JDM Familia Interplay BG5P Restoration

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Then the passenger side rear wheel arch.
As always when you go digging at that kind of rust spot in the rear arches,there was a bit more rust than first thought.
Probably didn't take enough pictures of this bit,or to many of the last bit?,...either way,will post pics of the way they all look before filler/sealer/paint.....in better light.
Note-1 pic didn't upload in sequence,and there's 2 small holes either side of the final primed piece in the last pic,these were filled after pic was taken.

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And the drivers side rear wheel arch,...
Being a rear wheel arch,it had rust in the usual spot,forward of the wheel.But as mentioned at the start,the leak in the boot had been right over this wheel,and thus,it was pretty bad in a few places.
In one place in particular,right through the arch to the interior.

[FE3-323]

im confused why you only tacked the panels in place.... why not a full weld? or some sort of sealant between the tacks?

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im confused why you only tacked the panels in place.... why not a full weld? or some sort of sealant between the tacks?

Pictures don't realy tell the full story,I was quite busy doing other things and didn't get as many or as good quality pics as I maybe should've.

The guy who done this work actually restores cars and motorbikes for a living,and is "very" good at what he does to be fair.But maybe I should explain a bit better.
Few things to note are,the large new plates in the wheel arches are much thicker steel than the original metal,behind them are "banana" brackets of slightly thicker that the original steel which are welded to the old good original steel.
Before he welded the plate to brackets which were welded along there edges(nearly air tight)he put somthing on there to seal in behind,..called high temp "Sitka" somthing maybe,il find out as I'm not sure.then the heavy plate was welded around,and in some places in the pics there does appear to be gaps.but before etch primer went on,he sprayed a load of cavity wax in from the front,and it did come out in places,which were then welded (the things that look like tacks near the bottom of the big plates are these gaps filled maybe,but what appear to be gaps are where the bracket is in behind the larger plates,the shadow on the passenger side arch plate does look like there's cavitys in between each,but there isn't realy.,...in short,they are welds on top of welds that I didn't have time to tidy)
I will be removing the etch,grinding and sanding these "tacks" myself and filling anything that appears to be a gap visually with chassis bond or a heavy sealer before -sanding again- Schultz-then paint.

The two plates in the top of the arch also look "tacked",but can u call 60-70 welds on a less than 2x4 inch plate tacking??,....
They have to be tidied up more and will receive the same blending treatment as the bigger plates,but I can do this on my own time.
The boot and any exterior showing panels have continuous tidyer welds and I got a bit more tidying done on them,pretty confident I can get it to look very close to original,though it may take a while,...
But my time is free

[FE3-323]

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No bother,I do appreciate the comments,...and especially any questions.I knew there wasn't realy a build thread on here on one of these when I started(currently 2),but to be straight,this is more of a restore than a build,will be very little original left on the car wen finished except the shell,and any question anyone may have I encourage you to "dive on in".
And il give you either a 95-99% positive awnser,...or a straight up "I don't know"
I missed some crucial stages through the welding process though,despite having the best intentions,but when there's **** goin down and your covered in crap,just not that practical to be shipping out the phone and sorting out lighting for good shots,(you know urself,..and as I mentioned,I didn't want to waste time as it was costing me),....and as I couldn't stay at it the whole time he was,and was busy tidying and making short shifters and the like in the backround when I was there.(I only realy took pics when we stopped for tea,which wasn't often).
However,...I will be posting proper daylight pics of all the welding work in decent daylight,when I have them tidied to my liking.
Like this back panel patch that is polished smooth.(pics)
I'm very happy with everything we got done,and the new panels in the arches are nrly twice as thick as the original steel,these will never rust!'.
If I'm 100% honest,I'm a little gutted I didn't get to put in the whole boot floor as one piece,.....will take ages to blend it down,and will be a pain,but just wasn't practical to swap it all.
would've liked more time at this

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Oh yes,forgot to show the main culprit of the boot rust/rot problem,the rusted out portion of the boot seal drain,this was what was let go initially,and allowed the boot to completely flood in the past.
Every car has its own rust issues to deal with once they get to be a certain age or archive the right amount of neglect,much hassle could have been avoided for me if this wasn't allowed to happen,....
But I'm sure this was a partial reason the car was put up for sale,....and so,...I guess I shouldn't hold too much of a grudge.
(Keep forgetting to take a pic of this finished,will add soon)

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A few other patches that wer needed,....pre-tidy.
There were other pin holes around the boot floor that were patched and grinded down totally smooth,about 6,this was done by welding through the pin hole to a piece of steel held against the other side,didn't take any pics of these cos not much to see,and they were grinded down straight after.
The door frame took ages to cut the rust out and get back to bare metal,small patch was welded in here,and filled around with weld which was then grinded down.looks a bit messy,but have already bonded this and it's perfect,with all grooves intact,pic to follow.

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Another thing I had to do,which was caused by the flooded boot also,was remove the threaded part of the jack bolt,which was seized into its position in the jack recess n the boot floor.
Had penetrating fluid on it for 2 months,no joy,vice gripped it,then torched it,then welded a bolt head to it,...none of which worked,...so eventually had to drill it out completely,and fit a threaded rivet with the same internal thread as the new jack bolt from mz3",..this worked sweet.
As the boot leak was right over this area,obviously this had been almost completely full of water for a long time,so the holes where the rubber bungs went were very rusted and thin round their edges,these were redrilled to nice clean metal and new slightly bigger bungs fitted.

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The car was back from the welders,he gave it a thorough look over,and said only possible rust that may be encountered would be up in the underside of the shock mounts,so watch this space,I'm optimistic welding won't be needed though.
When I got the car back in the shed after the welding,I removed the door trims as the passenger side front door one had a crack,and as one of these is hard to come by on its own,it will be plastic welded,crack probably occurred from the door being opened too far by force in the past.
this was done with 4 kettles of boiling water,
I should probably mention at this point that the 4 doors from mz3 were in absolutely "mint" condition,will be swapping the locks,and locking buttons,the window surround trims,and wouldve swapped the whole set of doors due to the little welding work needed on the passenger door,and the plethora of dents and scrapes,....as the car will be fully resprayed anyway.
But,...one of the "extras" that this car has,and was in vogue at the time it was made was the so called,..SIPS,..or side impact protection system.
Which was basically 2 bars in the door instead of 1,...not exactly space age tech,..but enough to make me want to salvage them and spend a few hours sanding the doors and frames.
Note-pics of the door internals were taken before welding.

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While I was completely dreading the tidy up of the boot welds,without the handiness of air tools and the like,I set to it as it will take a few days,and its one of those things,,,for me anyway,..that I will have to come and go to over the next couple of weeks while doing other bits n pieces,as it's pretty fidgety and especially the concave parts around the interior wheelwell where the new metal meets the old.(pic1)
These will require a bit of extra love,and a couple of tools that I don't have to hand at present.however this won't be a problem on the underside,due to no similarly tight spaces.
Needles to say,a lapse in concentration here could result in another hole,so progress was tedious.
However progress was made.
An old nickname of mine in my former car life was "the critic" so this grinding,filling and sanding will be done to the highest possible standard,regardless of the time and effort.
Some pics of the process,interior wheel well blending,lots more pics on this to follow.and the exterior blend.

[FE3-323]

thats some serious time invested. its nice to see

[Scrummatron]

thats some serious time invested. its nice to see

Ya,,it might not look like it but 4-5 hours of nice "cheap" time went into this,maybe another 15-20 to do at it,...but have no problem coming and going to this over next couple of weeks,as it is a labour of love.
All invested time and effort in this process and the car are purely for my benefit,I'm not trying to hide the welds or anything else to increase resale value or con anyone,and I could just leave them and seal or paint over them,but it would just annoy me knowing they're there and visible should anyone ever take a peak.

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As I mentioned earlier,mz2 came with factory front fog lights,it had the switch and wiring and the brackets,and the shorter front "louvres","grills",not realy sure what they're called,but I was glad to see them.
I was less glad that the actual Bosch glass yellow fogs weren't present,as they're quite rare these days in good shape.
Could stick on a set of any make or colour,and probably will initially,unless I find a perfect authentic set somewhere in the mean time before work is complete.
I seen a jap import years ago with realy low miles and mint,that had Bosch covers on the fogs,and a gtr that had similar covers on its round ones,not sure if these were factory,somebody may know??,..
(But as loose chippings are a serious issue in Ireland in the summer,I would like a set regardless)
Anyway,here's a few pictures of the factory brackets,and the grills that will be joining the long list of bits slowly filling up the spare room.
Note-last pic is of the factory blanks in mz1,got a rear fog switch with mz3,and a damaged front fog switch with mz2(currently under repair)
Have somthing special planned for the big square blank.

[FE3-323]

oh ****!!! i've never seen those brackets as such. thats pretty nifty