Springtime so it must be time for another update!
Like I said, new metal incoming and it looks pretty good
Onto the other side and same again except the cross-member studs previously stripped and had been retapped to M9 so needed to be replaced.
Voila
I had to remake the brake hose bracket
And weld it on
Onto the O/S Strut top. Complicated by the reinforcing plate underneath and the general mess of panels which meant I had to cut a lot out to be able to weld to good metal - there's a box section here in the wing making it effectively double skinned so you can't get to it from the outside either.
Repaired fillet for the upper bit that I cut out.
Went in well
Then the new metal
And the reinforcement panel underneath
The other bits I cut out put back in place
Now the OS boot floor panel. This was in a bad way, had been 'repaired' before and is way more complex than it needs to be. A curved edge with a flange to joint the fillet panel underneath is fair enough but why give it a tapered chamfered section near where the tank vent hoses go through?
The fillet panel was quite frilly too.
So out it all came
Small patch in the inner wing
Rusty sections cut off the floor panel - first job recreate the flange where it fixes to the chassis rail - I bought a cheap shrinker / stretcher to help with this,
This is the bit with the chamfered section. No it's not exactly the same - you try making a 45 + 45 angle that curves and tapers !
However I did get the profile of perimeter the same as it was
The filet piece has a rib in it, quite a pronounced one. I made a tool with some 12mm rod and 14mm I'd tube slit lengthways. It did the job well. More basic metal bashing made flare for the drain hole (not yet done in this pic)
A bit of bending and welding and this is the finished article - not fully welded in place which is why some of the gaps look big. The bottom of the fillet panel sits nicely in the outer wing which will give me a reference point when I replace that.
When I'm doing this sometimes I wonder about the quality or strength of the work. It helps to remind myself of what the original build quality was like. This is some of the factory welding by Zagato !
