talking rot, again.

M

mabo

Club Member
Nov 13, 2011
5,365
5,007
south wales
One of my tasks for this weekend was to spend some joyous time with a wire brush attachment in the drill cleaning up the forward end of the sills and floor pan whilst the cougar is jacked up in the garage waiting for the replacement rear engine mounting to arrive.
Alas some here will know the feeling, what started as wire brush and scrape with a blunt screwdriver became, I need to cut this out.
Heti now has a hole in the passenger side sill around 12 inches long and 3 inches wide, not to mention the 6 x 9 inch hole in the floor pan in the same area. The area in between is a little thin but might have to wait until next year. Strangely last year on the driver side I chopped out and replaced the central area but the sill and floor pan was pretty solid. I'm talking about the area that seems to have an additional plate across the underside, presumably a jacking point. But why you would fit a jacking point next to a main chassis box section is beyond me, I can only guess it was part of the production line requirements.
The bottom of the wings in front of the sill is gone on both sides. I presume this is non structural. To fix it properly I should take the wing off and plate it from the inside but I don't really want to take the wing off at the mo, I was hoping to put her back on the road by by the end of Jan to keep the miles down on alternative vehicles. Do I need to pull the front bumper moulding to get the wing off ?
 
There's a small plate with two captive bolts that run through where the wing/bumper meet, they will almost certainly snap off when you try to remove the nuts.

The bumper can stay in situ when these are undone
 
spjmorris said:
There's a small plate with two captive bolts that run through where the wing/bumper meet, they will almost certainly snap off when you try to remove the nuts.

The bumper can stay in situ when these are undone
Click to expand...

You're talking about the wing/bumper interface, behind and below the lights. You're right that these rot.

However, what Mabo seems to be talking about is the bit where the bottom of the front wing meets the chassis, near the pinch seam?
 
spjmorris said:
There's a small plate with two captive bolts that run through where the wing/bumper meet, they will almost certainly snap off when you try to remove the nuts.

The bumper can stay in situ when these are undone
Click to expand...

I guess this is a similar arrangement to the back bumper moulding, there are two bolts either side of the car on the bumper wing interface, awkward little blighters to access. If it's the same I'll probably leave alone for now. Stripping the front end is on a longer anti rot plan for next winter ( maybe )

- - - Updated - - -

Mako said:
You're talking about the wing/bumper interface, behind and below the lights. You're right that these rot.

However, what Mabo seems to be talking about is the bit where the bottom of the front wing meets the chassis, near the pinch seam?
Click to expand...

Correct as usual Mako. the flat on the underside of the wing at the front of the sill is wafer thin both sides. Held in place by a self tapping type bolt throught the sill lower flange. I can't believe how much she's deteriorated in the last 12 months since I was last doing this.
At risk of hy jacking my own thread I've also noticed a component is missing from the end of the gear change cable, where it lands onto the gear box change mechanism pin. I thought the change was a bit sloppy. Whatever clip that fills the metal loop in the end of the cable, fixing it to the pin is missing. Seems to be a £20 part on the net but I'm not convinced I'm looking at the right component, number 1084799 ? are they different on each cable ? If it helps in the car I seem to have the earlier change mechanism.
 
spjmorris said:
well that's me confused.



no worries, as long as you have what you need (y)
Click to expand...

Sorry for confusing you SPJ, Thanks for the knowledge. I don't think I'll pull the wing off at the moment. The rot on bottom of the wing is non structural so I'll probably just tack a plate over it for now.
I'm cutting and shaping plates ready for welding up the floor / sill maybe over the weekend. The structural repairs are more important at the moment. I wonder if there's any Melina blue rot free wings out there ?
 
xrY1Jl1.jpg


TjoMJSx.jpg


Oh4pUbU.jpg
 
Weekend mornings spent welding, Sill now plated. I did cut out the fragile section and plated that too. Next weekend will be the floor section, plate shaped to fit on the inside but it will get welded from both sides, inside and out.
 
Floor plate welded inside the car last night, I'll weld the underside seams around the same plate over the weekend, then it'll be ready for the first of many layers of paint. The sill on the drivers side will be next, doesn't seem to be as bad but only just.
Whilst crawling around I noticed some dry leaves peeping out from between the front wheel archliner and the rear base of the front wing, just in front of the sill. Prodding with a screwdriver pulled half a pound of dry mud from the space. I thought the arch liner was supposed to stop this but obviously not on the Cougar, It must get thrown there when wet and sits on the inside of the wing base rotting the steel away very efficiently. Good old Ford.
 
Last edited:
Quicksilver said:
1084799 is for one cable, 1069050 is for the other.

1084799:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121970958210?clk_rvr_id=1134364495635&rmvSB=true

1069050:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-F...56f4b90&pid=100005&rk=3&rkt=6&sd=272320662103
Click to expand...

I now know these items are colour coded , I've ordered the white one, only the rubber grommity thing is missing so the gear change works but is pretty slack due to the increased play.
Earlier this week a client asked if the company I work for could solve a hydaulic problem. It was some failed hydraulic rams on an elevating desk. I Googled the part no, and ended up on the SGS engineering site, the same co that can supply rams for Cougar boot lids. My Cougar rams are tired but are acceptable if I keep the parcel shelf not attached, some time ago I'd considered ordering a pair for her but by the time the postage then the vat was added decided she could wait. Yesterday I submitted a cost for repairing the desk, the client accepted my cost so yesterday I ordered the rams for the job from SGS but the order value was insufficient to get free postage. Light bulb moment, I ordered the pair for the cougar too this gave both me and my employer a post free deal. A small victory for both parties and another Xmas present for my Cougar, sometimes being patient has it's benefits.
 
She now sits back on four wheels. Both front sill sections replaced. On the drivers side I cut more of the vertical part of the sill away. up to the 90 degree bend at the base of the door. This allowed me to do two plug welded joins one at the top and one at the bottom. Both sides have been ground back and given a skim of filer to keep the seems invisible where they are on view but the plug welding method is much neater and is the way to go in the future.
Inspired by other posts on here I've spent the last few day inside the boot / back seat. Seats, carpets and rear cards all removed. I found some surface corrosion peeping through the sealant applied to the floor joint at the base of the rear seat, wired brushed and treated. under the seat itself the I found very minor corrosion inside the double box section accessed by removing the cable blanking grommet. I just brushed it with hammerite rust treatment, the acid based stuff. Inside the rear wings / sills as expected I found quite a bit of surface corrosion, hand wire brushed and again treated. It will hold it at bay for a few more years but she'll most likely need full sills in two or 3 years time. I also removed a total of 5 lumps of foam from the various cavities around this a area, the 6th was removed from below last year.
I was disappointed to see the corrosion in the join between the wheel arch and the outer wing for the full length of the area visible from inside the rear door card. The sills are low level and an easy repair in the future, the wheel arch where this corrosion will eventually break through from inside to outside requires far more skill and patience to repair to an invisible standard. not a job I'll relish when I get there.
As reward for my hard work I also replaced the rear speakers for some 150W twin cone jobbies I've had knocking around for years. I was hoping to maintain my all standard look but that wasn't possible. They do a fine job of obstructing the rear arm rest but I play music more than I sit in the back so what the heck.
She'll need a rear sub frame in the next few years, but that hopefully not just yet. Need to book her in for the MOT in the new year.
 
Last edited:
Today I spent an hour jacking the back of the car up in the garage to check out the underside of the main floor pan, just in front of the fuel tank.
Not too bad, scratched some patches with my blunt screwdriver then power wire brushed. I need to get the heat shield off to investigate the same area on the passenger side.
MOT not due until mid March but I plan to be using the car again by the end of Jan at the latest. The rear sub frame will be OK for this year ( fingers crossed ) but I'll need to replace it, maybe next winter.
I know replacements can be sourced but they are getting scarce. I have spoken to a colleague who runs an engineering co to discuss manufacturing replacements.
I believe a replacement could be fabricated from sheet steel ( as opposed to pressed from sheet as ford did )The exact shape is less important than getting the details such as mounting points correctly positioned.
I believe it can be done, but a jig would need to be fabricated first.
Anyone got a subframe, even a rotten one available to donate to act as a pattern for making a jig ? Closer to South Wales the better !
 
HMM, Velly intelesting.
I recognise the yard. Probably 20 mins away. Might take a peak over there tomorrow morn.
Well done Mr Quicksilver sir.
At risk of a deluge but......Any one need anything specific?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.