Then remembered a small hole in this arch that I had discovered ages ago and left
Repaired this with a small patch
Then on to the drag strut mounting, this shows the two repair pieces of 2mm steel let in. When you are used to working with normal panel material 2mm is a bugger to work with. You cannot cut it with snips, and it wont bend easily, so everything has to be cut with a grinder, and manipulated with a large hammer.
Then fitted the closing pieces
and finally finished. Thats not going to rust easily or move under braking or accelereation !
Next job finish the other front wheel arch, grinding off the plug welds on the wing join, and also grinding back the welds on the inner arch repair panels, which I had left - I seem to leave all the unpleasant and nasty jobs for another time, but they do catch up with you in the end.
Final body panel to go back on the estate is this corroded window fitting from the rear
4 pieces of new metal let into it and it looks like this
and trial fitted to the car
I need to put the rear door in place before welding this, so my next job is to start the repairs on the doors.
The good news though is that the shell is effectively finished, no more panels to be fitted. I still need to go round it and "snag" it off, check all welds are ground back and smooth, and that I haven't missed anything, but really no major jobs left to do. From a personal point of view its quite exciting, I am delighted to have got this far, and I haven't even had the car for a year. It might make the RBRR yet.
So I am going to repair the doors now, fit them, and make the rain channel adjustments needed on the front wings. The bonnet needs the bulge transplanting too.
When the bird cage gets removed, I can finish a few inches of welding in the boot floor which I cannot get to and, fit the fuel tank mountings.
My first job of tomorrow is go to BOC as I am out of gas again.
hours worked 494 - 9 today.
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