Front Jacking Point Replacement (Part 3) - Left Hand Side

With the tips I picked up while replacing the right hand jacking point, I moved on and replaced the one on the left side. While the jacking point itself looked deceptively sturdy, the closing panel behind was clearly in a poor state. In for a penny, in for a pound.....

The rust was hidden under the underseal

The three screw holes you can see in a horizontal row in the photo above, are the mounting point for mudflap. Those mudflaps mask the jacking point areas and you don't realise how bad they can get until you look really closely....

I proceeded as I did for the right hand side. The welds were exposed......

Welds Exposed

......and I used the spot weld drill to drill them out. I only drilled an initial pilot dimple to steady the drill and took things slowly to avoid drilling too deeply and into the underlying flanges.

The jacking point on this side was very stubborn and I had to remove it in pieces to give me access to the diagonal flange.

Some bits practically fell off......

....others had to be surgically removed

Overall things worked well and there was less damage.

Less damage this time.......

The flanges tidied up quite nicely

Inside, the box sections were in very good order and a testament to the Waxoyl I applied back in the mid 1990s. Though after 20+ years it was dried, curling and cracking on the bases - so I scraped that out and will apply some more wayoyl or Dinitrol in due course.

Box sections look good inside

Disassembly went well then. Reassembly, on the other hand was far trickier than on the right hand side. The panel was a poor fit to the flanges that it needed to be welded to. In particular, there was no contact with the the two angled faces of the diagonal flange and also along the top horizontal flange at the footwell edge. Taken together, it meant that I would not be able to get adequate welds  on a significant proportion of the panel. Something that was not going to be acceptable (or safe) for a jacking point. The old panel I had removed made contact in these parts, but it was now too damaged, twisted and cut-up to reveal any of it's secrets. 

It all came off like a jigsaw

I spent quite a long time gently coaxing the replacement panel and flanges together where I could. In other areasI resorted to a hammer to encourage the panel to meet the flange.

One of many trial fits

I was more careful in removing paint only around the plug weld holes. I drill a mix of 5mm where the weld would be to a fairly flimsy flange and 6.5mm holes where the weld would be around the edge of the panel and to more substantial flanges.

Weld-thru primer over the plug weld holes

A much better fit now

My plug welding needs to improve. I was still leaving significant domed heads on the welds through my efforts to pour heat into the weld to ensure the metal fused. My penance would come later with the much-loathed grinding off of the welds......

Nearly there......

It all seems to have worked out okay in the end. I had used weld-through primer on the surfaces before I welded. As well as smelling foul when it burns, I 'm also convinced that stuff causes the MIG welder to spit more. What's that they say about a workman blaming his tools?

Grinding back the welds. I HATE that job.....

Now that it was all back together, and the welds were ground down, I thinned some zinc primer and liberally painted that on the seams and joins in the hope that it would wick into the gaps. That's just for now. I will eventually get around to sealing the seams, painting and finishing with either undersea or schutz.

A thing of beauty!