DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

So one of the areas that needed some repairs was on the driver's side inner wing. This had taken a hit at some point and had been repaired. We were worried that this might have affected the straightness of the chassis, but no ripples or lack of alignment was found on the celette. Which was good news, but it had started to deteriorate around the repair.







So first up was to remove the old repair - cutting out the top section and making a panel to fit, welding it in place with some pull studs to ensure straightness.



Barry also linished off the rest of the excess weld along the seam of the front of the wheel-arch, bringing it back smooth.

Then it was linished into an invisible and perfectly curved repair. I think Barry was rather pleased with this!





So the eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that it was missing the holes along the top edge - no problem, Barry has a jig for that made from a known good wing that was clamped into place to provide a guide to put the holes back in.









Sorted

Can't believe it's been 6 weeks since my last update. We're still going through metalwork, but getting very much towards the ends now - maybe another couple of weeks?

Anyway, here's some of the most recent progress.

If you remember this was the main reason I got going on the rebuild - a nasty piece of very visible rust....





Well Barry's been on that over the last few weeks. I'll let the pictures and the quality of work speak for themselves.

















Looking good huh? You'll notice that the targa hoop has been repaired too. So all looking great in this area. Although we might lose the self-tappers

Next up the bottom of the b-pillar - we managed to save the one on this side











I'm rattling through these photos, but there's some seriously tricky work gone into all of this - my car was pretty sound as far as the shell went - but there are lots of hours going into the panels. I'm trying to keep as much of the original as possible, but this means that Barry is having to spend a lot of hours rescuing what are sometimes marginal panels.

And is using all of his talent to do so. I'm really grateful that he's willing to do this fiddly stuff - means a lot to me.

Then it was time to bury the oil pipes again - these have been refurbished by Alan at Canford Classics and he's done a fantastic job on them (v reasonable price too!).

So before they never see the light of day again - here's what they look like.









So Barry had to backdate and modify the kidney bowl - he even put a little flare on there to reduce the possibility of rubbing on the pipes. Nice touch







And then into the new wing-closer at the front





There should be some more photos later in this week - hopefully with some welded on rear wings

One day I'd like to just sit in a corner of Barry's shop and watch him work - Magic Show!

Looking great

So I got another pack of photos yesterday - we're starting to get really close to the end of this stage now...

The wing-closer on the driver's side was in pretty good shape, so with a few fixes, it's as good as new

Some trimming of the old metal



followed by the patch





Then a similar process at the top





Then onto the bit where I asked Barry to save the vin tag.....it went from this



To this....





I have no idea how the painter is going to deal with this yet.....but I love the fact that we've been able to save the original American vin tag - fair play to Barry for sorting this!

So on go the rear wings.... yay! When they came off, it was a real 'moment' it feels equally significant now that they're back on again.



And on the driver's side, we also have the one new battery box in too.



So onto the passenger door - we found that the skin was a bit of a mess to be honest and had some leading up the front too:



So all ways up, it was going to be an issue - eventually we decided that a re-skin was in order. This was absolutely the right call....



And with the wings, allowed us to look at some INTERIM gaps (Barry asked me to stress this )







Mind you if that's interim, I think we're looking good....

So then the first 'whole' view of the passenger side, with the sills, front & rear wings and the new door skin in place.....





Not bad eh?

Looking superb Richard, you must be very please with the way it's coming together. Bet you are beginning to envisage the stage when you're back on the road.

Looking good Rich - I hadn't realised you were this far forward !

Incidentally the 'tag' in the driver's door jamb is the US Federal Safety sticker.

You are of course right Andy - it has the VIN on it, but isn't the actual plate, that of course is in the usual place....

It is making good progress though, Barry's been working really hard on this. I think a lot of the work on my car is fiddly and time consuming now.

Thanks for the comments Simon, I am looking forward to getting it back - it was great to see one of my banana arms at Hedingham on Alan's stand - at least part of my car was there

I still suspect we're a good 12 months or so away yet, but we are making good progress now. I think I can pretty much claim 'rust-free' now, which is a great feeling.

Darren, don't show Rich the sticker I think we'll have to let him know gently that there's at least 2 paint jobs in the few mm around it... Barry reckons that would normally take about 500mm to feather in. Hey ho.

murph2309 wrote:Darren, don't show Rich the sticker I think we'll have to let him know gently that there's at least 2 paint jobs in the few mm around it... Barry reckons that would normally take about 500mm to feather in. Hey ho.

I've absolutely no intention of telling him......all the best bits are down to you!

So, we're into the final week of the metalwork. Barry's magic is coming to an end on this build. I'm picking the car up next Friday - although Barry won't send me a picture of the 'nearly there' car - he wants me to see the whole thing in person....such a tease!

However I do have an update on the last few bits. Minus door gaps. Not allowed to show those yet either

What we've found was that the shell was great, generally, but the outer panels have posed something of a conundrum.

There was an argument for replacing all of them, and yet another for saving them. What I wanted was as much of the original metal in the car - and this has meant that there has been a huge number of hours on fiddly little repairs. As Barry said "it's not the most spectacular build where you cut out swathes of metal and replace with fresh and new" I suspect that's Barry code for "this build has been a bit of a PITA at the end"

But what we've realised is that this build has become something else, it seems to be in the 'conservation' camp - most of the hours are spent in repairing wings, bonnet, deck-lid. We couldn't save the door skins, but that's not a problem for me, we have to be pragmatic about this. No point in sub-standard, even after loads of hours.

So Barry has been spending ages honing the rear wings, which apparently were a PITA, lead-loading, reconstructing the front wings, fixing the deck-lid and hammering out some 120 different dimples that we found in the bonnet - a result of some American bodyshop in the past who thought it would be a good idea to hammer down any high spots and then cover with about 3 kg of filler. Nice. Anyway, sit back and marvel at the detail...

First up the deck-lid:







You can see the rot, and that it's in an awkward place.

So Barry cut out the affected areas



And then he re-built the lip, welded and linished it back in







I have to say I think this is a really good example of this 'conservation' element to the build - he's hand-made the repair piece across the bottom of the deck-lid and it looks fantastic. I love it.

It isn't an Ali deck-lid - as it should be, but I'm thinking that it's possible they ran out of them on the line that day and so it was never meant to have one (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) It's been on the car ever since I've had it and how many can boast hand-built repair panels? This deck-lid is staying, it's part of its history and has now had considerable care and attention lavished on it.

Next up the front wings: these were suffering from an old repair that had put headlight bowls in badly (actually I have to hold my hands up to that one, this was done when I first got the car. But I knew nothing then.....

Apparently this is called "welders hedge-hog" (which sounds vaguely wrong somehow....)



And this looks like practice welding...although to be fair it is difficult to get to this area...



So out they came - and ready for new ones to be welded in. Haven't checked for 'hedge-hogs' yet....I'm sure there aren't any there...



And you can see how the expanse of chrome that is delivered by the authentic American sugar-scoops is beautifully tailored into the line of the front wing. Go on, you all know they make sense, get rid of those H4s, be brave, embrace your inner sugar-scoop





Another good example of conservation: look at the state of the area around the indicators



So Barry had some repair pieces laser-cut

*Edit* Having just spoken to Barry on this, I got this slightly wrong...(for a change) The process on this was that Barry had the tools laser cut, infact the pieces themselves were plasma cut at Barry's - therefore even more kudos to the maestro (although he's too modest if you ask me...)





Which when they went in made the wing as good as new







One final image for this update - the lists - how many jobs are there on here? Hoping I can get these as part of the history of the car. Great example of the attention to detail from Mr C.



So this week Barry is lead-loading, fettling, making the lines flow. Really looking forward to seeing the car, haven't been able to get down there since June.

Absolutely lovely work ,you must be delighted. The next huge moment is seeing that shell painted, cant wait

andy

Thanks Andy, it is total quality isn't it. The man's a legend. I'm really pleased. Looking forward to going into paint, but I'm savouring this stage. The car won't look like this again - and in some ways it's a real shame to have to cover over the craftsmanship that's gone into it. Laquer only?