Practically Classics Forum

Bit more progress today - N/S/R door had been hacked on the inner frame so that the door closed over the check strap bracket that had been reattched with brass at some stage in the cars life With metal cut to shape but such a small piece to try to position whilst its tacked so rather than cut all the way through - I left it part attached to the larger piece so that I could hold it place while it was tacked then just folded it back and forward a couple of times to part - the desired result duly achieved once cleaned up

All of the N/S/R door fitted well with exception of the top frame which was out of line with the front door The fix here was to build up the frame with weld Once cleaned back with the angle grinder and brought into line with a large file on the top edge

I had to previously pack the hinges off on the rear door to obtain the correct gapping against the rear wing - this was achieved with washers on a temporary basis with the door removed and hinges off I made up proper spacer plates utilising the hinges has patterns

The spacers left gaps in the door skin abuting the hinge plates so these were made good by welding small plates in So all little odds that took most of the afternoon but the nearside of the car is now very close - it requires a little work in dressing the panels ready for lead loading and a run over with the orbital sander to denib them,

Before I moved the bodyshell across the workshop to tackle the offside welding on the outer panels I needed to sort the bonnet out The rebates allow for the fastenings for the chrome trim that run down the side of the panel Problem is that these weaken the bonnet and split - whats needed is some form of reinforcement I formed some channel from sheet metal and then formed a radius to match the bonnet profile with the shrinker before letting in the rebates

Clamped up to the underside of the panel I then spot welded the reinforcement in place The holes were redrilled for trim fixing and the splits welded up prior to being cleaned up

So thats all the welding & panel alignment complete on the nearside

With the bodyshell relocated to enable access to the offside I tacked the front door which had some very thin areas on the front edge These were cut and fresh metal let in

Main problem with the doors more than anything is that have all had a battering - if new door skins had have been available I would have reskinned all of the doors - they are all going to require quite a lot of work in getting them to the correct profile Meanwhile a couple of areas on the inner panels were made good that had shown through since the shell was dipped some were minor pinholes Others being splits Next on the list is the rear door which requires some minor repairs on the skin but also requires a complete new bottom to the frame.

Will almost be a shame to put paint on this, it looks fantastic in bare metal with all the work you've put in on it.