Boot lid shaved. Door saved.

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:01]All right. I've been working on another little repair here in the front end, especially the scuttle panel here. This was all corroded in here and I kind of filled all that in. I primed behind it and I had to cut off part of this scuttle. So, this was like the original one here and it had a big hole where my finger is and somebody at some point put an overlay on top just like this.

[00:00:24]So, it's double stacked which is just trapping uh all that rust and corrosion inside.

[00:00:30]But it was raised up a little bit like that. Tacked in.

[00:00:34]Now I think just going to I cut all this out. I'm just going to do away with this rotted piece. I cleaned up the back of this this panel they already had. It's already shaped right, too. Well, as good as it's going to get. So, I threw some primer on the back. I think I'm just going to fit it just like this back in its spot. And once that's tacked in, I have to address where the hinge is. I don't want to cut that off cuz it's already in the right spot. And if I cut this off, I won't know where to put it back unless I put the whole front end back on the car with the bonnet and front end. And it's uh I don't really know. I'm going to try and just tack this in and hope for the best. I guess with the tacks in, it's looking a lot more promising.

[00:01:21]I used a feeler gauge to kind of gap this out cuz I don't want it to pinch and buckle on itself.

[00:01:26]Even though this whole scuttle panel is wavy as hell. You probably can't see it.

[00:01:30]There's a big buckle over there, too.

[00:01:32]So, this whole skull does need work.

[00:01:35]Uh, good thing is I think I can just uh bend that down a little bit. Close up the seam that's flush. And I have another planet for this side. But just bending it down only tweaks the the hinge just a tiny bit. But there's so much play in this.

[00:01:52]I think it'll be all right. Yeah, I'll get this couple more attacks in this and then I'll go back and play with this.

[00:02:00]All right, I got the scuttle finally patched back in here. There is a low spot still right here. Now, my idea going forward is to do uh a little bit of tinning and letting filling this in.

[00:02:13]I am going to use Bondo, too, but I want to kind of just take up the bulk of the imperfections with some lead. Or at least want to try to anyways. But the thing is, I can't do the lead yet. until I do a reinforcement triangle from the underneath the scuttle to the frame here.

[00:02:28]You can't see it on camera, but this does wiggle still. You do need those little triangles. I can't put that in yet until I kind of get the front end back on this car. So, that's just going to have to wait for now. But, um, yeah, this is all pretty good here. I am going to do some seam sealer on the very inside there, the corner in there, which I probably got to do that first before I do that triangle. I'll never get the caulking gun within there.

[00:02:51]All right. And then I still have to fix this side too over here, which I already have my piece.

[00:02:57]Right here, I put some primer on one side here.

[00:03:02]Even though when you're welding, you're going to end up burning the edges anyways, but got to give it a shot anyways, right? So, this piece is going to go or the idea is it's going to go right focus, you sucker. All right. Yeah, right there. Somewhere right there. Get that fitted.

[00:03:23]Got to fix that too. Little piece.

[00:03:27]Not too shabby. I can't get the welder up in the top there, but again, I'm just going to do some seam seal. That's the best only alternative option I can do to try and seal that in. I got to do something with that rust hole right there a little bit. I'm scared to dig any further into it. I'm sure you guys many guys know these are like tough spots to straighten out. I'm sure I'll figure something. I got to hit this too.

[00:03:48]probably just gonna fill it with fill it with weld and just grind it back smooth.

[00:03:52]I do have some wires in there for the interior lights. So, I really don't want to put too much heat on that, but I will get that welded there. And I got one more hole up top here on the scuttle.

[00:04:02]This I'm going to cut out and just do a new new little piece here.

[00:04:17]Yeah.

[00:04:29]Heat.

[00:04:39]Heat. Heat.

[00:05:27]Heat. Heat. N.

[00:06:14]All right. So, a little bit of explanation here. Took the boot lid outside and I got all the paint off the the exterior side. Anyways, using this cookie cutter uh paint removal tool. Works pretty good. And then I masked out a piece where I want to fill in this uh license plate like indent over here in the states. We use a smaller plate uh much like this and uh it just isn't going to look good. And typically I like just a shaved boot lid anyways. So that's what I'm going for. So I transferred my template to steel uh 18 gauge steel. Got it to fit where I think I'm going to think it'll work out pretty good. You don't want to sit any higher than what you have here. So, I try to I kept trimming it to make it fit lower and lower, but not too low where I have to use a lot of filler to make it proper.

[00:07:19]But, uh I think I'm at a point where when I weld it, it'll be just a minimal uh filler along the edge here. Uh that's the goal anyways. And next, I just hit it with a can of primer on both sides.

[00:07:29]And obviously, when I weld it, it is going to burn some of the primer. Uh, but um just doing what I can to prolong any any rust or corrosion in the future.

[00:07:40]But I think this will look good. I have on both the other two minis and I I love the look. Just a nice shaved bumper. If anything, I usually stick the license plate in the back window and I've never had a problem with that over here in the States. But, you know, maybe I'll make a bracket to put it on the rear here or maybe on top of the rear bumper. But, uh, do need to get the license plate bracket somewhere along those lines. But yeah, going to shave the bump uh the boot lid here and see how that looks. So once this dries, I'll get it tacked up on here and try to lenish it back smooth. The hardest transition is right here. There's it's it's like a little bevel right the sides here won't be too bad, but just blending that in. It's going to require some filler. So it is what it is. But uh I like the look. And um yeah, we'll give it a shot here anyways. Oh, and also when you saw me cut this sheet or this piece out of that big sheet back there, uh I know it was a time lapse, but there was like a split moment where I was trying to like bend it over um the boot lid here just to try and give it that like contour because it already has like a bevel here. And you can see it's not laying flat. So, I did have I tried to give it like a little roundness to it. I don't have an English wheel and my roller that I have doesn't won't accept anything that wide unfortunately. But, um, yeah, I think it'll get me in somewhat of a good position once welded in. And, uh, pretty confident with it. I'm not going to go ahead and fill these holes. I'm just going to leave them be. Uh, it's going to get covered anyways. If anything, it's like, uh, a hole for it to breathe, let moisture escape, or let in. I don't really know.

[00:09:18]The backside, I still have to get the paint off. Or do I? I might just sand it smooth and just throw some primer on top of it. I don't really know. It's got these three tabs right there. One, two, three. It looks like someone had a hole here at one point. And they had that filled right there and right there. Um, probably just going to leave those to be honest. I Or maybe just I don't know.

[00:09:38]Maybe maybe I'll cut them out. I don't really want to look at that when you open the boot lid. Or I can cover it with something. All right, I'll let this dry and then uh try and get this tacked on here for you. Well, for me rather, not you guys. for me.

[00:10:11]Hey Heat. Hey, Heat.

[00:10:40]Heat. Heat.

[00:11:18]Heat. Heat.

[00:11:56]So, I resorted to a metal reinforced filler as a last desperate option to try and get some filler on this uh boot lid so I can fill it right. I'll let it cure and we'll just see how it goes. And I'm pretty confident it will work. Not the way I want to initially do this, but it it's kind of looking that way. I got no other option. This is just doing the best I can.

[00:13:00]All right. So, I just went ahead and I cut my piece of metal for place here, which is this guy here. I left a little big so I could in turn fold it over the flange and close it on itself. The only problem I'm having is the thinnest sheet metal I have is 18 gauge. And I swear this is like paper thin compared to this stuff. And I think when I try to bend it around this edge here to get that factory look, uh, it's going to do more damage than good. So, I have a dirty little trick up my sleeve I'm going to try. Not the ideal way to do this, but I'm going to give it a shot anyways. Uh, just follow along with me.

[00:13:59]Heat.

[00:14:04]Heat.

[00:14:26]Heat. Heat.

[00:15:19]All right, guys. I'm pretty happy with that.

[00:15:44]I was able to fill this corner back in as well as grind it and give it that little radius like outside bend as well.

[00:15:51]It's pretty smooth. It's almost a seamless fit. It's really not that bad.

[00:15:56]I think that's the best I could do with what I had on deck as far as sheet metal. Sheet metal I was too thick like I mentioned earlier. Let me flip this around.

[00:16:13]All right. Same thing on this side.

[00:16:16]Did get a little uh warp right here.

[00:16:18]Luckily, it's going inward. It's not crazy. I'm just going to put some filler on that as well. Call it a day. But at least the rot's gone, you know, in this section. I'm sure there's more rot somewhere in this door that I can't see that's hidden. But from the outside, I'm pretty happy with that.

[00:16:36]I mean, the bottom's not too bad. Looks like it's just surface rust down here in the gully. So, I still have to get that cleaned up.

[00:16:46]And I got to do another layer of Bondo on here and here and over here. And I'm using that metal reinforced filler as well. So, I'll get another piece on here. And I'll let it just dry.

[00:17:35]All righty. Just a solid recap here.

[00:17:39]We cut the metal, primed both sides, got it welded in, tacked in, did some lead filler, tinning, whatever you want to call it, just to take up the bulk of the the thickness I'm going to need to fill this uh boot lid.

[00:17:54]And then I went ahead and I went and used um some reinforced metal body filler. Has like little bits of shiny metallic in it. I guess it's a little bit better for a thickness.

[00:18:06]And I went and did that on top of the lead and smoothed it out. I did light passes here and there quick first. I didn't want to go do it all in one thick heavy shot. I wanted to do like thin passes, sand it, another thin pass, sand it. And once I realized I was good with that, I went ahead and I used just like a standard body filler as a skim coat to go over the whole entire thing. And now I'm just bringing it back down uh just to smooth out as much as I can. Uh I just finished off with 80 grit. I do have, you know, a little pin holes here and there, but besides that, I got this feeling pretty good. It's got a nice uh curve to it. There's no like ripples or bumps in it. It kind of looks like it with all these like little patches, but these are just all the passes I had to do to try and get this thing as straight or round as possible. And I gotta say, I'm pretty happy with it. I've been working on this alone since almost a month, maybe bouncing around between, you know, the regular car and some other stuff. But in between side projects, I've been bouncing around with the trunk lid here. I knew this was going to be like the toughest spot because it had the most um inaccuracy, I guess you could say. not dent, but it needed a lot of work to get it as straight as possible. And uh I just got a little more sand to do here on the bottom edge here. I gotta blend this in over here.

[00:19:22]I'll probably jump up to a 120 grit and then finish off with a 240. And then I'm going to do some epoxy sealer primer on the, you know, this side and the back side. The back side's all sanded. I didn't get all the paint off, but uh it's going to be on the inside anyways.

[00:19:36]I just got to drill out the holes for the hinges, blend those in, and yeah, just get some epoxy sealer on it. And once that's on, you can still do more body work on top of the epoxy sealer, but I just want to get this sealed in. I actually want to get this sealed in before I did all this, but I kind of just jumped the gun. And uh we're going to take a little gamble here. I think it'll be all right cuz I'm I didn't do no epoxy sealer on my blue car or green car and that's been like years now and that paint's still holding up pretty good. So, pretty confident it should work out. But that's kind of the recap where I'm at now. So, I'll probably go ahead and fill in these little pin holes.

[00:20:15]Uh, I got one over here, too. And then, uh, just got to blend this in. Yeah, I'll get a little more filler on it. And I'll bring it back down with 120 grit, maybe 240 grit. And, uh, we'll kind of see where I'm at there. But, uh, pretty happy with all this because I mean it's not a hell of a like it's not like a super thick filler, but there's got to be in some spots maybe 316 of filler in here. Actually, I got a little bit of a high spot right here. I got to blend in.

[00:20:42]I can feel it.

[00:20:46]But I'm doing forward and backward strokes. I'm not really going side to side. I just want to keep this radius going in this motion.

[00:20:54]So, I'm just kind of going back and forth, and I can feel like the little bumps here and there with the sandpaper.

[00:21:00]So, I'm like going soft in some spots and hotter in other spots, trying to get this thing as round as possible. And to be honest, I don't think I'm going to get it perfectly perfect. It's a lot better than what it was. So, I'm happy with that.

[00:21:13]All right. While that's drying over there, the boot lid, I'm going to start hitting some of the side of this fender here. Got one right here, too. There's a good size dent. Now, I tried popping these out from the backside, but they're so close to the fender here and where the firewall meets. You just can't really bend this back out. And it's my mistake when I welded these in. I did all spot welds for that back firewall here, but it still kind of sunk the metal in. And uh this wasn't exactly the straightest car either. As I said in a previous episode, there was a huge dent here. And it goes on the door, too. But I'm just going to get some filler on here. And then I do need to do something with these uh uh door hinges, too. You can see they're like recessed in a little bit. Yeah, I'll do the metal filler and then I'll try and get these doors on too as well.

[00:22:29]All right, guys. This episode's already been long enough, so I think I'm just going to end it here and I'll carry along on the next episode. Thanks for watching, guys. Peace out.