The front body section, now stripped bare and securely attached to the temporary wooden chassis, is precariously balanced on a trailer and taken to Auto Bodycraft at Stokesley for major surgery. Alex drills out the wing to A post spot welds and cuts the first wing off along the line I drew earlier.
As Ian from Contour Autocraft in Peterborough predicted, the bottom half of the dash side strengthener assembly, which is now totally exposed, is in a bad way and will need to be replaced. Just how good or bad the remainder is, will be easily seen after Dastardly Dave Ferguson has been to work with his media blast machine.
The other side wing presents a slightly different problem with quite a bit of lead loading where it meets the A post. This calls for a different cut line but still staying away from the large flat side of the wing.
We decide to remove the old sills later, after media blasting has shown exactly how they are attached, thus avoiding unnecessary cutting and drilling.
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| Strengthener assembly now fully accessible. Will also allow access to hinge plates for repair / modification. |
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| Piece of front wing removed, is in remarkably good condition with only a little surface rust |
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| Not so for the bottom part of this assembly which is rusted through and will need to be replaced. |
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| Signs of lead loading around A post - probably the result of an earlier repair to accident damage. Will need a slightly different approach. |
My target was to have both front and back body sections, media blasted, etch primed and into Auto Bodycraft by the end of July, so just a few days behind.
