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Was there ever a change to the pressing for the lower front bulkhead/toe-board area near the inner wing flange area? I hope these pictures make sense since it is a bit hard to describe in words.

The car I am currently working on has a shape to the toe-board that has an indented area as it transitions between the central part of the toe-board to the inner wing flange. This looks to be formed this way since it is entirely symmetric on this car. Looks the same on both sides so doesn't seem to be the result of damage.
Picture above is on my 1965 car. However on a 1964 car (picture below) that I also have, this area is clearly different, being perfectly flat all the way up to the flange on the inner wing.
Did this area change in the 1964/65 period? I am just not sure if it is something that needs to be addressed or not. It would be far more obvious if the car I am working on only looked like this on one side but it is perfectly symmetric. What gives?

Never seen anything like that, should be flat both sides, but, a well placed hit will sometimes produce identicle dammage to both sides of a panel......

My 64 S has a bulged arc over both rear wheel arch flanges, both identicle, looks factory, was caused by a shunt in the rear......

Second pic is how it should be......

I thought it should look like the second pic but the other car has both sides perfectly formed with no damage to the flange on the remaining side. It doesn't make sense to me that it should be so perfectly formed on both sides. Very very odd!

After spending a lot of time pondering (major body work takes me forever to do because I spend 98% of my time staring at things trying to figure out what transpired), I am coming to the conclusion that in this case, the flanges on the toe-board near the inner wings are the only part that is in the correct location. The rest of the toe-board must be pushed out toward the front of the car! That is the only way the flanges could remain undamaged/undistorted.

I think this is one of the Minis that they pushed out of the back of that bus/transporter in the Italian Job!

Here is the view from the inside. Straight edge is held at the base of the inner wing flange toward the center of the car. Looks like the toe-board is pushed forward from the base of the flange across the mount for the steering rack and then comes back into shape near the center of the car.

That’s accident damage. The inner wings have been pushed back leaving the centre of the toe board where it was, making it look like it’s been pushed forwards. It says to me that the car has had a frontal smash, which we sort of decided before. After November 1960 the toe board did not change (apart from a few tags and holes) until the introduction of the rubber suspended subframe in 1976.

D

Yes, accident damage from the car's glory days of racing. One side was easy to fix since the inner wing is gone on the right. All you need is a large C-clamp and some heavy pieces of angle iron. Simply clamping the toe-board in a c-clamp "sandwich" in several locations and it came out perfectly flat.
Access is exceptional with all these parts missing! The other side is more of a challenge since the inner wing is in great condition. I don't want to remove good sheet metal, so on the LH side I plan to drill a series of holes and then use two bolts to clamp the angle iron "flatteners" on both sides of the toe-board. After working the clamp up the toe-board I will come back and fill in the holes with weld. Unless anyone has any better ideas that's the plan for this side- One of these days I will be able to start adding sheet metal back onto the car...

Unless anyone has any better ideas that's the plan for this side-

If the shell is true subframe to sub frame why not just leave it? It’s part of its history and you are not going to replace the inner wing.

D

I would think about leaving some of it as "character" damage if I had some sort of documented proof of specific events however all I have is word of mouth from a previous owner and a couple dash plaques from Rally racing in the 60's (POR Michigan) and events sponsored by the SCCA in the 70's. Not really historically significant. The other problem is the car had outer hinge panels basically held on with structural Bondo and a few scattered gas welds. The car also "dog-tracked" probably because of the accumulated effects of all these battered panels. It really just needs to be done right once and for all.

I guess the nice part of having some racing history is that it wasn't used as a daily driver. There is little to no corrosion.

I'm pretty sure that could be thumped back into place with a big hammer, rather than all that drilling and welding......

I would use about a one foot length of 2x2 hardwood, with a very slight radius pollished onto one end (this gets the hammer out in the open, and, gives you a better swing at things)......Just rest the stick on your marks, and just a few taps on each one with a 5 pound hand sledge, just going up and down on your marks, should get that flat with very little effort......

Don't try to shift too much metal at one pass....

Worth a try, before you start drilling.....

bwaminispeed wrote: ↑Sun Dec 27, 2020 1:45 pm I'm pretty sure that could be thumped back into place with a big hammer, rather than all that drilling and welding......

Yes, good idea to try that before doing more welding and metalwork.