on this vehicle.

Big section of body material on left hand side during removal process.	Big section of body material on left hand side removed.
Section near B-pillar which needs repair.

May 27th: The poor section that was discovered yesterday near the B-pillar will be repaired. The area is poorly accessible so it takes more then hoped. Now that the material behind the body wall is fixed and treated with the necessary anti-corrosive coating the repair piece for the body can be made. With the aid of a hinged bender the proper geometry is made. This handmade piece is treated on the inside and outside with the famous orange coloured anti-corrosive coating. During a thorough check of the welding area of course a spot is found that needs some mending. The extremely lower edge of the wheel well has a small rust hole. Whilst the anti-corrosive coating on the left hand body side and the handmade repair piece is drying a start will be made on the right hand side to restore the sill seam as well. On the rh side the seam is still available but filled with weld material. The only advantage compared to the lh side is that the position of the seam is clear. On the rh side immediately a big section of the body material is taken out similar to the way done for the lh side. As always a nasty surprise pops up. When the body material is removed a very strangely repaired section is found behind it. As you can imagine the frustration of the welder about these "discoveries" is growing and growing. This is the time to stop for today. A funny thing is that a red split washing pin appears now that the material is removed. I used these split washing pins to remove the rear side windows in 2009.

Big gap in the left hand side of the body to restore the sill seam.	Rust affected material body surface near B-pillar restored.
Handmade repair piece (hinged bender) treated with anti-corrosive coating.	Material behind body surface treated with anti-corrosive coating.
Again some unexpected rust damage at the extreme end of the wheel arch.	Handmade repair piece also treated on inside with anti-corrosive coating.
Handmade repair piece also treated on inside with anti-corrosive coating.	Handmade repair piece also treated on inside with anti-corrosive coating.
A red washing pin half appears which I used in 2009 to remove the rear window.	Extremely frustrating strangely made repair by someone in the past.

May 28th: The repair piece for the left hand side and the body material have dried sufficiently so the welding will start. Welding such a piece in the body requires an enormous amount of skill and experience. These sections are not so rigid so weld distortion can cause a wavy body. The piece is welded neatly in position. No weld distortion visible. Of course the section where the repair is welded to the body will need a small amount of filler to become a completely straight surface, but that is absolutely nothing compared to the situation a few days ago when the filler layers were very thick. I can't express the respect I have for the skill of the welder. If anybody wasn't convinced about his capabilities yet then this should definitely do the trick. Absolutely amazing work. Now that the sill seam is back in its original geometry the whole section is treated with anti-corrosive coating. Now a closer look is given to the right hand side. The very strange section is taken out and the thinking will start on how to redo this properly. That's it for the month of May. The work will be continued in June.

Left hand sill seam restored to original geometry, looking very good.	Left hand sill seam restored to original geometry, looking very good.
Section behind body material on rh side, extremely strange previous repair, how frustrating.	Removing previous strange repair.
Removing previous strange repoir.