Riley wrote:
>1: Rust! I need to weld on a small metal patch to fix a hole on the drivers
>side. This is on the piece that you can see once the dash is out and spans
>the width of the car.
This is not uncommon. So what's the problem here? You have several options:
a. Patch it with fiberglass cloth and resin from the inside of the car.
b. Simply lay a piece of metal over the hole and weld it in place.
c. Cut out the rust, and make a metal patch that just fits in the hole. Not
weld it in place.
The only problem with these solutions is that the patch was applied from the
outside of the plenumn, and if you don't really close the edge where the
patch
overlaps, it could leak.
If you opt for either of the welding solutions, use a MIG welder, and stich
weld the patch in place so you don't warp the metal.
>Second, the driver's side area where the hood release cable is has rusted
>pretty bad.
Again if it is the flat metal, cut out all the bad metal and MIG weld in
a patch panel.
>Third, I'd like to know what it takes to replace the metal part of the plenum
>where the two big holes are and the piece underneath that lets water enter
>the heater. I'd like to fabricate new parts, modified so that various
>problems can be fixed such as the water in the heater problem. I'm guessing
>the roof panel and windshield will need to be removed, but I'm not sure
about
>the fenders. I have no clue what the parts would cost to make.
I would remove the windshield, and the front fenders. The front fenders are
bolted to the car and are not difficult to remove. You might want to have
a pro. window person remove your windshield as they can probably get it out
without breaking it. You don't want that to happen. About $800 for a new
one. Depending on how far to the sides you want to cut out, you might want
to remove the A pillar covers. The roof can be left intact. In addition,
you will probably want to pull the eng. & xmission to you east access to
the area while working on it.
If your goal is to mearly keep water from comming into the cockpit, you don't
have to go through all that. Simply make a baffel - a plate to go into the
plemumn between the wiper motor and the heater hoses. The closer to the
hoses the better. Then drill a hole in the front bottom of the plenumn to
let the water drain out. I would suggest at least a 1/4" hole or larger.
>2: My rear hatch has lots of small "flakes" inside. I removed it and I
>could hear them moving around like sand in a box. What are they? How should
>I disassemble the hatch? Any updates I can do while inside there?
There is NO real recommended way of doing this. I think what you are hearing
is the reinforcement tube in side the hatch has rusted, and is flaking apart.
The easiest and cheapest is to probably replace the hatch. However, if your
are willing to do the work, you can carefully cut the top of the rear hatch
apart. Then dig out the old pipe/tube and replace it. Then fiberglass it
all back together.
>How about making the defroster connections look nicer by removing the wires
>from the glass and soldering on slide on connectors similar to the way they
>do on new cars? Will I damage the defroster wires if they get too much heat
>from the soldering gun?
Knock your socks off! Yes, you can break the wire runs from too much heat
from the gun. Also I don't know how you're going to make a new connection
to the wire easily. But what the hey.
>And how easy is it to remove the old defroster grid and put a new one on?
Don't know, never tried it.
>4: Has anyone successfully extended the body panels so that the gaps between
>them are smaller? I'm also thinking of finding a way to block air that
comes
>in through the gap between the bumper and hood extension from coming ino the
>passenger compartment. Any tips/info here would be great too.
The air shouldn't be comming into the pass. compartment. If it is, you have
a hole in the firewall. The area between the bumper and the hood extension
is to let air in to help cool the radiator and evaporator. Don't think you
want to mess with this unless you really do something to ensure the eng. will
run cool.
>5: I've read stories about the oil pan getting sliced open in certain
>situations such as going through a dip followed by a manhole cover that's
>sticking up. I read in a kit car magazine about a guy who put small wheels
>in front of the car out of view so the bottom of the car doesnt get
scraped.
Very true. In fact, my orig. pan is about toast, and the saddle under the
eng. was mangled because the PO hit something. I don't know that the
wheels would do much for you. I'd try putting some sort of a heavy metal
plate on the bottom of the car with a curve up in from of the saddle similar
to what the off roaders do.
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V (B1109)
71 Saab Sonett III (71500840) 75 Bricklin SV1 (0887) 77 Spitfire
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
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