As restrictions are obviously still in place, we've tried to make the best of it where possible without traveling unless on other errands. A full weekend at home at the start of the month meant house jobs and so as not to miss out on some form of car-related activity, some fettling of the only motor close to hand - bit of a service and finally fitting the missing hubcaps from the wire wheels.
looks much better, strange what difference a small addition makes
The long weekend meant an extra day off from the day job, but an additional day working on farm-related tasks as it's the time of year when things go a bit crazy. So with more chainsaw activity scheduled for over the weekend, we all know what comes with it
Nope... we had a cuppa and played spot the difference for a bit while we recovered - working in full get up on a warm day with nothing to drink is not advised!
Tea soon kicked in and so I went off to stare at something else that I'd been pondering over the last week or so
How to get that sill just 'right'.
With a sort of a plan in my head, nothing for it but to get stuck in. So taking the longer sill piece I'd previously cut, it was a matter of taking some time to shape it to fit the profile of the NS sill as I did with the shorter piece and then getting it lined up correctly. After much tapping, refitting, removing, more tapping, we were getting somewhere
Next job was to take on a suggestion of
jonsey 's, but rather than cut it off short completely, I decided I'd slice the outer arch repair panel, meaning it could effectively slot inside the new outer but still allow me to close the sill off
Took far too long to do, but must confess to being rather pleased with how it all turned out eventually.
Before I can fix it all in place however, I need to sort what's going on at the rear of the arch, particularly the rather dented and previously messed with rear quarter. So that was where I left it for the eve.
Next morning after a bit of dent removal, some more shaping and test fitting of the lower repair panel followed
However as you can see from the above, the slightly nagging issue I had though was that I didn't know how much filler was hiding under the surface, nor what it was hiding. Time to make it snow again then! As madam was still working on the A35 and rather insistent that she didn't want everything covered in that delightful dust that's created and we didn't have the luxury of waiting for the stripper to do its thing, it was time for a spot of den making
Sure enough there was plenty of filler, the rear panel join is going to need some tlc in time...
and it created a delightful mess as predicted...
But overall it was much better than I anticipated
still a few dings to get rid of though that were previously just filled and covered over... twice it would appear from the layers of filler I uncovered
Time to make a hole then...
Before plenty of hammer and dolly work to firstly get the floor section right
and then making a start on shaping the repair section I needed access for
knowing how easily things get rusty, it was then time to coat everything and tidy up for the night
Back on with it the next day and starting with a minor distraction/point of curiosity... 'I wonder what's behind/going on here?'
Hmmmm
Need to sort that then
Luckily it's not gone through anywhere else in that section so will clean up and treat the inside and then plate back over.
Right back on with that inner rear wing repair, and back out with hammer and dollies to create some of the detail and give it some strength
I think there may be some more tools arriving in the near future... and in situ (spot the new ventilation
)
again that all took an absolute age, but was strangely therapeutic. Talking of which some CAD design next
Before transfer to metal
and putting it all back together
Had a damn good tidy/clear up and then called it a day.
In other news, we also got the front of the A35 cleaned up and spot welded before everything got a lick of red oxide temporarily so SWMBO was very happy too.
Bit of welding on the to do list for the next visit... whenever that may be.
can't be all that far from done...
. Time to swallow some brave pills and get cutting
, joys of snatching at things over a weekend when I probably have an unrealistic idea in my head of what I'm hoping to achieve by the end (is it just me that does that?)