16/4/2001 - The story so far .......... what i've done up to yet

Started by looking for rot. Found plenty in doors so I removed them and cut the bottom of skins off to fit repair sections. Rear arches were new so no probs there. Boot solid except for spare wheel well where a plate had been fitted (badly) - note for later. Upset by floor repairs which had been done by way of plating over rusty sections - underneath looked like a teabag - will cut out later. Scraped underseal off sills to reveal lots of bodge and rust. Started cutting off/out for replacement.

Removed Wings. Both wings were new but one was a sport wing and the other standard! Both came off easily though as they had only been tacked on.

The bonnet was removed. The slam panel had been 'cut and shut' so that was removed together with the front panel (came off in hand). Previous repairs to wings rails and to the strut tops were removed. Top plates were cut out all together because of the previous welding had destroyed them. Fortunately the strut pans and uprights were sound on both sides.

Made up and welded in repair sections for front of inner wings where slam panel had been removed. Fitted new slam panel - this was a Hadrian panel (genuine FOrd = big money!) and proved an good fit except for the drivers side inner wing area where it needed the a lip adjusting. Holes were puched in the new panel and plug welded to look like the original spot welding.

The inner wings proved to be rougher than first thought and required two hand made plates to make good as well as the new strut tops. Welding took about three full days all together as it was my first real experience of this and obviously it needs to be decent quality as it is a structural area. Plates and repair sections were welded both sides for strength.

So far so good.