Christmas 2014, day 2 and still on the wing.  Over my first coffee I discovered that the main issue left with the wing was that it is still too big, as in too tall.  When I pull the wing down it sits much cleaner on the car.  So I decided to cut some more metal out of it only this this time by going across other than down.  I also decided that I should fit the sill first as the wing has to sit over this and I wanted to make sure that it was not going to have an impact on the final wing position before I went too far.  To do this I needed to clean up some of the tack welds on the sill section and indeed finish the welding on any areas that would be covered by the sill.  This meant welding on the chassis section that had been galvanised by the previous owner and this created lots of smoke:

Eventually the sill was ready for fitting having tidied up the inner sill and painted it with the usual weld through primer.

The sill was simple enough but like every other panel did require some modification, this time it was too long in the section that sits between the wings and below the door, the newly acquired Oxy-Acetelyne was called into action for that.

So I then pondered the next cut for a coffee or two and then went for it

Once done the wing settled nicely and looked a much better fit.  However, as this is before I have welded the lower section back on I will avoid getting too excited.  Once again my eye was drawn to the rear section which was not quite right, the door gap was not now as good as it could be and before long I was cutting again, this time over the first cut I did a few months back.  At this stage time caught up with me and I washed up and headed inside to light the fire and debate the days progress with the dog over a cold Guinness.

Well Christmas is past but the holiday period is not, a lovely time of year for a teacher.  I am a little disturbed by my lack of access to the garage during the last term, not a single visit, must try harder, must try harder, must....... you get the gist.  I was lucky enough to get some Di2 components for my bike from Santa so I need to fit some time in for the bikes as well, think I need to be more disciplined.

Anyway, yesterday I had an uninterrupted day in the garage and having cleared the bikes out and moved the car over to one side I spent a few minutes deciding what was next to do.

I decided to finish the wing off properly and then work backwards.  By finish the wing off I meant get it ready for final filling / lead loading.  There are some issues which I tried to capture in the photos.

The lower rear edge is shocking (as is the door gap at this point)
The wheel arch has two shocking repairs
The wing in badly bowed in the central area above and below the aperture for the flash trim

I decided to start with the lower rear edge and cut off a section of steel from an un wanted sill, cleaned it up and folded it into shape but lost my nerve before cutting the original off.

Then I turned my attention to the bowed area which is not that visible in the photos but stands out like a sore thumb to me when I look down the line.  I decided that to reduce the bow I should cut into the wing and weld it up again.  Simple plan.

Sure enough, it got rid of the bow, well, more precisely it changed it from bowing outwards to bowing inwards (convex to concave?) which feels better but certainly not finished, umm.

Having cut and welded below the aperture it made the bow above it more pronounced so I cut in to the top section as well.  So now that area is bowed in as well.  When I look down the line of the car it is better than it was but it is not right.   Also, it makes the area around the wheel arch look really bowed out now.  So basically I have just shifted the problem, such is life.

I'm about to walk the dog, have breakfast and then get back in to the garage for the next stint. Looking forward to it already.