Practically Classics Forum

Lots of small rust perforated areas to sort around the rear now Inner section of the rear panel which had rotted out on a seam edge Another one completed

Rear window aperture - outer edge / roof skin Sectioned Shot blasted Completed - Most of the bodyshell repairs shall be lead loaded to make good any deviations to the metal

Next was to repair the area to the lower centre of the inner rear wing Previously smeared in body filler by previous owners / bodgers Close inspection reveals yet another rust weak structure

Fortunately the underside of this right angled section was very solid so I opted just to remove the rust holed side and replace it with some 1.5mm plate Welded in Cleaned up and ready for the outer skin to be fabricated & welded in - a section that is on-going and shall be completed on my next workshop visit.

The offside rear panel joint to the rear shroud / outer wing support panel was also in the same state as the nearside View from the underside with the failed seam of very thin metal - this is in direct line of the rear wheel so it catches all the road crud So this was dealt with using the same detail as the nearside This is also on-going and will be completed on my next visit to the workshop

The car had very poor panel gaps when it first arrived at the workshop - then again Javelin panel fits were quite poor when the cars were new - but the boot lid was a dreadful fit - taking paint off in some areas and in others you could drive a bus through the gaps - The poorest fitting panel on any Javelin tends to be the boot anyway - with its wrap around profile and swept compound curvature there is no surprise. Further to this is the fact that the inner frame of the panel is aluminium and the outer skin being steel so splayed / out of shape panels are not unusual. The original boot had been forced closed on top of something in the boot which in turn had crushed and cracked part of the inner frame so I had sourced a reasonable spare from the Jowett Club spares stock - I just had to repair the split on the inner frame by the hinge So out came the TIG welder and once I had the repair welded and cleaned back I could try for a fit

Starting with the one panel that would be difficult to alter (closing edge of the roof skin) I set the gapping by adjustment on the boot hinges - once I was happy with this I used it as a reference point and worked towards the rear of the car - some areas had to be dressed up / down with a hammer & dolly Other areas had be dressed in / out again with the hammer / dolly - A couple of areas had to be slightly reduced with the angle grinder - mainly the bottom offside edge of the boot - again I was not surprised as the car had sustained pretty heavy impact damage at this point at sometime in the cars life - this in turn opened the edge up on the outer skin return - so by grinding / reducing back by a few more mm in order to allow a build up of weld before cleaning back with a flap disc on the angle grinder

I kept working the boot lid & the aperture until I obtained as close a fit as I could, There are a couple of areas that I will have to lead load to achieve the correct gapping & profile fitting - especially around the bottom corners of the panel adjacent to the lower shroud / rear panel - but these were lead loaded at the factory as original anyway This is a significant milestone in the cars restoration - apologies if I sound smug but get the boot lid to fit correctly on one of these cars is a nightmare - I know of Javelin owners who have battled for years to obtain a correct fit on this one panel alone - now you can also see the style & shape of the car coming together - it always helps but we still have a long way to go yet

Its still happening - just very busy with lots of other things at present - but have still made some progress Outer skin to the off side inner wing was completed Next is the rear suspension mountings / D post / sill / rear out rigger with the main problems hidden behind this mess With the usual patch over rust theme that has been found in the rest of the car

Trial fit of the repair template Fabricated repair to inner skin completed and the area shot blasted as the area is all hidden once the outer skin gets completed With the outrigger cut out and the bottom of the D post cut away I could start to trial the new out rigger and use as a reference point for the fabrication of the D post lower sections