Bit of a bargain...

So keeping my eye on ebay for parts, I recently spotted a near side inner wing with a starting price of £50. I paid £180 for the other side.

Place my bid and won it for £50!! with £30 petrol to collect what a bargain - a repair panel would cost me £75-£90.

I now have the option to replace the whole panel or cut sections for repair.

4hrs (collection)

Driver's door repair pt2...

Using the hole in the door skin as a guide I marked up the new metal for cuting, folding and swage lines. We swaged the top and sides, I than cut the lower corners out the allow it to fold around the lower edge.

I folded the lower edge 90˚ and clamped it into place. We needed to a different combination of arms on the welder due to the access holes.

We started along the face of the lower edge and then the top edge as far as we could reached. I will need to finish it off with the mig welder.

I then flatten the lower edge flange using a hammer and dolly. We also patched the hole on the end from the old removed red door light.

Again a far amount of finishing to do, but good metal to work with.

2hrs

Front offside wing repair pt4...

Spot, spot, spot... a day out of the garage with parts that needed spot welding. Over to Dick's garage to use his welder.

Started by marking out where I needed the swages at the ends. We then starting at the centre point on the edge down towards the ends removing cleco's and clamping on the way to ensure a good contact.

With the front section done we repeated the process towards the back. After a break to the let the welder cool down and give our arms a rest - (it's bloody heavy!) we flipped the wing to see the overlap and welded along the flange edge.

Even thou there's still a far amount the finishing to do - the results look good.

4hrs

Driver's door repair pt1...

Repair and restore maybe a better heading. Years ago I like the red lights on the Rover's door when they opened - I had fitted them to the my 7. Years later because I didn't seal or even paint the holes I had made - you guessed it(!) they are rusty.

Also the usual rust is also showing along the door skin at the bottom, after removing the paint for the lower half and having a dig around inside the rust has been eating away under the sound proofing at the lower edge.

The return flap at the door skin was also rusting - I started removing the first 25mm of the sound proofing from inside the door to see how far the rust had travelled.

After marked out the area and using a cutting disc, I cut and folded back the flap. I then treated the inside and outside areas with Kurust.

I've cut some new metal and patches the red light hole - both will need bending and swaging before welding.  

4hrs

Front offside wing repair pt3...

Both ends of the repair panel needed work to make them fit correctly. I started by reshaping the outer flange which needs to follow the shape more accurately. Cutting small V slits in the flange allowed me reduce the amount of material making it easier to achieve the profile.

With front done, I repeated the process at the rear – both will need final trim once the main section has been spot welded.

A quick fit back on the car reveals the inner wing arch will need some additional adjustment at the front.

2hrs

 

Front offside wing repair pt2...

Change of plan from earlier post, after talking to a chap who's replace a few wheel arches on 7s I'm now cutting along the upper edge of the face.

Cutting off the swaged part of the panel and spot and welding it in place. Then finishing off the edge face by lead loading.

I started by using masking tape to give me a line along just past the return of the face. Using a angle girder with a cutting disk on remove the old arch.

I've used cleco pins to hold in place for welding. Both ends of the arch need extra work and cutting to help fit.

2hrs

Inner wing fitting pt2...

Started today by hammering flat the flange on the front edge and marking a new line so hopefully the inner wing would meet the front inner flitch better. After a lot of off and on fitting I'm almost there. It doesn't follow the line of the old wing on this section but does the job.

When fitting the outer wing again it will need a little more persuasion... sorry adjustment.

I also cut and welded in the missing lower section to the front lower edge - this needs a little more work to blend it in - but pleased with the results so far.

5hs

Inner wing fitting pt1...

After a long wait I gave up on the inner wing from Robsport he's having problems with this supplier. Again following another ring around I bought this one for S&S. They also told me the fit is crap, but I need to move on so handed over my £180 knowing I may need to cut it to get it to fit.

Laying it inside the outer wing, the fit around the arch isn't that bad – but looking the rear/back side has a very rounded look to it, the old one is flat.

I started by laying the old and new inside each other and using a marker to mark where I needed the start shaping and flatting. It wasn't long before I had the back fitting fairly well and the top edge I had folded forward for the moment.

Clamping it in place I can see the fit on the front edge is going to need a lot of fitting with a 15mm gap at the centre point.

Also the front lower section is missing - they all seem to be like this, I will cut and weld in this missing section so it looks like the original and matches the other side.

3hrs