RE: SOTW: Vauxhall Royale

[Gompo]

Very sorry to read that, Foxy.

You still need to get on that Autos-h-i-t-e website though!

[foxy99]

I did have a look at that but am so busy with projects and forums that I'm frightened to join another. There is something on AutoShingle about a green Royale in Minder but they didn't come in green as far as I know.

Anyway....I said that I would not be doing any restoration on this car as I have others that take precedence but MoT time is coming soon for the Royale and I found myself out welding the rear passenger side inner wheelarch where the seat belt mount is.

It was a nice dry sunny day and I'm very pleased with the outcome so god only knows what this will lead too.


this was alarming sight when I took back wheel off to have a look around and scraped away mud etc. hole revealing some damp upholstery


seat belt anchor plate came off in my hand


precious seats removed with clean gloves


cleaned up to see what needed cut out


opened up and a little flange welded in seat pan bit


fixed in 2 hours


driver's side looks a bit better


but there is some moisture getting thru so will do this side next

Edited by foxy99 on Friday 18th March 00:42

Edited by foxy99 on Friday 18th March 00:44

Edited by foxy99 on Friday 18th March 00:47

[jamesson]

foxy99 said:

Went to Celtic game last week and parked next to some derelict houses just off Springfield Road

Good God man, why would you do that?!

Sorry to hear the car's been vandalised, but leaving it there was asking for trouble.

[foxy99]

I always park it there as the main road is usually chocka with cars and there is space for 3 or 4 cars there. Its like a dead end about 100 yards long just off the main drag.

This was 2 time I'd been on a Saturday and it got done but other times were at night and it was fine. The car in front of my wasn't touched (10 yr old Almera I think)

I'm re-discovering all my old audio tapes now as the radio isn't picking anything up

[foxy99]

Okay....

The repairs continue. I moved over to the driver's side today and all the rot is cut out and a patch made up but I gave up at 11 o'clock as it was getting chilly.

I won't replicate all the same pics from the prev post but there are a couple of interesting ones.


after a wirebrushing it didn't look like there was any serious corrosion


but an MoT style 'poking with a screwdriver' quickly revealed this


a picture of something nicer

[foxy99]

That's the driver's side done now



which has led me to start patching up some holes in the inner skin of the front face of the wheelarch. I have also found some heavy corrosion on the trailing arms.



I had a look at the workshop manual to see how you'd go about swapping them for a better pair and it looks like a major job and you can't strip them down without special pullers etc. I know the rear wheel bearing was replaced on one side recently at a cost of around £300 probably because of the labour involved so not sure how I'm going to tackle this problem. it might be easier to weld the arm in situ.

[Getragdogleg]

Phone Derek at GM6 spares, 01736 810500, he does monzas/senators and royale spares. He is 10 mins from me and is is a gold mine of hard to find bits including recon rear arms.

[foxy99]

Hi Getrag.

I had a look at the GM6 Ebay site and he does have recon'd rear arms but at that price I think I'd need to admit defeat and move the car on to someone who can give it the TLC it deserves

[Getragdogleg]

Phone him up, he may have good non restored ones there that may need a bit of a tidy up and paint.

You can have a bit of a haggle with him if you don't take the piss and offer peanuts for the parts.

[Citman]

foxy99 said:

I might be very much mistaken, but just from this shot, I'm thinking I take my mutt out a walk by this place all the time - next to a very entertaining dip on a back road, used to be kennels?

[foxy99]

Hi Citman. Yeah it still is kennels.

Its quiet just now but in the summer its full of dogs and when I'm working on the car outside they bark all day at me. 6, 7 or 8 hours from the moment I start to the time I leave.

Drives me nutz especially after waiting 6 months for good weather

[foxy99]

Getragdogleg said:

Phone him up, he may have good non restored ones there that may need a bit of a tidy up and paint.

You can have a bit of a haggle with him if you don't take the piss and offer peanuts for the parts.

The guy seems to know his stuff and gives a lot of detail in the listing about the arms which justifies the price but he does also say something about the can't help with requests for decent second hand units. I'll have a go at fixing mine then mb approach him with a sob story

[Citman]

foxy99 said:

Hi Citman. Yeah it still is kennels.

Its quiet just now but in the summer its full of dogs and when I'm working on the car outside they bark all day at me. 6, 7 or 8 hours from the moment I start to the time I leave.

Drives me nutz especially after waiting 6 months for good weather

Cool, if you ever see a guy walking a tan dog with a red harness (on the dog, not me), give a toot!

I often see a big V8 Yank pick-up thing roaming those roads, that wouldn't be anything to do with you, would it?

[foxy99]

Will do.

I've never seen this pick up tho. I'll be looking out for it now

[B'stard Child]

foxy99 said:

which has led me to start patching up some holes in the inner skin of the front face of the wheelarch. I have also found some heavy corrosion on the trailing arms.



I had a look at the workshop manual to see how you'd go about swapping them for a better pair and it looks like a major job and you can't strip them down without special pullers etc. I know the rear wheel bearing was replaced on one side recently at a cost of around £300 probably because of the labour involved so not sure how I'm going to tackle this problem. it might be easier to weld the arm in situ.

Exactly what I'd do - pretty clear to me you have good welding skills so the repair isn't going to be hard

The problem is the Spring plate is held on by 3 small welds - the moisture gets underneath it and rots out the back - frequently high father teds are down to rust expansion under the spring seat

Weld three nuts to the trailing arm so you can locate the spring seat back again after repair -Remove the spring seat - cut out the rust and plate it up - refit spring seat and seam weld it all the way round so it can't happen again

[foxy99]

Hi B'stard

I've just came home, after finishing the repair, to find your advice. Thanks.

I did more or less what you suggested but didn't know about the 3 weld set up until it was all off. Everything is hidden by the rubber seat. Have you had a Royale/Monza/Senator before?

I would normally take weeks over something like this...sandblasting, grinding, rustproofing etc but the MoT runs out in a few days time so I just had to get stuck in and finish it at first attempt or I'd have been walking home 4 or 5 miles. Anyway here are the pics of the repair.


trailing arm dropped down after disconnecting shock, driveshaft & tramp bar revealed spring seat mount/spigot not even attached to arm due to corrosion


rust scale tapped away with hammer and chisels showed extent of rot. nothing cut away here


1st patch was to recreate horizontal face of rear leg of unit


2nd patch replaced non-existant top rear face of front leg


new circular spring plate was made up, slightly domed, with remains of old spigot welded on top. this was then weled back at the the three points original one was


amazing the difference 8'' makes. top mount is as good as new as it lives a bit higher off the ground

Am going out with friends for a curry tomorrow so won't get the passenger side done till Monday which leaves Tuesday to take the exhaust off (to patch one of the silencers) and deal with a minor patch or two on the sills.

Then its MoT day on Wednesday

I would be happier if the repairs had been done in 2 or 3mm steel instead of 1.5mm but its got to be safer than it was and I've been driving around at up to 100mph in this for the last 4 months or so!

[B'stard Child]

I definately seam weld all the way round the suspension lower mount as I'm sure this is a big reason for the corrosion problems in this area

I'm also happy to be corrected here but technically you are welding a suspension component so you need to make your welds "invisible" from an MOT perspective but it's a grey area

[foxy99]

Well....its MoT'd for another year but Mr B'stard already knows this as I've got a thread going on RetroRides

http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=re...

It will be a bit time consuming to keep posting on both sites so I'll mb need to say goodbye here and move over there

[foxy99]

Now that the car is MoTd I couldn't help myself from giving it a polish and having a look at the worst exterior corrosion...the driver's front wing.

A few night's with the panel beating tools and trusty welder have seen the bulk of it being repaired and it should be looking good shortly.

[LewisR]

Top work ! I certainly don't have the time or the skill to do this sort of stuff now. :-(

Rather oddly, for some years at least, this sold as a Vauxhall, with the 2.8 litre carb engine or an Opel with the 3.0 litre engine!

Back in the day, where I lived, we had an Opel dealership that was some distance from the Vauxhall dealership and the two had no connection!