DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

On first fitting, the sill was about a centimetre proud of the door. It was definitely clamped up tight, so it was simply made too deep.

I spent the entire day fettling it. I don't know how the pro's do it, but for me it culminated in clamping it tight in place, putting some wood across the top corner, and bashing it with a hefty hammer. It's a lovely fit right now - next challenge is to keep it there while it's welded.



This is the space I'm working in, most often lying down with my head under the mig cable, hence the tight, wide angle photos.



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After several days' fettling, I was finally satisfied with the fit of the sill. Flush with the door and about 3.5 mm gap along its length. It was a bit fiddly at the front end but I managed to do it with the door on.



I spot welded the middle sill on to the inner before adding the outer sill, then spot welded the outer through both of them on the vertical part of the flange, and then also to the top horizontal part of the flange, as per the original factory welds.



And welded to the kidney bowl. It's not shown here but I added a lateral support inside the sill connecting the kidney bowl to the jacking point.



Next up, clean up the welds, paint and stone chip and then think about putting the rear wing and slam panel back on.

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For a month now I've been on all fours on a hard floor in confined space getting burnt, spiked and banging my head. But enough about my wife's sexual preferences, on with the build...

I bought the Dansk slam panel for here, but it won't be needed... and I'm hoping I can fabricate something closer to the original.



It's heaven to be fabricating something on the bench after being cooped up.



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The panel to go back in, pre repair.



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Nice work. 'Bashing it with a hefty hammer'. Sounds exactly like my Porsche project today.

Foremost segment of the rear wing reconstructed



One last fit and fettle.



Epoxy everything that'll be inaccessible once fitted.



Spot welded the wing repair to the slam panel repair as it won'tbe accessible once fitted. Clean up welds and acid etch the steel.



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I felt like i had a really productive weekend, the left hand sill is finally finished.


And I refitted the original trim flange thingy... tbh I'm not sure what it is.



The original underseal was intact but you never know what lurks underneath so I decided to cut open the chassis near the torsion bar, just to confirm all is is well.



I needn't have worried, but it did reveal a large amount of sand inside - how on earth did it all get in there?



That would have held on to any moisture which got in so I improvised a vacuum attachment out of some hose and hoovered it all out.



I sealed that hole up but I think I'll be adding a jacking point come drain hole at the bottom, which will serve for cavity wax injection later.

Finally finishing the sill and giving the left hand rear seat its second coat of paint underneath, I was finally able to strip off all the masking and get the car lowered. It was a huge morale boost to start her up. Right on the button (or after a couple of pumps of the accelerator) despite being stood for months - the battery didn't even need charging.




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Coming together Engine starts are always motivational particularly when covered in grinding dust and small burns!

It's been a relatively long hiatus from this, but today I finally plucked up the motivation to return to the crawling about on the concrete floor that's necessary working on the bodywork.

It's a single width garage, so with the car in it, there's minimal space alongside the car in which to do anything.

Several times now, I've tidied the work area to the point it's possible, but with other projects it's become cluttered again with tools and materials from other jobs.

Today's ailment receiving treatment is the typical rust at the bottom of the offside slam panel, into which rain runs down inside the door.

This side is much the same as the other, a little better if anything, with the vertical member of the kidney bowl completely untouched but the horizontal section in need of repair.



What may yet demand its replacement though, is the metal behind the kidney bowl which one can only get at to repair by first removing it.

The car's also had a repair to the rear wing which I previously cut open to investigate before covering with gaffa tape.



All this area will go and be replaced with fresh steel.

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Whipped this little guy off for better access.



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The corners on these panels aren't as tight as they might be so I sharpened up the radius a bit with a hammer and dolly.



Having done this once before I was much quicker whipping the sill off. Up and down with the pneumatic chisel, drill out the welds then make like you're opening a tin of sardines.



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Big Push over the winter for a Spring time kick-off all done Rob?

With all these projects, just as you are all done you are at your peak of competence!

That would be nice Graham. Even if I finished my part and left it with a body shop to do the rest would be a relief. But I won't get my hopes up as I have multiple commitments and I never know how much time I'll have.



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I wasn't expecting the jacking point to need attention as the other side was fine, so I hadn't bought the part.

Three layers to repair here before the jacking point, and I fixed the flange for the door seal.



This stuff can't be cut with shears.





And getting to this point sucked up another day with more left to do. Still, it'll be good when it's done.



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After fitting the jack reinforcement,



On to the sill.



This side suffers the same design flaw in that even when clamped up completely tight, it will need fettling to not sit proud of the door. I think that will require some of the angles sharpening up in the pressing.




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