Rear passenger side welding.....

So, after getting thoroughly fedup after wirebrushing down the rusty rear sill near the jacking point and just seeing how rotten it was I managed to finally pluck up enough motivation on Sunday to make a start on the cutting out & welding in that area.

 This is how it looked after a bit of wire brushing... Renault seem to have put about 1cm of sealant and stuff inside the wheel arch and it looks like the sill and archwork metal must have rotted from the inside out as the black end bit you can see is pure sealant. It was like a bit of rubber just sitting there holding it all together.

I didn't take a photo, but I cut this whole area out with the angle grinder and got it back to good metal. Theres also a small patch on the inner sill which needs doing, but its only about 1 inch x 2 inch so not bad.

Here you can see my dodgy welding once finished. It didn't go to badly actually. I welded a new bit of metal on the inner sill behind it all, then had to re-fabricate the inner wing piece and match the curve of the outer sill as best as I could. Finally once that was all in and id sprayed lots of paint inside it, I cut out a piece about 12cm square, tack welded it along the top, then hammered it around to match the shape of the original sill.

Remember all this will be hidden under the original bodykit, so I didn't bother grinding the welds down or tidying it up. Had it been visible I would have made more of an effort.

I also sprayed the radius / swing arm and beam a bit to tidy that up. Looks miles better now.


I was quickly out of time so I had another think about gauges and where to put them. If I ditch the heater/fan then that will free up a couple of areas on the dash where I can easily mount 3 gauges side by side. One area being where the original clock & heater controls go, just to the left of the steering wheel. The other area being where the air vents are along the top of the dash. Im not sure which would be best yet to ensure I can quickly see them without diverting my eyes too far from the road. Ive started making up a mounting plate out of an old number plate which Ive cut 3 52mm holes in. I`ll take some photos of it tomorrow.

In the meantime, some more bits arrived - new rear number plate lights, a phase 2 AEI unit which I need to mount in the bulk head, an alloy extender pipe for the top hose, my mocal oil temp/pressure gauge & fittings, and a big bore downpipe.

Co-incidentally I will no longer need the big bore downpipe as ive just ordered an amazing 2.5" all in one downpipe which bolts straight onto the turbo and eliminates the cast iron turbo elbow. Ive wanted one of these for a long time and they are pretty rare. A couple of people have made them over the years, mainly BMS and big jim. 2nd hand they are like hens teeth and fetch good money.  However, a bunch of enthusiasts have just commissioned a limited batch of new ones and so as soon as I heard they were ready to buy I was like a greyhound out of the starting grid and bought one.  I`ll finish todays quick blog update with some pictures of it.... its a piece of art and will bolt nicely onto my new 2.5" side exit exhaust system.