Rear Right Side Inner Wing

When I took the wire brush to this, a large number of holes appeared and the panel below the air box intake was obviously thin and would have to be cut out.

This revealed more damage – this is the rear bumper mounting bracket and will take some of the load from the tow bar later, so will need to be made good.

The first cut and trial fit, you would not believe how many folds even this small piece needed!

After welding it all up with a combination of the spot and mig welding, a coat of primer to try and keep more rust away.

Then I start to attach the outer patch. The jaws of the spot welder just reached inside the box, but not quite to the very front. I had to finish that with the mig.

A clamp is attached to the far corner whilst I start spot welding along the bottom edge towards the clamp.

And the job is soon finished! It just needs a coat of primer.

I started the next stage after a good night’s rest, so I had a clear, fresh head. I had been looking at it the previous evening and wondering just how I was going to manage it. It looked impossible!

I had to deal with the inner wing liner. Here I have cut the basic shape of the missing portion of the wing and am sizing it up.

Like so much of this car, this is curved in two dimensions and it took a bit of imagination to work out its proper shape. It took me a couple of hours to reach this stage and to start the welding.

A view of the underside during the fitting work. You can see the remains of part of the old edging on the left which helped to guide me with the shape.

And the underside after all the welding had been completed. I had cut away the old edging, it was of no structural use and would only rust away and cause trouble later if I tried to keep it.

And finally, and extra “ear” which will take one of the screws to attach the outer wing later. As for the other side, I will need to drill a hole later to take the speed nut.

Astute readers will note that I have not replaced the intermediate divider plate. I thought it was only a dirt trap – which it was. However, it seems to have also acted as a sort of baffle and a drain pipe terminated at it as can be seen here. I think I will simply extend that when the time comes! This, of course, applies to both sides.

Here it is after two coats of light blue Hammerite. I will also paint the inside of the airbox and the engine bay to match. You can see part of it here where I have painted it.

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