Pick up Restoration (Part 2)

[RobMoore]

This is looking good David and you are progressing well

[davidmiles]

Thanks Rob. The grill is the next bit to come under scrutiny, this blue one came with a load of spares, its in a bit of a state, considering the low cost of these on e bay I may chuck it if its going to take a lot of time to get it up to standard. Its going to be a long time untill this can be fitted, Ive not even stripped the engine accessories off yet, let alone thought about re mounting it into the engine bay, the grill will come well after that so its quite low on the priority list.
[frame][/frame]

[aupickup]

well actually david the outer panel and rad panel needs to be fitted along with the wings to make sure it all lines up, so i would really concentray on doing this
then get the bonnet ready to trial fit
then they can be taken off and painted so when they go back on you know they will fit

beware of the repro front panel its not a good fit

[davidmiles]

Thanks Dennis I'll see what I can do to preserve this blue one in that case.
I was doing some work on the tail end in the sunshine today, glorious weather for car restoration. Pat called and dropped off my big box of bits from Bull Motif, only ordered them middle of last week, they're here already, new passenger side wing...[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

Bumper bars, door seals, strips and clips.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

Can anyone offer advice here, the bottom of the attachment plate is made at a right angle, do I need to cut some of it away to make it fit, or am I looking at this wrong.
[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

Does this end just weld into the hole in the inner wing?[frame][/frame]

[alex_holden]

Can anyone offer advice here, the bottom of the attachment plate is made at a right angle, do I need to cut some of it away to make it fit, or am I looking at this wrong.

Ideally it should form the filling of a spot or plug-welded sandwich between the tie plate and the inner wing.

[alex_holden]

Does this end just weld into the hole in the inner wing?[frame][/frame]

Yes. I would recommend bolting the bumper on before tack welding the bars in place; the positioning is fairly tricky to get right.

[aupickup]

all as alex says

make it strong because the bumper mounts on to it as well
and fitting the bumper to it is paramount for positioning and also up to the bottom of the wings for fitting
so maybe an idea to temp fix the wink in position and the whole fron panel as the bumper mount has to line up with the hole in the front panel

[davidmiles]

Right,looks like I'll have to trial fit the whole front body together. The new front wing is now acid etch primed and has a coat of grey primer, ready to trial fit into position.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

The front panel has a long way to go, After cutting off the rusted bolt holding the two together, Ive fixed the dented in grill part, removed some of the flaking paint and rust, still some more to do on these before they'll be ready for etch primer.[frame][/frame]

[aupickup]

did you take off the protective primer that was on the repro wing

[davidmiles]

No, should I have? it was unblemished

[aupickup]

possibly
its not the best primer in the world if it is a primer, , but maybe it will be ok

[davidmiles]

The inside of all four wheel arches will be getting a liberal application of waxoil, once ive finished adjusting and touching them. With any luck the protective coat put on by the manufacturer will hold out ok. If it had been patchy I would have sanded it off but it was immaculate.

[WPR678B]

Excellent work David! I haven't checked in on this thread for a while, but you are flying!

[jonathon]

The inside of all four wheel arches will be getting a liberal application of waxoil, once ive finished adjusting and touching them. With any luck the protective coat put on by the manufacturer will hold out ok. If it had been patchy I would have sanded it off but it was immaculate.

Hope you are going to top coat them first inside and out. Do not take heavy waxoyled panels to a bodyshop and expect them to spray them, its evil stuff and will need to be completely washed off before painting.

[davidmiles]

Thanks Jonothan, That I will do. The right side cab gutter is missing, the one from Bull Motif is much wider than the original on the left side of my cab. I measured and cut off 10mm of excess metal so that it matches the left side gutter. Ive trial fitted this up to the cab roof and I'll be clamping it into place tommorow afternoon.[frame][/frame]

[jaekl]

Can anyone offer advice here, the bottom of the attachment plate is made at a right angle, do I need to cut some of it away to make it fit, or am I looking at this wrong.
[frame][/frame]

I'm always impressed how you chaps on the other side of the pond are much more eager to salvage and rebuild than over here. You're doing an amazing amount of work but I think I can add something now, since it doesn't look like your question was understood. The bottom of the attachement plate is correct. The whole part is rotated until the bottom lines up with the panel on the car. Of course originally there must have been a fixture to locate everything properly while welding. You will need to have all of the panels fitted including the bumper to ensure a good fit.
A side note about fitting the grille panel. As the wings are moved to fit this panel, you will notice that the rear edge of the front wings also move which in turn affects the gap with the door. Somehow everything needs to be done at the same time.