1967 Ford Corsair V4 - Restoration: Delivered

Completed the welding on the wheel tub and dressed it back



Then rewelded the rear seat bracket back to the inner wheel tub



Back to the outer rear wheelarch then - first I dealt with this dent that was pulling the panel inwards and influencing the fit of the wheelarch repair panel but to be honest the rear wing on this side has sustained several areas of damage over a long period



I need to fit the wheelarch repair panel in conjunction with the new lower section of the rear wing - the repair panel roughly extends to the dotted blue line - normally I would trim the new panel and weld it in either just below or just above the swage line has this is easier to control any heat distortion from the welding - however I need to access the inner panel up to the boot floor - this has been fitted during the previous restoration but with no protection and although strong it's very rusty so it needs to be cleaned up & then protected



Accessed



Cleaned up



Just because a repair section comes in a size that extends well beyond the area that requires repair does not mean that you have to fit all of it - the closer you can trim back to any swage line will help with distortion when welding and ideally the last thing you want to be welding to is well towards the centre of a large flat panel - needless to say you also need the area on the existing wing that you are welding to be solid in structure - so if you have to use the full extent of a repair section then by all means do but if you can trim back to a solid area and reduce the area on a large panel then this should be the first option







Weld through primer applied to both panels as required - note the joggled edge on the wing





So the wheel arch can be tacked up tomorrow morning - mean while



The floor and wheel tub areas were etch primed



Has were the underside areas of the repair - so the spring can be refitted tomorrow

Two (more) questions for you please.
Air or hand jogglers?
And is there a specific reason you did the car and not (as I would have assumed) the new panel?

Simple when you know how (or why in this case).
Thank you.

i am pleased (relieved)to see a joddled arch repair as thats exactly what i intend to do on astra no.3

the likelihood of the step in the joddler (joggler? nobody can decide) being the exact thickness of your parent metal/repair is almost zero right? so will need filling regardless ?

continuous seam weld the external upper join?

First job was to bolt the spring & axle back up into place then remove the temporary supports and place the car back to the chassis dolly



Then on with the wheelarch again using the cleco fastenings to retain it in place - note that I have gap of a few mm between the edge of the joggled flange and the new panel hence allowing a valley / rebate for the weld to fill - that way when you dress back with the grinder you wont remove too much of the weld bead



Aperture gap at the bottom is slightly over wide - but very tight against the wing & the rear door at the top - this rear wing is probably the worst fitting panel on the car - it's had a lot of previous repairs and been played around with quite a lot



The bottom of the aperture on the front of the rear door is also too tight but over wide at the top - I placed a temporary 1.8mm shim to the bottom hinge to address some of this but could not go any larger on the shims otherwise the horizontal alignment of the door throws out (always easier to address / alter the vertical alignment than the horizontal alignment on side panels)



So a plan hatched on how to deal with aperture gapping once I had the full extent of any adjustment on the door hinges I looked into getting the wheelarch repair panel welded in



Sid came to inspect the tacking up - so on large panels like this where you are likely to suffer from panel distortion from the welding - I combat this by rotating around the panel whilst welding but I also use the mig torch in one hand and the blow gun in the other - so tack then cool with compressed air - takes seconds - then on to the next tack - until you have joined all the welds together



Fully welded



Dressed back - the entire wing still needs some general reshaping with the hammer & dolly but I shall leave this until I have all the welding complete on the wing



Next is to address the tight aperture towards the top of the wing



Time for a radical



Yet simple procedure - cut down the edge with a 1mm slitting disc on the grinder - open up the gap to required width then close it by gently tapping the aperture edge towards it - weld up & clean up





Slightly wide overall but I now plan to bring the door back on its hinges by 1mm which should give me the aperture gapping that I am looking for at the bottom of both doors - leaving just to sort the over wide gapping at the top of the door with more trickery - more tomorrow

thanks for the reply and good pictures

On with the lower valance of the offside rear wing



Which has also been the subject of several pervious yet questionable repair attempts



Lower section of the rear panel overlaps the rear wing but the offside section is weak and has been filled with clag





Template made up at this stage before the panel is removed / disposed of - I shall make the repair panel up at a later date





Trial fit of the repair panel



Plenty of crud still coming away



Typical of a poor repair - someone has repaired the area previously and failed to put drain holes to the bottom of the new section - hence this cavity has been filling with water ever since - you can see the rusty tide marks on the panel



Inner panel is strong but rusty - it's not that accurate in shape or fit either but can be made to go again



Outer repair panel back on



Inner panel lacks a lower flange in order to retain the outer panel



New flange made



Placed



Welded up and weld through primer applied - note the access hole drilled to allow access for the cavity wax lance



More trimming and trial fitting



Tack welded



Fully welded



Dressed back





The panel now requires a fair bit of work with the hammer & dolly to correct the numerous dents / high / low areas left over from previous poor repairs / ownership

awesome skills and great patience , just finished an Imp for my son and reading and watching this thread has given so much encouragement that when his departs on Monday for the USA and I start on daughters Imp i can do better before I progress to my Avenger .

I noticed your don't finish the welds so they are invisible I'm guessing to reduce heat from the action of grinding/linishing? will you lead load or modern filler ?

Lovely work as ever, Chris.

... and hope you enjoyed a well deseved afternoon off....

Kidding, of course, but considering the challenges you take in stride, you DO make amazing progress.

Lance