Not disagreeing that a new bulkhead would be the best end game. I'm all for doing things properly - hence needle gun gets used in anger.
However, due to my location (NE Scotland), there is little in the way of 2nd hand bulkheads, so I'd probably be going for a new one. The money is one thing (granted, I'm getting an 'end of life repair'), but I'm also thinking of the time it'll take.
Anybody give me some advise on how long the replacement would take? It took me a day to get to where I am. I'd have to do the other side, take everything off the bulkhead and then also strip out everything on the inside too! Concerned that this will become a project of many months...
I replaced my BH in a weekend with 1/2 a days help from my brother back in 2008.
I seriously planned it and had about £120 worth of fitting parts like gaskets, ALL the clips and bolts, new hinge bolts everything - I prepared the bulkhead by painting it and then sealing up holes I would not need, I had extra holes in the passenger side footwell, I also had to drill the main loom hole in the middle, my BH didn't have this, I just cored a 40-50mm hole whatever it was in the same place as the old BH.
I removed the roof first (I had to to get it into my friends garage but it did make access easier and let me easily dump stuff in the load space) then the bonnet taking care to remove the hinge bushes and tape them to the bonnet.
Then I removed the doors/hinges from the BH - might have just drilled the heads off with a god new drill bit as they were not for coming out.
Then I removed the grille and front panel from the 2 wings and removed the wheel spats (just blast the plastic rivet pins out and don't mess about trying to save them) and removed the wiring from the A pillars for the door switches and the lighting looms from each wing then I got a 9inch angle grinder and cut down the A pillar close to the wing catching every bolt as I went, the wings then needed minimal persuasion with a socket on some extensions to twist them out a little (the first one I tried was not going to come undone with a lot of fighting.
All the floor and transmission tunnel panels next and then you more or less have the bulkhead sitting staring at you with some easily accessible bits to remove.
I undid all the wiring engine side using coloured cable ties to identify coupled connectors and laid it along the top of the engine as it emerges from the main loom hope in the bulkhead and any other wiring that goes through the smaller grommets sat loose.
I then removed the steering wheel followed by the whole dash, I had a bucket for all the dash bits, disconnected the binnacle and gauges again labelling with coloured cable ties or white electrical tape and a permanent pen.
Once that was stripped it was dead easy to undo the 2 screws for the fuse box and with a helper feeding the loom through from the engine side, pull the whole electrical system out of the bulkhead and lay it to one side.
Now it is just the mechanicals, steering, brake and clutch etc. I had no mercy for bolts or fixings, if the even slightly resisted they were split or cut.
That leaves just the two supports and the main A pillar to chassis bolts (again have new ones, just cut them and fit new ones - I had replaced the chassis so the bolts were only a year old but same difference).
2 man lift and chuck it on the scrap pile.
The new one lifted in and with the help of a bottle jack to give me about 4mm I needed to get the BH to line up with the mounting holes it was in and sitting there.
Repeat the above in reverse.
