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Right the lead has arrived so I’ve finished of the rear roof repair. Lead loaded Body filled off It will need modern filler to blend the contours in with the donor roof but the weld is nicely sealed.

More photos to follow

More roof lead loading.

Lead applied Lead paddled out Body filled I’m getting to enjoy this old technique.

D

Nothing exiting today but horrors were hiding beneath the right door step. Where does all the rust come from?
M machine door step trimmed down.
Rear end trimmed to fit
With the rear clamped up the front was air sawed to meet the new A panel.
There was a mismatch in width between the door step and the tail end of the A panel. Both from M machine. This was sorted by slitting the A panel and splaying it slightly then welding the gap. The doorvstep was the correct width checking against the original.
Continued

The shell will now go back on the spit so that I can get at the inner sill and wheel arch.

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A bit more progress. I’ll leave welding the door step to the inner sill until I’ve checked the door fit again.

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Do you mind if I make a small suggestion while you're working at the rear of the sills Dave? Might I suggest that you leave internal access to the captive nuts and bolts that support the front of the rear sub frame. I realise that there's no chance of them rusting into place after a full restoration/rebuild but it also gives access to the sill for preservative spray every so often.

Peter,

I just remove one of the bolts holding the trunnion and pass a thin tube through. It’s the front section in front of the cross member that is difficult to access if you don’t make provision.

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The outer sill is on tacked in place to the inner and doorstep. Time to hang the door and see how it sits.
I’ll have to get rid of that orange stripe. It throws the eye out all the time. The window frame to door frame seal gap is a touch wide at the moment but the rest is fine.
The rear gap is a tad wide but then it was when I got the car. Factory tolerance may be but I may close the gap with some body solder on the door aperture. A spot of epoxy primer to keep things rust free would be a smart move now.

I will leave the quarter panel held to the sill with a screw until I have the closing plates and wheel arch replaced. It just allows a bit more wriggle room to get things in place nicely.

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The orange stripe is gone. Which gave a chance for close inspection. A couple of low spots were dollied out and I found the B pillar had a surface weld repair above the door catch. There were still cracks visible so it was all dug out. Not nice. I slipped a strip of sheet behind not for strength particularly but more to help the welding. Then filled it with weld.
Tidied it up,
And tackled the bit you see (continued)

And got a result. Hope it lasts. I’m not brave enough to try to make a repair section.

D

That rear door gap was bugging me so I thought I’d try something. I started by folding an edge over on a strip of steel to give me the profile of the edge of a doorskin. Then trimmed the excess on the outside back to the edge of the door and dressed it back slightly low.
Getting the bottom curve right was just a repeat process. I did have to add weld to the edge in various places but having a good profile for the edge to work to help get things looking right.
A little lead loading now should make for a solid edge to the door.

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And to finish off the door edge (for the moment) a little lead.
And a slightly wider “fold”
Next up, wheel arch this side.

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Tackled the rear wheel arch today. Pretty rotten.
Chopped it out from the outside leaving the flanges undamaged (almost).
Then the usual irritating bit with right hand Heritage rear wheel arches. They are too long front to back. The back of the upper arch section is not held in tight enough on the upright section.
All it needs is a saw cut and everything then sits very nicely in the original aperture.

As my mig welder gave up the ghost welding it in is on hold.

D

Six pounds and postage got my welder up and running again. It just needed a new wire drive wheel. The old one had done far too many minis for its own good and needed retirement.

Not much to report. The rear wheel arch is now welded in. I bare metalled the drivers side using 3Ms roloc Scotchbrite pads. It took an age but left a nice finish without scoring the metal. It was nice to see very little sub paint rust spotting. A few coats of epoxy primer were splashed on to give some winter protection (I live by the sea and the weather comes round the garage doors) and I can move on to the next challenge.
Yes, I do sweep up now and again.

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Very nice work, look forward to next update

Excellent work David.

That's a good tip on the door skin. Quicker than running a seam of weld along the edge and then filing the profile.

Thanks Daz & Andrew, any encouragement is welcome.

Moving round to the back of the car and dealing with the back of the boot floor and base of the rear panel. Most of the boot floor is in good order and a repair section at the back edge should work out fine. I’m going to cut down a Magnum repair panel but having checked its dimensions there is too much flange behind the spare wheel well. I can’t use it to set the back edge of the car.

Fortunately the centre section of the floor was still intact. I decided to use this as a reference and replace the bottom of the rear panel first and then fit the floor repair to match.
The thick section in the middle was a stiffening plate for a tow bar! With the floor flange cleaned up I cut the top lip of the boot aperture away to allow the Heritage repair panel to sit back better.
I cut through the corners first to allow the repair section to sit back that bit further before marking the cut lines beneath the lamps. Then braced side to side.
And tacked together. Getting the new and original panels to match was not straight forwards hence the multiple tacks.
I plan on checking the fit of the boot lid before I finish the welds in case adjustments are needed.

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Before I trial fitted the boot lid I knew there was an issue with the Hertitage repair panel. The hinge holes on the right are in the wrong place. Too far from centre (left was fine). I used the cut down section from the original to get this right. Also great for getting the boot board bracket holes in the right place.
With the holes elongated the boot sits quite nicely
Moving on to the boot floor repair this is what was planned
But the outer edges were shot
Reconstructive surgery was required.
Continued

This will get dressed to suit the replacement wheel arch.

Eventually I could tackle the Magnum repair section. I think I would have been better with a fresh sheet of steel. The rear contour bore no relation to the correct profile, the middle three bumper holes were far too far back. In the end I cut the excess off.
Much to tidy up yet, brackets to make and closing plates but pleased to get that behind me.

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Impressive job!! well done!