1970 GT

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Re: 1970 GT

Postby hbr341 » Tue Apr 03, 2018 6:43 pm

Hi James
Nice to see you are pressing on with your GT mine was bad had to do floors both front wings repair the inners like you have done. the chassis was like new on the N/S and rotten on the O/S same with the sills and door pillars even had to weld in boot channel on the N/S mines all done now .So now iam starting a full resto on my HB SL but this one is very good only found minimal rust on it iam going to strip it to bare metal and respray it blue red leather interior keeping it OHV. will be good to meet you at MH with your GT.

Regards Chris.
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Re: 1970 GT

Postby jamezz666 » Wed Apr 04, 2018 12:38 pm

Johnboy HB wrote:That's right, as an old form of transport, the mentality was ' try and get another 12 months out of it' so bodges were rife, saw some awful bodges over time including using wood as chassis rails ! As you say underseal set like concrete back then & was frequently used to mask 'repairs'



you reminded me of the time, when my dad bought a 1938 morris 10 and the chassis had a big chock of wood through it to support the rest of the chassis haha
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Re: 1970 GT

Postby jamezz666 » Wed Apr 04, 2018 12:42 pm

hbr341 wrote:Hi James
Nice to see you are pressing on with your GT mine was bad had to do floors both front wings repair the inners like you have done. the chassis was like new on the N/S and rotten on the O/S same with the sills and door pillars even had to weld in boot channel on the N/S mines all done now .So now iam starting a full resto on my HB SL but this one is very good only found minimal rust on it iam going to strip it to bare metal and respray it blue red leather interior keeping it OHV. will be good to meet you at MH with your GT.

Regards Chris.




Hello chris

both of ours would have a lot in common with welding, as the pillars and boot channel was/is gone on this. I repaired the pillars, but the boot channeling i'm yet to come to! I was thinking with the boot channel, i may use fibreglass matting to go around whats left of the metal and i know bodging isn't best, but the state of my boot channel... well let's just say, it would take some devine power to do a good job without it looking a mess.

You should make a thread on the hb sl if you haven't already :)
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Re: 1970 GT

Postby hbr341 » Wed Apr 04, 2018 8:40 pm

Hi James
The boot channel was not that bad to make only one side had gone on mine . I would do a thread on the SL but iam not that good on the computer i cant up load pics on here.

Regards Chris.
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Re: 1970 GT

Postby jamezz666 » Fri Apr 06, 2018 11:24 am

Got both sides fully welded up! not pretty but they will hold :) So.. just in case anyone else is doing the same and they're curious to how i did it, read on below. But i will say this, my way is definitely not the best way and it's not how they was originally.

The back plates for the hinge with the fixed nuts that sit on the inside of the inner wheel arch, they normal rot and fall apart! so before you do anything, inspect the back plates and see if they're any good. If your back plates was rotted into bits, then that means the inner wing that is sandwiched between the 'hinge back plate' and the hing it's self will be rotted, so then the best thing i could do was get a socket onto the bolts and turn them until all the nasty rotten bits broke, then you may have a chance of pulling the hinges, with what remains just straight out of there!

Now that the hinge is out of the way, make a cardboard template of the hole and use some thickish steel as you will want that to be the next back plate, cut it to the shape of your template and then reach under the wing to get the back plate in place of the hole, see if you can get someone to pop a couple of magnets across to hold the plate in place (done it on my own which was a bit tricky but doable). Once they're in place go a head and seem weld them plates in place. So looking in from the bonnet you will now see your welded in 'back' plate that sits about 2-3mm sunken to the level of the inner wing "sandwiched" steel where the holes would've been for the bolts. Now draw another template plate, which will be smaller as that will sit within the current seem welds but at level with the inner wing "sandwich" steel, and weld that in place, so you can have your hinges sit flat.

Sorry about my poor description, English in school wasn't my greatest subject :lol: i will add more once i've gotten further myself

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Re: 1970 GT

Postby lord13 » Fri Apr 06, 2018 12:12 pm

I did pretty much the same thing, except i only used one repair panel with massive washers and captive nuts. Reason being, they rot out in the first place because there IS two panels there, the moisture gets trapped between the two. If you only use one repair panel there is no where for the moisture to get trapped so they wont rot out again. However, it took roughly 30 years to get in the state yours were in so I guess she'll go for a while yet ;)
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Re: 1970 GT

Postby jamezz666 » Sun Apr 08, 2018 4:34 pm

lord13 wrote:I did pretty much the same thing, except i only used one repair panel with massive washers and captive nuts. Reason being, they rot out in the first place because there IS two panels there, the moisture gets trapped between the two. If you only use one repair panel there is no where for the moisture to get trapped so they wont rot out again. However, it took roughly 30 years to get in the state yours were in so I guess she'll go for a while yet ;)


I did think after i welded in 2 panels that moisture may be a problem, but then again... it will only go out in the dry ;) not that it will be a show winner, just that i wouldn't want to speed up the process of the already corroded parts :lol:

I gave them a good wollup with the hammer to make sure the strength was there as well :D
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Re: 1970 GT

Postby jamezz666 » Sun Apr 08, 2018 4:35 pm

they're finished now! besides having to do another coat of hand brush hammerite smooth red next week ;)

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Re: 1970 GT

Postby jamezz666 » Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:07 am

Well i was just having a poke around the back end of the car and well... those back panels seem to be held on by a lot of filler :shock: also i did find the drivers windscreen pillar to have a good amount of filler :roll: i only got a picture of the pack one panel, but both are the same :angrywife:.

So my plan is to grind in the gap and spot weld the majority of it, then run some filler down there. If there is enough metal then i will seem weld it.
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Re: 1970 GT

Postby 1972nail » Thu Apr 12, 2018 4:55 pm

I'm not an HB expert but are those joints not just filled with seam sealer from the factory? Or at most lead loaded? I don't think that they were welded along that joint.
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