Rear bulkhead - nearside - Part 5

This is the last time I will be in the garage for a couple of weeks, so I wanted to finish the bulkhead today and be ready for a new project area on my return. Things went well, as most of the work was done last week and today I just had to

• make a repair panel to extend the inner trailing arm repair panel;
• grind down the welds inside and outside the car and
• seam seal everything.

First job was to make up a small panel to butt weld into the hole on the rear bulkhead. Using a bit of offcut steel the repair area was satisfactorily completed pretty quickly. Again, although the area comprises thin steel, I turned the MIG up high and was pleased with how I can now get good penetration without blowing holes. I never thought I would get to this stage with my welding!

New repair section welded in (middle left) and welds ground down. Remember, it used to look like...

...this.
 

After grinding down the welds, I flipped the car onto its side on the spit, and did the same underneath. Everything got a good coat of brushable seam sealer, which actually isn't very brushable and had to be sort of "stippled" on. This reminded me of 90s home improvement shows on the TV, and for the briefest of moments I considered rag-rolling it on.

All seam-sealed and correct.

Before...

...and after. Here's the underside, around the trailing arms, now that the work has been done.

 

So, there you have it folks, a repaired rear bulkhead on a TR7. This repair has been really satisfying, because when it was started I honestly thought it was going to be beyond me. This repair is a bit of a milestone, really. It sounds silly given that the restoration has such a long was to go, but to my mind it is a minor landmark. Why? Because the area is the last hidden bit; the final repair that nobody will see - it is the last bit requiring me to make areas from my stock of steel and create sections that roughly follow the original curves of the car, which nobody will ever appreciate other than an MOT inspector.

From here it is all new outer panels, like rear wings and the rear lamp section - lovely, big, thick panels that everyone will see, metal to metal with no homemade interpretations and all as BL nature intended. Next stop (in a few stations time)... replacing the nearside rear wing.