A fairly long, but productive day today saw the corner pretty much welded in. I just need to weld the battery tray to the corner and dress the welds. Really happy with the door gaps and alignment to the rear quarter panel. The only downside to painting the inside of the corner is that the other corner now looks filthy in comparison.
Possibly more effort than it’s worth, but got some pastel white top coat on to the inside of the rear corner as I’ll never have as good access to it as I do now. Should have it all welded up tomorrow.
First up I finished up the driver’s side rear wheel tub by making these closing panels from a second outer wheel arch repair panel. The outer wheel arch was trial fitted whilst welding these in to make sure everything would fit correctly.
Rear:
Front:
I’m pretty much ready to weld the rear arch and rear end panels (corners, battery trays, engine skirts and outer valance), however before that I want to get some paint on the inside of bits that I won’t have access to later. I cleaned up the D pillars and chassis legs using Deox gel, which is a rust remover, and left it over night:
Then spent the best part of Sunday cleaning up all the metal work, sanding and degreasing ready for some zinc rich primer (the rear corner took an age to remove the transit primer from!).
Rear end:
D pillar:
Engine skirts and battery trays (the N/S one is the original tray which needed some minor repairs but was in great condition):
Wheel tub:
Full corner for the O/S and the smaller repair panel for the N/S in the background:
I’ll epoxy mastic the lot this week and then crack on with the welding.
O/S arch fettled to perfection. I had to persuade it (hammer) to match the curve profile of the middle panel. I couldn’t work out for the life of me why the panel was bulging and popping when pressed near to the arch. I finally tracked it down to the lip not being bent enough, so when I was clamping it to the inner arch the panel bulged out. Quickly fixed with the trusty hammer again to bend the lip round further and no more popping.
Cut out the previous repair to the rear of the inner arch, which consisted of the original rusty piece sandwiched between two sheets of tacked on metal. I should get this repair welded in tomorrow and make a start on repairing the D pillars.