Rear Wing - Nearside - Part 5

It's amazing what difference a week can make to your mindset. After last time's tale of woe, today was actually a pleasurable garage experience. Having gotten into the garage at 10.00am ish, the first job was to try to set the carbs up on the Bond Equipe. This I managed pretty well, although the old thing did disgrace herself by weeing oil everywhere, almost the entire contents of the engine it would appear. Oh well, I'll look at that another day.

Right, back to the TR7. Last time we were here I was moaning as I couldn't get any of the panels to line up. So, after a week or so of contemplation, I decided to have another go. They reckon that problems can be solved if they are broken up into smaller ones, so I smashed all of the panels up and went to the pub. Only joking.

I decided to get the inner wheel arch repair section welded in, ignoring the troublesome rear inner and outer sill panels - they can wait. To my mind it is important to get the wing all lined up with the arch before commencing those repairs, so that's what I decided to do. In the end it was fairly straightforward - I just fitted the rear wing, clamped up the loose inner repair panel, tack welded it in place, removed the rear wing and then welded the whole inner arch section in place between the tack welds. I did have to make a couple of cuts in the repair panel to give it sufficient "flex" around the inner wheel, however, but these were then welded back up. You might be able to spot these in the photos.

It all went pretty well, with nice strong welds which were then ground down (just for fun, as they won't actually be seen), sprayed with zinc-rich primer, and seam sealed.

This is where we got to last time, with the rot cut out This is the section coming off, to be binned.
 

This is looking into the boot. You can see the inside of the rear wing and part of the inner arch repair panel clamped in place.

 

After clamping the rear wing to the arch repair panel, it was tacked in place. The wing was then removed again, leaving the inner arch repair panel where it should be relative to the outer wing. I then started to seam weld the repair panel in place.

The repair panel was then welded in place here and there...

...before stitching between the welds...

...grinding them down...

...and covering with zinc-rich primer and seam sealer.

So, now I have a solid inner wheel arch for the rear wing to sit over. Lord alone knows if the rear wing will still fit over it, but I don't see why not. Next stop on the TR7 Express is aligning the rear inner and outer sill panels. I hope there will be no "leaves on the line". See you next time.