New Zealand Datsun Club

I pulled my 1200 out of the carport a couple of months ago to get it back on the road. It had been reversed into on the rear drivers side door by a suv and was unable to pass a wof with the window broken and replaced with plastic. The birds had their way with it while it was parked up so it needed a waterblast and it was leaking coolant out of a frost plug under the manifolds once started.

After a quick clean I put it on the hoist to cut the exhaust pipe so I could get the extractors off to replace the frost plug and noticed some paint bubbling on the sills,bottom of the rear quarters and rear pan.

I ran the grinder over the sills and a few spots on the back and found bog, lots of bog and rust holes. The sills had been patched over with the rust not removed, there was three patches down the drivers side making up most of the sill and two on the passengers side at the front and back. The rear quarters had no patches just bog and tin foil. The rear pan appeared to have a plate tacked over top with bog under, on top and around making it look ok. Amazingly the car has looked fairly sound for years and never had wof issues but you could tell something was'nt quite right as there were no seams where there should be and way too much under sealer everywhere so not really too surprised. I set about repairing the sills, it seemed pointless putting more patches on so I cut the old ones off and cut out any rust on the inner sill and welded new steel in. After a bit of mucking around I made up some outer skins and welded them in too so now I will attack the mess at the back end. As this amount of work is a bit more than I really intended I thought this build thread might keep things in perspective.

The next mess

Yowza, that's some thick bog.

You have to wonder sometimes if it wouldn't be easier to actually repair the car properly than create some of these bog masterpieces that seem to pop up from time to time.

Good work man

Yeah I agree, for me it seems a bit strange to slap maybe $100 worth of filler on rust holes when steel sheet is so much cheaper. There must be at least a four litre tin on the back of this thing, I started to grind it off but it was making too much mess so I got out the cutting wheel. Some of the inner structure needed replacing as well.

I have extended the bottom down by sixty millimetres to try and cover the spring hangers and most of the spare wheel well when the outer skin goes on. Has anybody else done this before? I think it will look better but if it looks wrong it shouldn't be hard to change back.

Another stormy day here so getting a bit done in the shed. Have been welding on the rear quarters. They didn't come up the smoothest but happy with them considering my abilities. Then went to work on the back panel, I have extended down from the inner structure to cover the spring hangers and match into the extended sides.

Have been working on the rear panel over the weekend which has been a mongrel to get to shape. The internal surfaces are now primed so will be welding on when I next get a chance.

Finished welding back panel on today happy days! , no more sparks falling down on me at last

Loads easier on a hoist!