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

Inner flitch panel repair...

A box of goodies turned up last week - one Inner flitch repair panel and WKC2449P (repro) full Inner front wheel arch.

The Inner wing arch turned out to be a very poor fit panel - I've since found lots of talk about these panels on forums. After a couple of hours spent trying to fit it with damaging, I gave up.

I spoke to the supplier who's now given me a full refund - now need to find a better quality panel.

The rust area on the flitch panel needs repairing and as its visable within the engine bay I decided on a repair panel that I would butt weld in place rather than used as a patch.

I started by trimming down the panel to the rough area I wanted, then cutting out the rusty section and fitting the trimmed panel. Weld tacked it in place and with further tweaking and welding should look ok.

6hrs

Inner front wing...

I had fun with the 'descaler' - found lots of rust around inner wing and turret.

Looks like the two inner wing 'support brackets' that are spot welded to the inside of the turret (damper side) is the result of all the rusting - well done Triumph!

I think the best way forward is to replace the whole inner wing which gives me good metal to weld to especially when repairing the hole in the engine bay behind the turret and this also gives a good arch edge to work to when repairing the wing arch or lead loading.

Couple of small holes either side of turret – I will cut out squares and use the flanger on patches so they are not visible after painting.

2hrs

Turret clean up...

Before re-installing the front suspension I needed to remove the remaining under seal from the off side turret which allowed me to examine the rusty areas that need some welding.

2 hrs

Down under pt7...

Finally last of the bl**dy under seal to remove! Front near side wheel arch – not too bad, some minor rust spots will need attention with welding patches.

The outer wing edge is fairly rusty, so depending how bad may consider a repair panel.

5 hrs

Before

A sigh of relief...

Ok, spent time today digging out the rust around the front off side wheel arch.

I discovered a rusty area (as shown in my last post) is the bracket/supports for the turret to the inner arch – which I think could be fabricated and replaced and not structural.

There are also some small areas which will need patching. The inner arch is badly rusted in a couple of areas where it meets (or should) the outer arch. The wing is suffering from lots of very small rust marks in the paint, so I suspect the wing is very rusty on the inside.

The question is – do I patch the inner arch and fill the wing with Waxoyl, or replace the full arch and wing. Depending on the other side which looks visually ok, spending time and money on this side is the preferred option.

4 hrs

 

Rust, rust, rust...

Found a potential big problem under the front off side wheel arch – RUST!

With the rest of the car fairly rust free, looks like the front turret and inner wheel arch may need major repair.

I will need to investigate how bad it is – watch this space!