Nearside front wing

Slow progress on rebuilding the nearside front wing: I took off the worst of the rusty metal at the rear, and about 5 cm all along to the front wheel arch. Then a rather clumsy bit of welding - which will all need to be hidden under a thin layer of body filler. The whole wing is in fact already covered with filler - and this seems to have been put on during its original manufacture, as far as I can tell. No - as I sand it down more, its clear that the light blue was the original, then body filler, then the dark blue. No idea when this was done (no record of any rebuild in the various invoices etc).

 

Then a new flange around the wheel arch, which stiffens the panel and will be needed to attach to the lower wing bracket, holding the wing firmly at its bottom edge.

While clearing rust from the edges of the wing, I discovered another hole at the front, just below the headlight cowl (if that is the right term). This will also need a patch.

In progress - first coat of underseal, and the patch on the front.

And here's the next stage - ready for paint now. 

I am putting a lip onto the outer edge of the replacement panels by first using a joddler to make a raised rim about 1mm high and 10mm in width, and then welding a U-shaped piece of edge trim that surrounds this joddled rim. The end result is quite stiff, 3mm thick and a good match (externally) to the original 2mm deep rim that was rolled to include a stiff 4mm wire.