Sunday 31 May 2015

What with it being half term holiday and my lovely wife being away for Ironman training I managed to get a few days in the garage this week.  I also managed to get to Orchard Restorations for their annual open day with my wife and Wilf the Bulldog which was great, more on that later.

I returned to the car and set about finishing the wing.  I fitted it to the car and decided to get straight to the chase and weld it up without any faffing about and it seems to have come out really well.

























I then looked at the rear inner section which had lots of pin holes in it (not clearly visible in the photo) so I set about cutting off the original and making a new section.



























I kind of like this type of activity, It is one big puzzle to be solved.



























Slowly but surely I got there.



























It took most of the day though, measuring, cutting, bending & measuring again etc.



























At last, all welded.



























I then looked at the side in a little more detail and decided I needed to work on the front wing lower rear edge.  I did the same on the other side so I know what to do.


























One of the things that has been teasing my brain is the amount of cut-off that I need on the B post.  Not sure why actually apart from it being really obvious that it would need cutting back from the very first time I welded the inner wing on.  I decided to buy the  aluminium panel that sit on the inner wing and sill to enable me to work out what metal I need to remove.  Only when I fitted it I came across an unexpected issue.  This is what they look like on John Hendrusson's 100 BN1.














And this is what they look like when trial fitted to my car from the inside, miles out.













So in typical fashion I ignored it and got on with the rest of the car.

Happy with the door gap on the rear near side.












In the garage the line down the near side looks good too.











The rain stopped and I got the car out.  I have been looking forward to the moment when I realise that the wings fit, the door gaps are good and I can can get on with the task of welding up the inner body and and fitting the boot panels etc.













I knew that moment wasn't now though.  The lines down the side are just not good enough and the sills must be in the incorrect positions.  So I did what I always do, cut the lot off and start again.






























I am not  sure how easy I will find the other side, but this side was easy to remove and reposition.  I am a little worried that I cut too much out of the front section of the rear wing last weekend but I can always modify it again if need  be.