1986 Toyota MR2 - an uncontrollable evacuation of the bowels

It's Christmas!

Well it's not Christmas anymore. But I can introduce you to some toys that Santa kindly dropped off. Later…

First this.




The outer wing is getting replaced at some point and is hidden behind the skirt anyway so a quick botch job will be fine there. Yeah right!
The inner wing is staying so it needs a proper repair done to it.

So I cut the remains of the outer panel away with the grinder and toy number one.




Air body saw! I'm not going to use it every day but it's really handy for those spots where you can't get the grinder in. I've cut the last bits with a hacksaw blade held in some thick gloves before now. It takes ages. This is much better.

First I need to make the inner arch edge. This curves in two directions - the curve of the wheel arch and it curls under the car too. In the past I've scribed a line matching one of the curves and tried to fold along the line. This works well but you always wind up hitting it a lot to 'adjust' it. Normally I have to cut and weld too although I try to avoid doing that in the face side - the bit that will be seen.

A better way would be to start with a bit of flat oblong of steel like this.




Which you put a 90 degree fold into. Then you add the curves with a shrinker / stretcher.

Santa, please please! I've been a good boy, honest!




Oh baby!

It took a moment to get the hang of this but once you get going it really flys.




So much so that in the photo above I've actually over curved it. But that's easily fixed. Just put the stretcher jaws in and straighten it.




Here we go. There is a limit to what the shrinkers can do - I have no idea what that limit is but I figured that the bottom corner was beyond it. So I cut it just like the old days.




In the other direction it's still a bit straight. Easily fixed with the stretcher jaws in the tool.




Nice! I have to say that if you are doing wheel arches just go and buy a shrinker / stretcher.

Next I had to turn the other fold in. You'll see what I mean in a moment.
Now I could have marked it, put a bend in, and then used the shrinker to put the curves right. And in future, when I'm a bit more confident, I might try that. But this time I was far too pleased to have got close to the right shape that I couldn't bear the idea of messing it up. So I slit and welded it - old stylee.




Here you go, against the car…




The bit of aluminium across the bottom of the sill is a guide so I can get the bottom corner of the arch in the right place. Hopefully.

Next I need to remake the panel in front of the arch. This has an annoying shape. It has a divot in it. Not for any reason other than strength. I could leave it out but I'll try and do it properly.

First I need a handy pipe of about the right diameter to put the bends in. A piece of cast iron down pipe looks good.





No I didn't hit it with the lump hammer! I just pushed it round the pipe.
Something like this looks like a promising start…




The back edge needs to curl out to meet the arch. Again, I just slit it.




To be honest I had no idea what shape this join needed to be, nor how the two bits fit relative to each other. So slitting it gave me easy adjustability. And I've no idea how else to do it!

A brief aside here…
This is my work bench. Notice the piece of pipe in the metal vice and the hammer in the woodwork vice. Both are being used as dollies, something to hit against.




Well, I've been thinking for a while that a selection of proper dollies would be handy. I've just got to that point where I think I could use them. So…




Santa has been good to me! These are just a cheap set - I'm never going to make it as a panel beater!

Back to the plot - dolly in hand.
I clamped the arch edge to the car and lined up the panel part. Then I tacked the two parts together.




Then retreat to the garage and weld it together.




There are a couple of holes in it that I still need to deal with. But it's gone dark outside and I can't actually tell if it's likely to fit the car so thats where I'm going to leave it.




I really hope it fits! Plenty more to do to it yet.

James

very very nice metal work....Ive been playing with those tools too in getting my fender patches to fit properly...I too highly recommend the shrinker stretcher tools they are great fun to play with really move the metal...within limits of course.

I went through several tries getting my (more simple) piece close to a good fit...then making an adjustment only to find the piece then didnt fit at all!....once its gets close it really only needs small adjustments or you risk mucho frustration.

I will not be hesitant to make a few slits here and there now as I continue up to the top of my fenders for the next patch....

great work here...looking forward to more progress



JP

James, I find myself in a rather strange situation of feeling envy and smug concurrently.

I'm very envious of the stuff that Santa brought you but at the same time very smug at the thought I have no possible need for any of them!

Nice work, as ever.

could be made from one sheet i guess, but its all relative.

i mean, i look at what you've done (in what some might consider crude and rudimentary fashion) and still think some kind of unachievable voodoo has happened.

I think we are are all constantly learning doing these things. I bought one of those shrinkers from Eastwood in the US before they became more widely available at a reasonable price. Worked very well until the jaws split in half lucky I haven't done much since finishing my last project to really need them.

With patch making have you discovered that once you sap your unfinished piece with a mig that it becomes very difficult to further shape the steel as the mig has a tendency to harden the patch ?

Keep up the good work

So does it fit? Only one way to find out.

The rusty bit with some cut lines drawn round it.




You see that big hole in the middle? You see that lump of 'stuff' that's visible through the hole?
That's the underseal. It's survived quite well. Better than the car did. If they'd built the car out of underseal and not bothered with the metal I'd not need to be fixing it.

Choppy chop chop.




Too late now. Fingers crossed.

And toes. Which is a bit of a problem as it gives me cramp in my feet.




Thank goodness! Took a while tapping and snipping but it looks like it'll go in.
I'm not sure I've got the lower arch curl quite right so I need to offer up the skirt and see if it needs adjusting. And the top edge isn't quite right but I can tweak that or just pull the car to match.

But that's for another day. I'm now going to pay for my days off over new year by working solidly for an while. Ah well.

James

We must have both written a similar letter to Santa

I got a similar set of panel beating tools

And a Rotary polisher - For some reason it was chosen ahead of a shrinker stretcher along with a set of hammer thro screwdrivers as my depleted set were too hammered to be used any more......

Guess which one will get used first......... (Screwdrivers don't coun't as they were used even before Xmas - on reflection I think they even avoided being wrapped)

Great work on the repairs great when new toys tools get used straight away and make a difference

You lads would be a bit old to be playing with dollys, wouldn't you?
It's a more open-minded world now, so I won't question your choice of toy, mind.

I was going to do a "hammering Dolly in the garage" sort of joke. You two were clearly better brought up than me.