Rear wing finished and other repairs.

Thats it, rear wing on and welded in place, including the flanges in the boot.

Although its not totally clear in the picture above, I have fitted MK2 sills, as Chris B pointed out, it should have MK1 sills. These are different at the rear, and have a "curved" end that follows the flare of the wheel arch, this will be rectified with a little lead loading and careful shaping later on.

One small problem has come to light with the wing, its about 3-4 mm longer than the old wing as shown by the old boot closure. Its the only place thats not a perfect fit. It may not matter and be within "standard triumph tolerances" but I may have to cut a little out of it, or reform the flange.

Compared to the original other side it is slightly longer - I will probably leave it until I fit the other new rear wing and compare then.


There's a lot of repair fabrication to do here, as well as the D post repairs.


So started with the inner boot fittings, welded a new flange on the triangular piece, and simply made up a new piece of channel as the original was so rotten - this piece holds the wood capping.

Temporarily in place, note the far end of the triangle is not lined up with the old marks, this is because the top of the wing needs to curve in more towards the centre of the car.


After some work, here it is, all lined up correctly.


Next D post repairs, and parts to be fabricated around the rear lamp housing and boot closure.

Rear Inner Wheel arch complete

Started the wheel arch repairs, let a peice of metal in where the side of the C post had rusted

Inner arch panel then fitted at rear - again the usual few welds to finish grinding off

Then made up the flange and outer part of the C post for the wing to fit on to.

Made up a repair piece for the rear part of the arch and fitted this.

Looks like this from inside the arch

And like this from inside the boot.


So tomorrow the rear wing can be fixed in place, and I can start the rear pillar repairs and window frame.

Fitting rear wing

A lot of work done today, but not much visible progress. Firstly I cleaned up all the flanges, got them nice and shiny and no trace of the old spot welds.

I then tried to see how the wing fitted into the estate parts. It rapidly became apparent that the lower rear window support had to come out - 2 reasons - its riddled with rust at the far end and will need repair or the rust will bubble through the lead loading - and - its fitted over the flanges on the wing. If you look carefully at the picture, the top channel has sections of rear wing brazed into it.

I hadn't wanted to remove this part in case of distortion in the shell, but happily the "bird cage" has held it all together.

I also had to remove the lower panel parts shown in the picture, as well as being rusty and requiring repair, one fits above another part of the wing, and the other below the wing, effectively sandwiching the wing flange. These are internal fitments holding the wood trim and other parts of the boot area.

So here is the back of the rear wing area fully stripped and ready


to refit the wing.

I am so pleased, its a PERFECT fit, fits the door gap, sill and rear valence and boot floor absolutley spot on. Its kind of a milestone, the front end repairs have finally joined up with the rear end repairs

Its got to come off for now while I finish the inner wheel arch repairs, but then it can go back on permamently, and I can then attend to the window area and rear pillar repairs

Rear Wing Passenger Side

On to the rear wing, chopped it off, and then spent several hours melting and removing the lead on the rail under the window where it joins the wing. The silvery splash marks on the arch is where the lead dripped !

Of course removing the wing reveals several more areas that need repair. Although the picture doesn't show this, the rear tailgate pillar has a very large hole where the metal had rusted under the lead, and the upright pillar at the rear is not attached to anything at the top. There are repair sections also needed inside the car in this area, where it has also rusted through.

Rear inner wheel arch needs this repairing.

And there is this damage at the front of the arch above the sill.


When the rest of the wing comes off in the arch area I will probably also find repairs are needed to the flanges.

On a brighter note the spring seat mounting looks good, and I cannot find anything else nasty.

So repairs to these areas will start tomorrow.

Passenger Front Wing Area Finished

Finished off the inner wheel arch, let the other repair section in, with a finished result like this


And from the rear, it looks like this. So when the car is complete, if any one checks the wing flanges, they will feel like a factory car with original wings. I still have to complete the seam welding of the repair panel to the arch, but I will wait until the car is on its side to do that, there is simply too much weld spatter to do this in any comfort from underneath. The welds will need grinding back then too.

The rear of the wing / bulkhead area looks like this.

So cut the top out upto the flange


Then cut off the rain channel, and corner of the box section


First repaired the box section.


Then made up the rain channel support


Then fitted the top section, and formed a rain channel out of it too. Which I hope now replicates the original.


Did a small patch repair in the inner wing, letting in a piece of metal. And thats, it another section of the car complete.


Still looking for a new passenger front wing, anyone any ideas?

So, as the floor panel and sills are also complete on this side (again apart from some welding underneath) I will move onto the rear wing area next.

Front Inner Wheel Arch

Decided to get on with the front wheel arch tonight. Fitted the front wing, and low and behold the sill closing panel flange doesn't go under the wing flange, its 20mm too narrow at the top and rather less at the bottom, so cut a slot in it, and pulled the flange out, until there was a nice V sectioned gap.

Put a joddled V shape fillet in this, which will disappear after grinding.


Did a little more work on the front repair section and got this welded in now.

Trial fitted the middle section, this doesn't fit either, there's not enough curve at the top and bottom, so again cut and welded to make it fit.


And thats where work finished as it now needs grinding off and its past my curfew, still should finish the wheel arch tomorrow night.

Sill Closing Panel and Powder Coating

I didn't get much done on the car today as I went to the Stafford show. However I did go to the powder coaters and pick these parts up.

I can now install the antiroll bar and reconditioned steering rack on the sub frame. Got the rack bushes and anti rollbar mounts and rubbers from the show.


When I got home I thought I'd fit the sill closing panel that I had got. However the fit wasn't perfect, as this picture shows it was about 10mm proud all the way down the bulkhead edge.

Although the curve is correct, its about 10mm too deep.

So I cut the repair panel in two, joddled the bulkhead edge, and put one part of the panel in place.

Next I cut the other piece of the panel to fit, and seam welded it down the join like this.

After welding and grinding back it looks like this -I am hoping that even the under wing repair sections will be invisible - or at least very very hard to spot.

And from inside the car.

Next job is to repair the small hole left in the floor in front of the new floor panel, and the remainder of the inner wheel arch.

Floor Pan in and other jobs

I took all the suspension parts, and other pieces, such as the air intake and brake reservoir brackets off to the powder coaters today, so in 2 weeks time I will have lots of shiny parts ready to go back on the car. The starter motor, alternator and steering rack have also come back from the reconditioners, so its coming together.

I shall probably have a go at the wood veneers soon as most of the existing varnish has gone.

Back to work on the car, here's a picture of the finished sill, showing the door gap is now correct at the front.


I have still to grind back the seam welds, but thats not an evening job! (at least if I want to still stay on speaking terms with my neighbours.)

Floor pan and out rigger now fitted, again welds need grinding back - a weekend job I think.

Next job is to finish the front inner wing arch repairs.

Sill Finished

Outer sill cut to shape and temporarily fitted into place.

Doors and wings now refitted to check gaps




No sign of distortion, panel gaps are still the same as before, the only thing I noted is that the front of the sill is a couple of mm closer to the bottom edge of the front of the front door, than it is at the rear. This can be rectified by a little manipulation of the metal in this area (hammer). So its all OK to weld now. I shall leave the doors in place during this process, so the gaps can be rechecked as welding proceeds.

So welding complete and I will look at refitting the floor and outrigger next.

By the way, the use of a proper spot welder, with its long arms significantly speeds up the welding process, you can do 2 or 3 spot welds a minute, and there's no need to clean up the welds afterwards, much much quicker than plug welding and grinding down the welds.

Sill Work

Cut off the outer sill which was mainly good, then the middle sill which had rusted out at the bottom (the Ziebart had not been applied to the other side of the sill cavity), then chopped off the rusted front inner sill, and the rusted lower half of the front inner wing. Made up a repair panel for the front inner wing which is fitted here.

Then fitted new front jacking point to the remains of the middle sill, its a good job the inner sill was rotten and removed as there is no other way to get at this jacking point other than from the inside.

As the rest of the inner sill was good, with only light surface rust, I cut a repair panel from the new inner sill and attached it to the old inner sill - at this point it is only welded where it joins the old inner sill - more about that later.

Next trial fitted a repair panel for the middle sill. Again not welded yet, just clamped.

Front section of the sills now look like this, not the feathery metal that was there before.

Next job is to trial fit the outer sill, again with clamps only. Once I am happy this fits, I intend to refit the doors, and check alignment and clearances. If the gaps have closed or are not parallel, the car can be jacked underneath, until the clearances are restored. Then the panels can be welded. I am hoping however, that with the braces and only partial removal of the middle / inner sill things will not have changed and I can have a simple time welding up the new metal. Once complete the floor and outrigger can go back.