Further dismantling

You thought I'd forgotten about this blog didn't you? There have been no new posts here recently simply because there's been a distinct lack of progress on the car. Since I last wrote about it I've been in the garage several times, sighed a bit, shut the door and come back indoors again.

An impending couple of weeks off work however, plus some encouragement from Barry McGrath got things moving again. Preparation began by constructing a wooden frame on which to support the chassis.

The next stage of work on the car is to remove the rear wings and since those were providing a lot of the strength that was holding the car up on the rotating stand it seemed sensible to put the body back on the chassis whilst some rigidity could be restored to the tub.

Barry came over to lend another pair of hands and between us we got the car on to the new chassis stand. The stand isn't really as wonky as it looks in this picture!

The two of us spent an entire day drilling out welds, splitting the panels with a chisel and generally trying to remove the nearside outer wing panel in as intact a condition as possible. The outer panels are actually in very good condition however the inner wing and wheel arch need to be repaired so the outer has to come off. The easy way to do this is to cut away the main panel and then tidy the flanges with a flap wheel. New outer wing panels are however almost £200 each so it's been worth some effort to preserve them.

The lower part of the inner wing has clearly had a previous repair carried out without removing the outer wing or boot floor. The outer part of the wheel arch has also been replaced at some point but it's been refitted with quite a gap between that panel and the inner wing which goes some way to explain the poor fit of the outer wing on this side of the car.

You can also see a patch repair at the back of the lower B post in that photograph.

The next day I started work on the other wing, now working on my own. Trying to remove these panels intact is, frankly, a complete pain. It took me an entire day just to separate the top edge of the offside wing. A further day was then spent working along the bottom edge and round the wheel arch, drilling out welds and carefully cutting where necessary.

This morning I've finally finished this side. In the end I couldn't unpick all the welding around the rear edge of the panel so I just cut through the rear panel and the remains will have to be removed from the wing panel later. The rear panel itself is to be replaced anyway so I don't mind damaging that.

In contrast, the front edge of the panel where it joins the B post wasn't welded at all! it was retained only by some sticky white goo. I suppose that at least means that the B post flange didn't get as mangled as the one on the nearside while removing the wing panel.

The offside of the car has clearly has almost exactly the same repairs as the nearside. Also although I've heard it said that you can't weld to rust, it looks as though whoever fitted this wing panel knew better. The lower edge of the inner panel to which it was welded was not in a great state.

The flap disc on the angle grinder tidied up the worst of the rough edges and a bit of work with a hammer and dolly straightened up the flanges damaged by all the drilling and levering.

So that's both wings removed. I only managed to break three drill bits and blunt four others plus a spot weld drill. Also I managed to explode three cutting discs and break the old chisel I've been abusing for years. I think the chisel used to be my grandads. Sorry Grandad!

When I've gathered some more enthusiasm the next job will be to repair the inner wings and wheel arches along with fitting a new boot floor, rear valance and rear light panel. It sounds simple when you write it down like that!