Amazon: Freebie Amazon project

[Gordon Hunter]

Here's the repair section I made for the LHS rear wing with the same sort of radius...

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[tom the teapot]

Wow! What a rebuild! Your fabrication skills are fantastic, I cant wait to see how this car comes out. What sort of welder are you using?

Tom

[Gordon Hunter]

Hi Tom and thanks for your encouragement.

MIG- wise I use a Miller Migmatic 171
But I am also using a Murex 'Saffire' oxy-acetylene kit as well as the odd bit of TIG and spot welding.

Hope to have more pics up soon.

Gordon

[Tail]

Originally Posted by Gordon Hunter

Here's the repair section I made for the LHS rear wing with the same sort of radius...

Attachment 46203

That really is some amazing metalwork. Excellent stuff

[Gordon Hunter]

Thanks and glad you're enjoying the thread.

That repair panel was not too hard to do really. Just clamp a bit of flat sheet to a table with a length of pipe with a sinilair radius to the wing clamped on top and bend it over carefully using a flipper. The inward curve at the end was put in with a shrinker (that's the expensive bit really). It is possible to make a small shrinking tool out of a pair of vice grips though the finish is not as clean as you get lots of 'tucks'.
To make the rear panel repair should be easier and won't require an expensive bit of kit like the shrinker. I'll just need to find a longer bit of pipe of the right radius and then bend the flange in the folder, but if you don't have a folder either then you could just clamp it to a table with a bit of flat bar clamped on top to stop it warping and hammer the flanged edge over.
I'll try and stick some photos up to demo it for you (once I break free from domestic duties!).

[Gordon Hunter]

Actually, that rear panel does have an outward bow in it, so not as easy as I thought but might be worth having a go....

[Gordon Hunter]

I decided there was no other way round it than to replace the rust infested bottom section of the rear panel with a home made repair section.
Unfortunately as the rear panel is wider than 4 ft, I wasn't able to cut the flat sheet in my 4 ft treadle guilotine.
The smallest bit of sheet I had that was suitable was 8ft X 4ft but if you wanted to try to make this panel without all the expensive kit, then you could ask a steel stockist to cut you a suitable length...

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I've used an oddleg or 'hermaphrodite' jenny caliper to mark out the sheet for cutting by hand...

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I used some Makita electric shears to cut along the 8 ft side...

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I then folded a 15mm flange in the box and pan folder, but again you could get a fabrication shop to do this for you...

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Here is the square repair panel lined up to the back panel. I have marked it with felt pen in the middle for reference before I start to stretch in the radius...

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I've used a stretching machine to pull the panel round to the right shape. It's just trial and error and offering it up to the original panel many times over before it lines up. Again, you don't have to have an expensive shrinker / stretcher like this, you can actually stretch the metal by using a cross pein panel hammer and striking the metal methodically round the flange to stratch out the radius...

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I used a strip of 4 mm flat bar with some carver clamps to stop any movement while hammering. Next I hammered over the metal using the original panel as a buck to get the shape right.

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That's the new repair panel ready for fitting. I'm going to use a spot welder along the bottom flange to get a nice factory finish. I'll blend the two panels together so you shouldn't see any join...

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[DJS]

Hi Gordon,

Nice repairs.

You mentioned the tabs / holes in the floor and wondered what they were for. They are for paint drain during the shell dipping process at the factory. The initial primmer coat would probably have been applied this way.

I agree that they are a pain in the bum, and was thinking of doing the same to the ones on my car.

Location holes are usually round and few and far between.

[Gordon Hunter]

Thanks Darren,

Makes perfect sense. With repairs there's probably a whole day to be spent sorting those!

Gordon

[Gordon Hunter]

Here are some better pictures of forming the repair section over the original rear panel.
It would have been better to form the new panel before removing all the filler, as there has been quite a lot of crash damage, the original metal is not in the best shape. I dug out all the filler half thinking I'd just buy a nice new rear panel (glad I didn't just cut it out!) only to find they are no longer available. I can correct this mostly off the car with hammer and dolly.

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