The panel van guys will be in a frenzy if they wake up to this. How do you find someone to remake a seal?

well it took a long time finally find someone, but if you look up old is hot corolla on facebook youll find them. It has taken me literally years of emailing people and asking lord knows how many parts suppliers. I think I must have messaged everyone selling old toyota parts on facebook and eventually there was someone in the USA who was willing to have a go at remaking them if someone could get them a pattern and whole bunch of pics. 

 

fast forward some emailing, patterns, etc and we may have some actual replacement seals. but ill keep you posted if/when they arrive and how they fit

Edited May 2, 20242 yr by wenisman
update

Actually, if I find someone local I have a set of original window seals for the middle window where my rear passenger doors are. 

Yes any rubbers that came close to working I would hoover up

I could have those made up into new seals for the panel can guys

Well I spent some time pulling the old window, it was a fight but I got it out keeping the seals mostly in tact. 

 

The new seals do seem to be a touch to small, but they just might need to be stretched. 

But as a contingency I will see if I can find a local slip to make up the seals from the originals as that's in one piece 

So it's been a little trial and error, mostly on scrap steel. But I have a way to fill the spot weld holes. I have a cheap metal hole punch, so using that I can punch out some 1mm steel to close to the size I need.

Then I flatten it using a hammer, I also then stretch it and to fill the hole as much as possible. This should bring the thickness down close to the 0.8mm of the original metal. 

It makes filling the holes much easier. I'm still going on the holes, but I'm getting there...

Edited June 4, 20242 yr by wenisman

Now thats a good idea.  About to do similar so I'll give that a go!

The only thing is starting with a disc cutout  little thicker than you need, just tap it down with a hammer and then keep hammering it until it's stretched to about the size you need. Bring you are using mig you need a little more room around the edges than I do as I'm on tig. 

Also use a copper backing, if you do have a hole close to the edge there is a good chance you'll just burn away the metal without it. Don't ask me how I found out... Thankfully it was on scrap metal

Edited June 5, 20242 yr by wenisman

Well I'm half way, 18 holes filled and that leaves 18 to go. Had been some lessons in this but the results are ok, I will go back and touch up a few with the welder

Well with the temperature not in the single digits I returned to the garage to continue work. So I finished welding up the spot weld holes, but you have seen the previous holes and it's not much different, but all 36 holes are now filled. 

I have started filling the seams of the panels with rust converter before I go through and take the surface rust off. Using a syringe to inject the rust converter in the cracks

 

I then started on the rest of the bottom, I was waiting on some metal and a new toy. I got a small English wheel so that now I can shape the bottom edge properly. This is because the bottom is convex in shape.

 

I finished fabricating the replacement piece, it was a similar process to the other side using the old timber from before made the job a little quicker

 

Then it was fettled, tacked in place and prepped for welding

Edited August 21, 20242 yr by wenisman

I started the final welds but then started running low on argon about half way through. So the color of the weld was a little off.

But still had decent penetration and so I'll hit with Scotch Brite and see how it looks. 

And that marks the majority of the tailgate done. A few small rusted edge pieces to go and I'm making some braces to strengthen the frame.

Love your dedication, at something, that takes a lot of time & patience; both of which You've got.  Hat's off to You !

Cheers Banjo

Well I have come up with a semi-ingenious way to line up the tailgate when putting it back together. I have a small template of the few remaining spot weld holes on the frame, as I can use these holes to line up. Transferring these holes into a steel sheet means i can use this as a welding template of sorts.

I have been playing in CAD and designed a weld on stud, it has a base of 12 mm so I can weld it on, a flange of 8mm the same width as the spot weld hole to line the panel up perfectly and an m7 thread so i can put a nut on and secure the last of the skin to the car. 

I'm just getting 8 machined from an online service, i will need 4 for the tail gate but ill need a few to practice welding on first. Fingers crossed this works out... 

Edited August 29, 20242 yr by wenisman

Just watched Mr. Papadakis' video on his TA22 restoration. Love his videos ❤️

Says he used some Holley period-look-but-LED headlight replacements, much safer and they look great

Fairly sure they're smaller diameter than KE26 headlights but I imagine they have other sizes

That's a beautiful build, always glad to see any old Toyota get a good resto mod 

I was previously interested in how he did his 2ar-fe rwd conversions. But it's a hard conversation, I'm going a slightly different route with a rwd engine.

But Holley actually make 7" led headlights in a retro style. Even stedi make an homage light to use on resto mods.