DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Of all the details about bodywork I wanted to improve on was the seemingly “best” approach to repairing the rear wings









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….?

Fantastic.

Woah.... that is seriously good.... I think you two are really enjoying this aren't you....

Looking wonderful.

What was the finished look again? This.......????




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murph2309 wrote:Woah.... that is seriously good.... I think you two are really enjoying this aren't you....

It’s sheet metal based mutual masturbation.

And it’s great to watch

That says more about you than I wanted to know gary

I bet Barry's having a lot of fun!

Glorious

Beautiful work as ever. However chances are the wings were never the same shape anyway!

Fecking hell, thats good. I thought mine was good but that’s another level.
Hats off to you Barry.


Regards
Mike

Looking (very) good .... but where are the lightweight flares!?

Think you mistyped ‘doors’ for ‘etype’ unbelievable attention to detail by both of you, what a great team you both are. Barry Carter is an absolute genius!!

These may now be the best (for which read most expensive) restored doors in the E Type world…but its fun….[/quote]

Thanks for all the feedback on this, and apologies for lack of attendance this year .

The E has been really good fun so far. The fact that it was developed to use the minimum of large, deep drawn pressings means it's pretty straighforward to produce whatever repair pieces are needed. Therefore in many cases, rather than buying a whole panel and using just a fraction of it (or worse, chopping out good original metal), I can just make what we need. I very rarely get to play with the Pullmax, and even less so the English Wheel, so to dust those off and get creative has been fantastic.

It's astonishing just how many panels each area uses. It really is a case of why have two complex pressings when you can six, eight or ten simple ones. These are then pop rivetted into sub-assemblies at the factory before being fully spot welded later. It must have been biblically labour intensive compared to producing a 911 shell at more or less the same time. Clearly Porsche invested vastly more in presses and tooling, so must have been confident the car would do well. Fair to say they probably did O.K. out of their investement in the end.

Anyway, as I say, the E has been lovely to work on, although we do have that mammoth bonnet to come yet. We'll be starting that week after next and I suspect it'll kick up some issues. Not least because it's absolutely huge and will need lots and lots of trial fits. Basically it's a small car restoration in its own right. That's why it's been parked to one side so far. We elected to do the shell and then treat the bonnet as a separate project.

As 911 work seems to be tailing off a bit at the moment (although I still have a few booked), I'd be very happy to take on another E or two. Also, I've got a Fulvia coming up soon and wouldn't say no to my old stomping ground of TR4-6's. There's a little vintage project that's been in the wings for a while now as well, so that'll be making an appearance at some point this year hopefully. 911 shells will always be my core 'thing', but mixing it up with some different projects has got to be healthy I think.

As JP has mentioned before, we've been running with a safety margin ahead of the thread, so I expect there'll be another update coming along before soon .

This project has been a real treat for me and I'm sure many others who are diy orientated.
Your approach to the task has been as interesting as the actual rust removal, I wish I had the talent and forward thinking you have demonstrated.

I was involved in the rescue of a late V12 roadster in the late 70s mainly in one rear corner and learnt the lead loading skills on that car. Was paid in kind with a refreshed Laycock over drive bolt on unit for my hot road. Great days. The pictures of these rear wings bought back memories.

I've seen the restoration of an early bonnet at CMC in Bridgnorth where they insisted to have the original bonnet was worth hours and hours.
The rear edge to the windscreen bulkhead and down the doors was a very skilled part of the restoration job. I think Browns Lane literally filed that edge to get the shut line right, but I could be wrong.

Looking forward to the up dates from you both.

Jonathan/Barry

Come on you two we were promised an update at CLM?

Looking forward to it!!

Best rgds