Even Chuck Hadley admits his best solution to the blending of outer wings is either a stepped joint and/or only partial welding, which means the seam isn’t fully made and to me represents a patch, not a proper replacement
Thankfully I had an ally in this regard, so a plan was created to create an invisible and seamless repair
But first there was the small matter of repairing the boot floor…..so how better to repair than remover a significant chunk of it…!
The boot floor has a special pressing to accommodate the fuel tank sump….so a suitable tool was modified on the lathe and the magic starting flowing again…..
As is usually the case the visible rust was only part of the problem, so a reasonable part of the lower rear arch or valence had to be removed and new repair panels created…..time for old fashioned crafting using the English wheel….a fully double curved panel
and in fact a bit of adjustemtna and extra curvature had to be introduced to the repair panels I had bought....
Whilst the general approach should normally be to remove as little old metal as possible, in the case of the inner wings, this is not visible, so by removing a larger section it is easily possible to gain access to the outer wing, so that hammer and dolly can be applied after welding to dress the panel back to its original place
The attention to detail continues to be impressive....the rust had eaten away at enough metal to make Barry suspect the bulge of the arch had been affected.....I hadn't even noticed....but a careful check against the offside arch which is less rusty revealed a lack of curvature.....so wedges were inserted prior to forming the repair panels to ensure the final geometry would be perfect.....
the pictures speak for themselves…..
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is that not just simply sublime........?....
and once the outer panel was done the inner was completed....
and then the two panels were joined....
Simple…..why doesn’t everyone do this….?
Fecking hell, thats good. I thought mine was good but that’s another level.
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