New toy!! It's help the aged really...

[sgould]

I need to do some work on both the 9-5 and the Carlsson.  But I'm getting too old to fiddle around jacking up bits of cars and messing around with axle stands.  So I decided to get a set of Quick Jacks.

Not cheap. About the cost of four visits to the garage for checks etc.  I will still go, but I will probably know what's wrong before I go now...

[phoenix]

Nice. As you say, not cheap though.

And you've still got to crawl under there...

[sgould]

I might make myself a trolley!  But the main job is mostly not that mobile, just lying in one place and de-rusting, then undersealing.  The car will be 17 years old next month.

If I do both cars, I will have saved most of the cost, and still have the lifts!

[TomPaine]

Fancy doing mine Will? 20 years' old next year and Ian at Saabtech thought it would need some "de-scabbing" and welding to get through the next MOT. So let me know once you've got your eye in. 

[carrera]

Well, they'll certainly make the job easier

I managed to pick up a couple of gym mats a few years ago, about 40mm thick. They make floor work much more comfortable, to the point you could probably fall asleep under the car

[sgould]

I’m hoping that the Bilt Hamber wax arrives today so that I can get the spray into the box sections while the weather is still warm and the aerosol works. It’s going to be chilly at the weekend. I should have ordered it earlier, but I thought it was wiser to check that nothing was terminal before spending more money.

From what I’ve seen, it’s possible that the Carlsson is rustier.  At least on the “add-on” bits to the chassis that carry the XWD system.  But I’ve not had it in the air yet for a close look.

I have one big thick foam “kneeler” that I bought at the NEC car show years ago, and it’s still going strong.  It’s thick enough to drop down onto without hurting my knees.  It’s the getting up that’s difficult.

[carrera]

My kneeler is 120cm x 90cm, so I've got big knees 

Do you have some brass brishes that you can put in a drill to remove the excess rust. Easier, sometimes, than using a hand brush

I'll have to look up this other Bilt Hamber product you are talking about. I've gone through about 2 litres of Hydrate 80 in the last month, along with a Hammerite aerosol a week   

[sgould]

I've ordered an aerosol can of Dynax S50 for spraying into voids.  It comes with a 600mm spray tube.  And a 1 litre pot of Dynax UB for brushing on the exposed parts.  They are fairly small quantities, just to see how it goes.

I bought a pot of Hyrdrate 80 a year ago, because I couldn't find the pot I bought earlier.  I have since found the first pot, so I hayve plenty of that for the moment.

[sgould]

It's arrived.  But it's raining

I have some rotary wire brushes.  I used them before with a 240v drill, but i now own a battery drill which might be handier.

[sgould]

The rain stopped at 3pm and the forecast and rain radar said it would be dry until 7pm.  So I got set up, and it rained straight away   I managed to carry on and get the cavity spray into the box sections under the car and a bit up behind the wheel arch liners.  I found the plastic sill covers prevented getting into the sills from underneath, but they can be accessed later after removing the plastic trim pieces on the top.   Only managed to spray my face once!!

I's going to rain tomorrow and then I'm out for a lot of the weekend.  Next week will be cooler, but I will be brushing stuff off and on.

The 600mm spray lance has a nozzle that sprays sideways and is long enough to get anywhere I wanted.

Once I get to the brushing bit, I think it will be easier with the wheels off.  It looks as if the floor is fine, but the suspension parts could do with treatment.

[sgould]

Not a good day.

The weather forecast changed overnight and it was sunny by lunchtime.  So I took advantage, and went back out and took the door sill trims off and sprayed the S50 in through the holes that were exposed.  All was well until I fed the lance through the sill and under the centre pillar.  It's jammed and won't come back out   So now it was door seals off, centre pillar trim out and a hope there would be a hole I could look into and see what's wrong.  There wasn't   Then it rained and I had to get the door seals back on and the doors shut.   Must be Friday 13th, or something...

[carrera]

Oh dear, sleep on it, it'll be a 5 minute job in the morning. 

Alternatively , fire up WIS & have a look at the B post & outer sill sections for inspiration. Unfortunately I got rid of two 9-5 shells recently, which would have been simple to take a look at in their ready stripped state

[sgould]

Well, I tried a few things, but the lance is stuck.  However, I found, in the bottom of an old box in the shed, another lance that fitted!!  It's one from an old Waxoyl kit.  It's fairly crude and delivers a bigger flow of fluid, so I had to be careful.  But I have done both sills and I think I've found all the layers hidden in there.   

As the tube is still stuck.  I've ordered a small cheap borescope to stick on my phone, just to see if I can see what's jammed it.  But that's more out of interest than need.  My old borescope is too big to go in through and hole.

But that's it until tomorrow.  The Aerosol has emptied itself, so another has been ordered, along with a couple of spare lances!!

One issue.  I levered out a plastic insert in the sill that holds the plastic cover on the sill.  The metal is very thin!! It bent easily and I had to hammer it back...

[sgould]

The replacement lance and extra bottle arrived yesterday and a 5mm borescope came this morning.

The borescope is a dodgy Chinese one and it only works intermittently, but it went long enough to get a photo inside the sill.  But that was from the other side.  There's a vertical extension of the B pillar, into the sill.  I think that there's a pair, one at the front end of the B pillar and one at the rear. I could only get a clear photo looking back towards the B pillar.  Every time I went in from the rear, I could see that I was getting close, but every time the probe dived into the underseal and blocked the view

So the view into the sill by the driver's seat was the only option, and I can see how it's likely to be trapped, but I tried to free it with various bit of bent coat hanger, and failed.  So it' s been cut off and abandoned.

At least theres no sign of rust in the sill by the driver's door...

Then it started raining, despite the weather forecast saying that the rain wouldn't arrive until evening.

[sgould]

It says "Store Upright"