Where on earth Do you Start…
These restorers don’t hang around and by the end of the first day the old pattern wings had been stripped off the car and, as I was expecting, it wasn’t a pretty sight. The good news was that the suspension top mounts and inner wings looked OK and the A-posts seemed to be in one piece. The bad news was that the seams around the headlamp bowls had vanished and the place where the wing rails should be was basically missing. So all we had was a jagged edge of crusty metal left. Some parts had been fibre-glassed and plenty of filler botched in over the years.
One thing I need to mention about Dennis is he has a love of fresh metal and hates corrosion. He has been a panel beater for most of his life and made it clear the job had to be done slowly and properly with no corners cut (pardon the pun).
On closer inspection it was obvious that the front sills at the bottom of the A-posts were pretty much non existent and had the structural integrity of a Jacobs Cream cracker. And where the wing was attached to the side of the A-post it had pulled various bits of metal away when it came off.
It is probably best to let the pictures do the talking..
Front wheel arches rot so make sure inner protective guards are in place
Front wheel arches rot so make sure inner protective guards are in place
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The front sill normally hidden behind the wing was rotten through to the carpet on the interior
Small remnant of the inner wing rail with patches of filler and fibre glass hidden in all the brown rust
The offside wing was even worse (they usually are) and there is nothing left of the original inner wing rail
The front valance was a whole job in itself that I’ll save for later. Lots of crusty metal needs cutting away
The nearside headlamp bowl wasn’t in too bad shape but that front valance is missing about 2” of metal
At least the nearside had some metal left on the inner wing rail. That’s an expensive electric aerial that needs rescuing!
