Near-side windscreen/scuttle

This was one of those areas where I thought "oh, it will be ok" in my haste to fit the front wings. But to be honest it would not be ok and needed fixing. Damn, the "big weld up" would have to wait for another weekend but hopefully the patience will be worth it in the end.

The near-side screen-to-scuttle panel was very rotten along the windscreen lip, which was probably why the floor pan and A-post had rotted out to start with, i.e. water seeping through the holes and onwards - courtesy of gravity - to anywhere else. So, today I attacked the area with the grinder and this was the result:

The screen lip is very corroded. The red panel is the section of new (s/h) screen surround that I have.

I scratched my chin for a while and realised that I needed to cut it out in one go, in a way which allowed for easy welding when repairing it. The only option as far as I could see was to remove a section of the outer scuttle/screen panel, taking the rotten lip with it. Here's the result:

The inner section of the screen surround was ok.

It is amazing what I have in my shed. For example, a whole spare screen surround which I used to make a repair panel. After much cutting and fiddling, I got it about right:

The new repair section is the red bit and the holes are where I have drilled out the original spot welds.

Not wanting to risk the blow-through associated with butt-welding (or at least, my butt-welding) I used the joggler to press in a recessed lip around the lower edge of the repair panel to ensure a flush fit. I stitched it in place, making sure to move around the panel to minimise excessive heat build-up:

New panel in place.

Once again the Portamig 185 did a great job on some very thin metal. I just turned the power down to the lowest setting. One thing I always struggle with is welding through the holes where the old spot welds were. It should be easy, but I find it very difficult to get good penetration. These are ok though:

The new panel welded in, ready for the welds to be dressed.

Welds ground down a bit...

...and a thin skim of filler and a coat of primer.

The coat of primer really helped to show up the high & low spots, so I will need to do some more work on this. However it doesn't look as bad in the flesh as in the photo!

Nearside filler panel

The sun came out today and the garage was warm, so I headed in there for a spot of TR7 therapy.

The last few weeks appear to have shown little progress, as I have been fettling the whole front end of the car prior to welding up the new front panel and outer wings. However, common sense got the better of me today and I decided to fix a few things which would be easy to do prior to the "big weld-up".

One area which had completely rotted out was a small closing panel, on the side of the chassis at the front. It is hard to describe where it is, other than sort of below the headlamp void and behind the inner wheel arch. Anyway, I cut out the grot and made a very respectable repair panel which I welded in.

The result pleased me.

I have used Photoshop to lighten the repair area.

It was a sod to get to, but I am pleased with the result.

Front Near-side wing

Gosh, it is cold today but having wrapped up warm I ventured into the garage. Of the many headaches I have encountered, the biggest one has been to do with panel gaps. Or to be more precise, getting them right.

The problem is self-created because, as stated previously, I have removed too many panels at once and veered very much away from the "one panel at a time" rule. You live and learn.

Anyway, I decided that the first gap to get right is the rear edge of the door to B-pillar, because the rear wing is the only fixed and original reference point I have. After much shimming and unshimming, I got it about right although it is not perfect and is actually a little smaller than I wanted (I was aiming for the "get a pencil in the gap" perfection).

Not looking too bad. Ignore the dirty rusty rear wing, it is coming off (in about 2015).

Next step was to get the front edge of the door lined up with the rear edge of the front wing. This was (and still is) a nightmare because in order to do this the whole wing had to fit elsewhere and in so many places. Adjustments made "here" caused problems "there", with the new inner wheel arch, bonnet, front panel and lower "chin" panel all having their say. At this point I quite inexplicably found myself singing (outloud) "It's so funny, how we don't fit anymore" to the tune of Cliff Richard's "It's so funny, how we don't talk anymore". Odd, because I hated the original.

The gap is too big at the bottom and wing still sits a little low at the top.

I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but even though the new front wing is an original BL part, the gutters were welded in wrong. This is very common apparently and if left unchecked would result in a huge gap between the bonnet and wing. Thankfully drilling out the spotwelds was easy and removing the gutters gives a much better overall fit. I will weld them back on later.

The root causes (apart from me) of much of the mis-fitting are the flange at the bottom rear of the front wing, where it covers the sill and the overall awful quality of the remanufactured inner wheel arch. However, with a lot of snipping, bending and hammer work I can see that it will all come together.

All in  all I am a bit happier today as I can see that the job of getting everything lined up is actually not impossible, as I first thought. It is just nearly impossible, which is a much more satisfying state of affairs.

Looks ok from this distance and height!

And finally, a couple of photos which don't relate to the post that much but I thought  I would include them anyway. The batteries in my camera where running out, you see, so I just took some shots of anything.

Sing along:
"it's so funny,...."

Cold!

Ok, I am a fair weather restorer. Maybe that is why it has taken me so long to work on the TR7.

But it really is freezing today (the water in the footwells of the XJ-S is frozen, so an ideal time to remove it!) so I won't be doing much on the '7. It is just too cold in the garage.

If the temperature improves tomorrow I will drill out the spot welds on the off-side outer wing gutter. Although I am fitting two N/O/S BL wings, I have realised - after much reading - that they don't fit unless you are happy with a bonnet-to-wing gap the size of the Mersey Tunnel. Drilling out the welds and re-aligning allows for a better fit. Photos to follow.

For now, I am staying indoors.