There is an old adage that goes something like "if I job's worth doing, it's worth doing properly" and this certainly applies to my replacement of the offside rear wheel arch. I like welding in new panels, and in the opposite corner I fitted an entire rear wing, which went like a dream. But on the nearside I decided to stitch in a new wheel arch lip, which I hadn't done before. I made a mistake in that I didn't butt weld it, which meant that the weld sat high on the panel and no amount of filler would get the profile right.
I thought it would be easy, but the old adage has really rung in my ears with this one. The time taken to get the profile right has taken an age, with the whole area being flatted, filled, flatted and filled over and over again.
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| First try. |
It probably doesn't show on the photos, but no matter how much I tried to blend things in, the second lip (going up from the first) just wouldn't respond to my critical eyes. The rule I applied was that if I could feel any undulations with my hand (with my eyes closed) it wasn't good enough.
So, in the end, I stripped it all out again back to bare metal and ground down the welds. This caused some very thin areas and holes, which I then had to in-fill with more weld, but in the end I managed to get rid of the "high" areas where the original weld was, basically leaving correctly profiled contours onto which the thin skim of filler could sit.
The overall result was much better, with clearly defined lines.
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| I am responsible for keeping Halfords in business |
Some minor profiling was still required.
But in the end I have something which held its basic shape and will be properly flatted etc when I finally get around to doing the paint prep.
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| It still needs some detailing, but the basic profile is about right. |
