DDG 220 C aka "Millie" - MK 1 Singer Chamois

[John A. Ross]

OK, so back to slicing and dicing and all thae fun that goes with it.

The sparks that no matter how much protection you wear ends up in your work boot, the cutting disc dust that ends up in every crevice, like sand on beach, enough said !

Fits the replacement panels get treated to a wip down with 320 grid, acid etched to leave a keyed surface and zinc coat, then a couple of coats of 2K rust blocking epoxy that binds to metal like crap does to the under crackers.

2 of these and 2 of these



Thats all 4 corners sorted, but wait, door repairs and doors needed for setting panels

[John A. Ross]

So onto the doors, corners repaired , inside rust proofed and sealed, sprayed with a good old coat of epoxy, blocked out, some extra filler work and coated in expoxy again.

The epoxy I use is also a primer / sealer, do not confuse it with most aerosol primers that can leach moisture out the air, if you have to use canned primer at seams please use Zinc primer.

As you can see the semi gloss nature of the epoxy makes for a fantastic guide coat, if it is still shiny, its not flat, when blocking dont use a little block if you can avoid it.

[John A. Ross]

And i found more of those other bits to do,

Pedal Box for cylinders



Locks and keys



Fuel tank sender as you will likely be restoring a heap changed tare this is borked

The one below is a universal one from Car Builder Solutions, but it IS NEW and of course has an extra "low fuel" connection if you want to add a lamp.



Brake Drums (Nearly forgot !!! )



Suspension parts for headlining



DONT FORGET YOUR WHEELS !! you will need some crappy ones to roll shell about rather than use nice alloys



And for the chammy the finishing strips for under the door to sills

[John A. Ross]

And an absolute must is THE HELP

Here is my son earning his bones by flatting off the epoxy primer on the floor pan, he did the engine bay on last car for us too

Working on the latest chammy DDG220C



And on previous chammy in green JDL889F



Boys prep work turned out good in end

Latest chammy DDG220C





And previous finished area on JDL889F

[John A. Ross]

So back to some licing and dicing, doors back on, front wheel arches first !

Sliced and diced



Now I was extremely lucky here, most inner arch lips are completely feeked, these were pretty good

I actually replaced the arch as the drivers side had some dodgy filler in places and as the expressed panels arches are not as "sharp" at the edge like the originals I ended up deciding to replace both

Here is the original Here is the expressed lip



Unfortunately this is a by product of the re-manufacturing process and the lip needs built up, hence I replaced both sides and get the added benefiit of rust proofing both sides where I would not normally get access

As you can see the expressed panels fit is great, and multiple layers of nice thick epoxy brushed right in everywhere to fill gaps, thats after the usual wash in phos acid with zinc.

Sides now ready for their wings





Below it might look odd, this is not a mistake

I also use the same epoxy coating as a crack/gap filler as well as a liquid filler when coated raw.

If anyone has used U-Pol Dolphin Glaze then this epoxy filler does same job and same texture, no good for deep fills but certianly to cover welded areas to protect any fissures as a thin coat will penetrate and pin holes in the tacks all way to other side,

Normal filler wont do this and its a moisture grabber. Leave the white stuff till the very end.

[John A. Ross]

And the final stages of build up.

Thats front end arches done for now till paint prep

[John A. Ross]

And so we get to the rear arches

A quick comparison I did for a mate

There is always 2 choices when you come to rear panel.

Method 1 - 3 Panel Approach

• The back lower wing sections are always rotten in some fashion so you need one of those £115.60 Inc VAT **
• The lower front wing cover which people often mistake as part of the sill (its not) one of those at £102.00 Inc VAT **

The arch repair, an imp arch thats not rotten, a rare thing, an arch repair section is £122.35 Inc VAT **

Thats a total of £339.95 Inc VAT but excludes delivery and is PER SIDE

** No club discount applied, remember Imp Club Members get 10% discount from Expressed panels but please quote your membership number

There is also NO repair for the rear light sections which are now showing serious signs of disrepair and embedded rot.

You also have to weld in 3 panels to an unstable sheet which holds its form tight.

Method 2 - 1 Panel Approach

• A SINGLE panel which includes all 3 above AND the lamp sections at back, a whole lower rear wing which is priced at £342.92 **

You GET the rear lamp sections and only need to weld in one panel.

** No club discount applied, remember Imp Club Members get 10% discount from Expressed panels but please quote your membership number

Single Panel Below

First out the box the panel needed a bit of fettling at the B pillar return
as it did not match the curve, nothing major and could even have
been transit damage, quick visit to the shrinker and all sorted




Cut and held in place with a few panel bond spots






Once fettling completed a few cleckos and a bunch of my own but clamps ( NO PATENT PENDING )

Insert, twist when gap a little big, weld to edge, grind off, leave a little extra material so no filler rods needed



Attachment time, slow and easy, must have took me a day per side !!!

Final welded in place and ground back to be flat, how flat, well I was well impressed with how the panel held up but I did ad some braces inside for the cut off section

[John A. Ross]

The prep for the rear side was same as the fronts except I had a bloddy big problem on the drivers side as it was a rotten as a pear left out in sun for a year

Totally stuffed, nothing there that can be used so out it was all cut leaving very little





Repair started below

[John A. Ross]

A close up of some of the repairs, battry tray, inner rear area, creating the drain channels for the upper wing and so on

[John A. Ross]

And a few more finishing up the rear wings and areas














As you can see the epoxy brushed into every crevice then blocked out does a lot of the filler work in advance of the body shop and its permanant, not only does it seal every crack and pit, its as tough as the metal itself and unlike filler will flex with the metal and not crack

[John A. Ross]

So

As they say, there is more and more and more and a more !!

A quick finish to the front at the lower valance and thats that all bolted up except the mods for the mini front rad.

The mini front rad is actually a Audi A3 heater matrix, a pretty efficient animal when you look at the surface area

The heater matrix is installed in same way as the A3, screwed in from the side so can be replaced with ease fitting into a slot in the mid section seperator and the end of the horn box

[John A. Ross]

And a small mod I decided to do on this car was to make fitting the damn rear hatch easier

I mean have you tried getting a screwdriver or spanner into the hinge screws, dear me ::

So four holes drilled and hex/torx head UNF screws used to fit so I can fit a key through the hinge to set the rear hatch. Four small black rubber bungs will be fitted when final assembly is done.









And also my removable hinges (re-enforced at rain channel) as I aslo hate lining up the engine cover with brutal force alone.


The re-enforcement is 2mm zintec strip tacked and then seam welded in, the original hinges then re-attach with 6 countersunk stainless fixings

[John A. Ross]

So, you heard of the elephant in the room right ?

Well we have 2 other big fat ones on this car, back parcel shelf corner rotten as can be and the rear hatch scuttle again rotten as a 10 year old egg.

So onwards again inthe face of adversity and overwhelming odds

Rotten sections duly cut out







The middle section was rotted out in a few spots but not completely rottenunder the rear hatch, I cut out the rotted parts and patched those



Then started fitting a new rear parcel shelf section to fit (or should I say recued from another car )

[John A. Ross]

And finally fitting the rear parcel shelf, a lot was really good and intact so the line along the engine bay closing return fixing seemed as good a place as any to do it (plus not visible underneath and easy to seal)

I had to repair the lip that the rear parcel shelf attaches to as well as the holes left by the rubber mat retaining flange had rotted it out, I wish I could have saved the MK 1 patents applied plate behind the back seat but unfortunately it fell apart with the rot.

[John A. Ross]

And finally the lower rear hatch scuttle

A section was retreived from a donor car that had rotted out at the top, whish although a common rot spot was perfect on this car.