Inner wheel arch, offside rear

Gosh, I can't believe how long it has been since I last published something. Since the last time in June 2013 I have been on holiday three times; there has been a royal baby and I have had a birthday.

Truth be told the weather over the summer made it too hot to work in the garage, which is made of metal. So now it has cooled down a bit, and I have gotten my motivation back, I decided to head back in there. It's amazing really - the welding part of this restoration is nearly over. All I had to do was carry out some repairs to the inner wheel arch on the rear near side, which was showing some nasty grot. After that, it is a case of one last - and difficult - push...the windscreen lip. But I will leave that until another day and for now tell you about this weekend.

Upon removing the paint and underseal from the inner wheel arch, just above the bit where the damper is fitted, there was quite a nasty hole. I don't have any pictures of it, but it was pretty crusty and had to be repaired. My understanding is that anything within a certain radius of suspension parts has to be seam welded, so that's what I did.

The old metal was cut out and a repair panel fabricated, which included a small 2mm lip along a curved section. I am sure Practical Classics mag would have a feature somewhere on how to do this, but I just used an old cereal packet to make a template, and left a bit extra in the cutting to form the lip. When the new metal panel was cut out, I banged the lip into shape using a former in the vice. The repair area was brought back to bare metal with the grinder, then welded in place before the welds were ground down.


The next job was to jut out some rot around the bottom of the inner arch, kind of where it meets the rear lower sill panel. This whole area was pitted and nasty, so I had a choice...repair lots of little holes or cut the whole lot out and do it all with one repair panel. I chose the latter method.

Before cutting, I marked off the area that needed to come out and made a template from the remnants of the cereal box to be transferred to a sheet of new metal for cutting. Once I had the template, the marked-up area on the car was cut out using a Dremel, as access was too tight for a full sized grinder. After cutting out a few spot welds, the area came out in one lump.

As is often the way with cereal box templates, they don't transfer very well to complex curvatures on metal and true to form the new panel was miles out. So, I used a blow torch to soften the new panel so that I could hammer it into place in situ for a decent fit. The method worked a treat.

The new panel was welded in place and everything dressed, before the wheel arch area itself stripped of most paint. It was then ready for a coat of zinc-rich primer.

Rear Wing - Offside - Part 3

Well, it has been a little while since my last post but I have been pretty busy. Last time we were here I had cut out the rear wing front lower area, so now the new repair panel has been welded in place. The fit was excellent. If you replace one of these panels, don't forget to weld it to the outer sill inside the box section. The welds were ground down and the area sprayed in zinc rich primer.

 

The far left/lower area of the inner wheel arch was very rotten, so this too was cut out. Unfortunately this is not available as a stand-alone repair panel, so I had to cut up my lovely new inner wing repair section (sob!) just to get this part. Once again the Portamig did a fine job.

 

 

Next job was to weld up the rotten area at the rear lower of the wing, using a panel I made myself. It went in pretty well.

 

Once the new outer arch lip repair panel was trimmed to fit (with a swage joggled into it for an overlap at the point of welding) I carefully tacked it in place, then seam welded it all the way round. Afterwards a thin skim of filler was added, and rubbed down. I don't have it quite right yet as there are still many high & low areas.

Rear Wing - Offside - Part 2

Just a quick post today. The rear offside wing on the car is sound, apart from a very small area where it meets the wheel arch. Typically this is a sod to repair.

The problem with this area is that (a) it has multiple curves (b) the metal is very thin and (c) it is very visible from the outside. I did spend a bit of time wondering if a repair panel was available, but in the end I concluded to the negative and decided to make my own.

Using a flat bit of steel, I shaped a repair panel and I am very pleased with it. It took a lot of measuring (me? measuring?) and banging in the vice, but it fitted pretty well. I have not cut the rusty area out yet, so the photos just show the new panel sitting atop the old.

Rear Wing - Offside - Part 1

It has been a period of woes in Northamptonshire. Leicester Tigers 37,  Northampton Saints 17 in the Aviva Premiership Final. Northampton Cobblers beaten 3-1 by Bradford City in the League Two play-off final. Damn. They all ran out of gas.

So I decided this weekend to get a move on with my offside rear wing and avid readers will have seen that I have been working on this whole area, starting with the boot floor repairs and then moving on to  cutting out the rear lower inner and outer sill panels. However they all lead into the rear wing so it came to be that last week I took delivery of a lovely box of bits from Messrs Robsport. Inside it were panels to fix the rear lower sill area, an inner rear wheel arch lip, an outer lip and the panel that repairs the rear wing (front) lower area where it meets the rear wing.

The latter area has to be cut out when replacing the outer sill, so Robsport's panel is a godsend. The area on Bessy is just a big hole where the area had been cut out, but the new panel trial-fitted like a glove, even over the remnants of the old metal.

You can see some panel damage here. What to do?

 

 

What a fit. Makes up for the front inner wheel arch panels!

Next job was to draw a line where the old metal would need to be cut out, and, err, cut it out.

That done, I offered up the new outer wheel arch lip and to my delight found that this fitted wonderfully too, so I did the same and cut the old one off.

Outer arch lip cut away to reveal a not-too-bad inner.

Underneath, I found that the inner wheel arch lip was pretty sound, just needing some localised repairs. The old rusty metal was cut out and sections of a repair panel welded in. I didn't cut the new repair panel as, if I wasn't going to use it, I wanted to be able to re-sell it. Steel is money, after all. The new sections were cut from a repair panel I bought on ebay ages ago and I have no idea which corner of the car it was originally designed to fix, but the profile was about right so I chopped it up and used it.

Sections of arch welded in to the inner arch lip.

Then, in true Northampton Saints/Cobblers form, I ran out of gas, literally. Damn it. Back to BOC on Tuesday.

Boot/Trunk floor - Offside

This job is really a result, and part of, the rear lower sill panel post, but as I got it done in one go I think it deserves its own page. The intention originally was to repair this panel, but sadly it wasn't worth it so it was chopped out. Three or four spots welds to the nearside rear wing and some - what looked like - braze tacks (they were gold in colour - anyone know if the factory welded this way?) were cut out and away it went.

In one of those pleasant moments, I discovered that I had the required repair panel in my spares pile (it came with a job lot of spares I obtained many years ago. The only problem is that I forget what I have bought. I could own 40 bonnets for all I know). It was tried for fit, trimmed and after the paint had been ground off its edges, painted with zinc weld-through primer. Holes were also punched through for spot welding along the flange beneath the car.

Once the panel was clamped in place, it was tacked in and plug welds added to the joint with the rear wing.

This is the view from underneath, although it was taken with the car on its side.

 

 

Next stop is to blend this repair into the offside rear wing repairs, so I will need the:

• rear lower outer sill panel
• rear lower inner sill panel
• rear inner wheel arch lip repair panel
• rear outer wheel arch lip repair panel
• rear wing front repair panel

This lot will cost me about £350 from Robsport (which is an "ouch" moment however you look at it) but they really are the specialists and their products and service are excellent. We should not complain at the price when specialists like this bother to provide us with solutions for our restorations.

A spot of primer for now and its off to the pub to enjoy the sunshine.

Rear Lower Sill Panel, Offside - Part 1

Now that the majority of the rear lamp panel work is done (it just needs attention to filled areas), I reckon I can actually see a tiny speck of daylight at the end of the tunnel. In theory, the remaining bodywork jobs to be done, involving welding, are:

1. Rear lower sills, inners and outers;
2. Inner and outer rear arches
3. Upper area of windscreen surround/roof panel.

After that it will be a case of going over the whole car, grinding down welds, filling here and there, waxoyling, priming and painting. But that's all a long way off, so for today I decided to remove the offside rear lower sill panel(s). The inner on this side appeared more sound than the one on the near, so my intention was to first remove the outer and see what I was left with.

Having drilled away the spot welds on the panel edges and in the boot, the outer came away quite nicely and was devoid of the mass of fibreglass matting seen on the nearside. However, all was not well with the inner and it was clear that any hope of repairing it was gone. Drilling out the spot welds in the boot floor was pretty easy, but gosh I had forgotten how awkward to get to the ones to the inner arch are. Having "Houdini'd" myself with the drill, I remembered that on the nearside I actually cut the panel off along the wheelarch flange, then removed the remnants with a grinder.

As this realisation dawned, I put down the drill and decided to put some paint on the recently repaired & primed wing-rear lamp panel, arches, door shut and nosecone. I told myself that I was doing it to keep the moisture out until the areas are painted properly - which is probably sensible - but to be honest I just wanted to paint something for the fun of seeing new paint on the car. Obviously this paint is very temporary and the car will be completely prepared and nicely painted when the bodywork is done. By the way, the car should be painted in Flamenco but Halford's only had Vermilion.

The therapy worked wonders. And may I just say how good Halfords "rattle cans" are?

Dust

 

Oh dear, I gave the car Solihull badges by mistake.

 

 

Rear Lamp Panel - Part 5

Firstly, an apology. In my enthusiasm to get this job done, I forgot to take any photos during the work. Damn. For those of you who read the previous post on the subject, I decided to cut out a section of boot floor and use a bit of steel to re-make it in order that it would meet the rear lamp panel. This I did.

The area between the grey seam-sealer stripes is new metal.

Next job was to grind down and fill the welds on the inner rear wing gutter channels, where it meets the upper section of the rear lamp panel. Lots of thin skims of filler and lots of high-build primer lead to a less than satisfactory conclusion. More more needed here to replicate the factory finish on the offside.

This side looks ok

 

This side looks a bit "fillerey"

 

Ignore the Solihull dust badges!

 

 

C-Post Part 2

Just a quick update here. Today was a "fill & grind" day, so the welding to the top of the rear wing/C-post were ground down and treated to a skim of filler.

Very before

Before

I don't have a photo of the repair panel being welded to the upper part of the rear wing, but here's one of just before. You can see the holes made for plug welding, which was done shortly after. Although this area won't be seen as it will be covered by the C-post finisher, I still spent a lot of time on it.

After

...and after a quick coat of paint to keep the moisture out.

Rear Wing - Nearside - Part 7

Just a quick update here. Today was a "fill & grind" day, so the spot welds along the wing to door flange were ground down and treated to a skim of filler.

Before

 

 

After

 

"After" photos to follow

"After" photos to follow

 

Rear Lamp Panel - Part 4

Most of Saturday saw me at work (the day job) so Sunday was the only day I could get in the garage. I didn't have a great deal of time with the TR7 this weekend, but I was pleased with what I did. Readers of my previous couple of posts will remember that the rear end was proving troublesome in reassembly, due to the very odd joint with the boot floor. In essence I concluded that someone before me had also fitted a rear lamp panel and just hacked the boot floor around to fit.

So today I thought "to hell with it" and cut off the entire lip of the boot floor, leaving it flat to meet the correct lower edge of the rear lamp panel. The intention is to then extend the rear floors to meet the rear lamp panel, by adding some sheet steel. I found some very nice galvanised steel knocking around my garage. The job didn't get finished today, in fact it didn't really get started, but the steel is cut and ready to be fettled for next weekend.

Oh, and I also tacked the rear lamp panel in place.

Some tack welds to hold the panel in place.

The boot floor lip has been cut away, so now I have to extend the boot floor to meet the lower edge of the lamp panel.

Here's a nice bit of steel I will use. It is not cut or shaped yet.

Rear Lamp Panel - Part 3

Boiinnggggg! Spring has sprung! Ok, maybe not in meteorological terms, but certainly in restoration terms because today found me back in the garage.

You may recall that last time I had offered up the yellow "new" rear lamp panel to the car's now rather bare rear end. It fitted ok, but it still needed a lot of prep on the areas where it would be welded, plus I wanted to make sure the boot would fit well. To adapt an old phrase "it's a long time welded", so it is important to get this right.

Nice ar*e.

The new boot was bolted in place after having one of those nice moments when you remember you have a handy part in the shed. Some time ago I bought a new set of bolts & washers for this job, so once e again things are coming out of the shed and going on the car.

The boot fitted ok, but was low at the nearside. After much head scratching my friend Neil pointed out that the nearside hinge itself had an awful lot of play in it, so we took the boot off again to investigate. It soon became clear that the spot welds which hold the plate, to which the hinges bolt, had broken. A bit of MIG later and all was well. The boot was then reattached and to my joy I discovered that not only is there adjustment in the boot-to-hinge bolts, but also in the hinge-to-body. So with quite a lot of fiddling, the boot was made to sit at the right height and latitude. Sort of.

Fed up with having to use a block of wood to prop the boot lid open, and in fear of it crashing down on my head, the next job was to fit the boot stay bracket. This was drilled off the old section of wing and after being cleaned up, was plug welded in place.

Boot stay bracket plug welded in place.

 Quite a bit of time was spent cleaning up the edges of the new panel and the wings/boot floor ready for welding. I am terrible for letting my heart rule my head, but today I resisted the urge to just weld it all up and worry about any errors afterwards. This needs to be spot-on so it will only be welded when I am happy with the fit of everything. So that just leaves the boot floor, then. Hmmmmm.

Made of 3 photos, this shows (with the help of the red lines) what is left of the boot floor lip.

In one of my previous posts I mentioned that the lip of the boot floor to the bottom edge of the lamp panel is all over the place. At some points it lips over the panel, at others it is miles to high and in other areas it doesn't meet it at all. I know that Speke build quality was bad (see boot hinges, above), but surely it cannot have been designed this way. I can only assume that someone has repaired it badly before, by cutting off random bits of boot floor and welding whatever was left to whatever was available.

Sadly the only decent solution I can think of is to cut off all of the boot floor lip, leaving just the flat of the boot floor, and fabricate a new one to fit the panel. Incidentally, it was like this with the old panel in place, too.

Nearside boot floor. Lip or no lip?

Can you guess which part of the car this is?

I'll keep you posted on what happens next.