With the floor solid it is now time to crack on with the bodywork. As this is a budget rebuild I will be repairing what I have as much as possible. The wings are pattern parts so as well as being a bit frilly around the edges they will take a bit of work to get them to fit.
The rotten corner was cut out of this wing…
…a repair patch made and butt welded in…
…and the repair ground flat.
Small repairs were made to the mounting flanges at the front of both wings were they bolt on to the front valance.
The mounting brackets were repaired and new captive nuts welded on.
The wings were then rust treated on the inside and coated with a generous layer of Stonechip/ Shutz. They were then attached to the body. Hopefully they will not have to come off again.
Whilst attaching the wings I did my best to get the panel gaps as good as I could. Remember these are pattern parts so this was a bit of a struggle.
One annoying thing that I could not live with was this.
The front of both wings didn’t follow the curve of the bonnet and was proud by 1/4 of an inch. The solution was to slice the mounting flange like so:
And close the gap using a big hammer
This worked well and tomorrow I will weld the splits up. After this I started with the body prep. This is the stuff that takes time and I have to be quite strict with myself as any imperfections will show in the finished paint. I like to work fast but this job cannot be rushed.
At least the midget is small and also has the advantage of having no roof.
Red House Classics 