As indicated in the previous post, the intention was to work on to the rear offside arch next, but the inner arch repair sections still haven't arrived. It seems that they are out of stock with the wholesalers in Sweden, and that there is no indication of when, or even if they will be delivered. I am now beginning too think that I will be lucky to see them before Christmas. Change of plan then. I have re-jigged the garage and I have turned the car round to create space to start on the nearside inner wing. There is also the windscreen corner and battery box to sort out, so this should keep me busy for a while.
Just like with the offside repair panel, I noticed that there was a problem with the wing bolt hole alignment, although in this case it appeared to be less pronounced. I judged that it would still necessitate removing of the box section from the rest of the repair panel.
The existing inner wing was in a poorer condition on this side and so I need to replace at least some of the inner wing wall itself, not just the top strip and box as had been the case with the offside. On inspection I decided that the best course of action was to replace the wall up to the seam with the scuttle panel. I drilled the spot welds to separate.
I also drilled out the welds to the front panel and then after a considerable amount of measuring, drawing, marking and deliberating, I psyched myself up to finally cut away the inner wing.
Then began the protracted process of offering, trimming and aligning the new inner wing.
I decided to keep the flange along the bottom edge, as I intended to spot weld from underneath, then seam weld along the joint from above. This I believed would ultimately give more strength. Overall I achieved a good fit although some modification to the was needed to match accurately the area towards the bulkhead. I am not sure if this is a limitation of the repair panel, or if there is some difference in the pressing of the wheel well on my car (being a late version).
Once I was confident of position, I clamped up and welded.
Again I found grinding/cleaning the welds difficult in the corners and I will definitely need to work on a better solution and have another go before final prep/painting.
The last stage of the repair was to fit the box section which with a small amount of adjusting to fit acutely around the swagging in cowling panel, lined up well. I managed to plug weld around 60%, then disaster. My welder just stopped working. There was power to the unit, the fan was working, but no wire feed and no power to the torch... I gave up for the day.
The next morning I tried again, but to no avail (I was hoping that it was just a thermal cut-out from over heating). After some further research and fruitless fiddling, I decided that I was not prepared to invest any more time or money in what was a very old, basic welder - time to get a new one. I have now I bought a machine from R-Tech. Wow! So much better than the old one, should of bought it years ago.
So finally, the inner wing is now finished. On then, to the windscreen corner and battery box.
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