DHC repairs #29: RH strut tower and inner wing part 2

In my previous post I had a look of the rust damage in the area around the front strut tower. And it was quite obvious that part of the right hand front strut tower was in dire need of some fresh metal. On the left hand side it was deemed best to replace the complete top of the strut tower. Luckily this (right hand) side only needed a fairly simple repair section:

Also the strengthening plate for the engine mount on the lower part of the right hand strut tower was also corroded and was in need of some tender loving care:

And the final job was replacing the badly damaged inner wing. The replacement panel again came from the previously mentioned parts donor body shell. With hindsight, this project might have taken another turn. But there's no way back now. Nor is there a reason anymore!

DHC repairs #28: RH strut tower and inner wing

Since my last post on this project the right hand front wing and inner wing have been removed. This revealed more rust holes, very thin metal and an old bodge repair of the inner wing’s front section. A few pictures of the bad areas:

Second outing of the year

True to the motto "standing still means decline" I try to use ‘t Kreng, currently my only working TR7, as much as possible. Especially with the problems with the water pump over the past years in mind. And weather permitting of course. As such the car was used for a visit to friend’s workshop yesterday (Saturday the 7th of February). But before that I hopped across the border into Germany for some 100 RON fuel. It was nice to see that the car again attracted a fair amount of attention while refuelling at a petrol station just across the border in Germany!

And with the tank filled up I drove to the work shop. Always nice to see another TR7 inside. In this case an early Dutch car that is being prepared for a customer who wants it to be converted to a historic rally spec.

And after some coffee and cakes, and with glorious winter weather conditions, I decided on a slight detour home. It was again good to be out in this car again. A few pictures taken on the way home:

There still is a problem with the coolant system though. But that looks to be a problem with the now 30 years old copper radiator. The slot underneath the water pump is bone dry. And there are ever more signs of coolant leaking from the radiator. So to looks like a visit to local alloy fabricator H&S Speed Equipement is on the cards in the near future. They should be able to provide a new good quality alloy radiator!

DHC repairs #27: LH door skin

In this update, I am looking at a crucial part of any restoration: panel gaps. From the outset, the plan was to fit both reasonably rust-free doors with new door skins. As such allowing for some slight adjustment of the outer shape of the door skin. And the door skin can be moved over the door frame to adjust the panel gaps. Call it fine tuning. The result is pretty good, in my opinion. Though in terms of originality, these panel gaps are really way too good for a TR7 😜

DHC repairs #26: LH front inner wing

Earlier this month I mentioned some problems with the left hand front inner wing on this body. But I managed to lay my hands on a new one. Though it wasn’t an original one, but a replica that originated from Rimmer Bros. And trial fitting it on the car’s body and on the inside of an original outer wing clearly showed it wasn’t an original part. Quality control has been rather poor on this part to say the least! The gap at the back of the wing is about an inch wide.

Luckily one of the left hand inner wings in my stock did have a good rear section. In other words, the angle grinder has been called upon again. The front one-third of the new wing was combined with the rear two-thirds of an inner wing from my spares stock. The welding line being clearly visible in the picture below:

And combining the two panels provided a good mounting surface for the outer wing . As the picture blow shows, the gap between door and front wing is already pretty good. As is the alignment with the nose panel:

DHC repairs #25: LH front wing area

In my previous post I commented on the fact that the rust damage was far worse than expected. Turned out there were several areas where the metal was pretty thin. So more patch repairs. Starting with a hole in a rather standard location; where the front bulkhead meets the inner wing. A fairly easy repair using the well proven Cardboard Aided Design method:

But the worst damage was around the left hand front strut tower. The upper part of which was seriously damaged by rust. Luckily I had a good replacement, and rust free LH strut tower among my spare parts. The angle grinder was called upon again to remove the damaged areas. But not before the body got an extra temporary support to prevent distortion, and a few reference measurements were taken:

Turned out that the metal adjacent to the strut tower was also pretty thin. So the tops of the inner wing panels was also replaced with repair panels from the donor body shell:

Fitting the LH front inner wing is next on the to-do-list.

DHC repairs #24: LH front wing removal

With the repairs to the sills and the rear structural areas finished, the attention could be switched to the front of the body shell. Starting with the removal of the left hand front inner and outer wing and a detailed inspection of the previously hidden area. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that here again were some hidden horrors. As the pictures below illustrate. Clearly visible is the corrosion caused by the L-shaped brackets that were introduced to aid aligning the body parts during body production. Needless to mention these won’t come back:

We had hoped that the left hand inner wing would be salvageable as I didn’t have a spare one. Sadly it wasn’t! Some bodge repairs early in the car’s life meant the outer edges were very badly damaged and rough. But there was also a lot of rust all over the top of the arch. As a result of which large areas were rather thin!

Long story short; I had to go in search of a replacement arch. Luckily there are enough other jobs left, so at least the work will not come to a standstill!

DHC repairs #23: Left hand rear floor & bulkhead

It’s been some time since my last update on this car. But there has been steady progress on the repairs of body shell. Though, as those who have been following these posts will know, the rusty bits were significantly worse than first thought! And this meant a lot more small repair sections had to be made from sheet steel and with the help of card board aided design. Starting with the lower edge of the rear bulk head:

The left hand rear jacking point:

The adjacent floor section plus bracket. Here again the large round hole close to the rear suspension mounting points was welded shut to give a little bit of extra strength:

And with this area finished work could shift to the front of the car. More on that hopefully soon!