DHC repairs #33: The next phase

With the welding of the DHC’s body completed a few weeks ago I started with the preparations for the next stage. Which mainly consisted of planning the transport of the body shell into Germany. And this week saw the start of the next chapter in the resurrection of the DHC. On Tuesday the body shell plus the doors, bonnet, boot lid, lower front screen finisher and a US front bumper bar were loaded into a friend’s van. It was a tight squeeze to reach the front of cargo box to fit the ratchet straps. But my old bones managed it. I even got back out again without any help or injuring myself 😜

And at dawn yesterday morning we set of for the long drive in to Germany. To a small industrial estate near the also small town of Welzheim to be precise. Here the body shell was unloaded from the van at a company called Carblast, for the body to receive three treatments:

• First the removal in an oven of the remaining paint (mostly welding primer and e-coating of the used NOS panels);
• Next stage will be chemical rust removal (acid dipping);
• And the final stage will be E-coating the shell and its associated parts.

These jobs should be ready within the next 6 to 8 weeks. Which means I get to go on another 900 plus kilometre return journey!

Needless to say I am very curious about the final result. Especially after looking at a few finished body shells in the reception and dispatch hall. To finish this post a few pictures of the body in this hall, where I left it and where it will be prepared for the various treatments.

To be continued!

DHC repairs #32: Body shell repairs ready

During this Easter weekend, I received the final photos of the last jobs on the convertible's bodywork. Compared to the previous updates, the work done to the DHC’s body shell this time is fairly modes. But important. Drilling a few holes for various (mostly non-standard) exterior trim pieces. Starting with the mounting holes for the standard door mirrors:

The mud flaps:

The rally type front spoiler:

And finally the mounting holes for the aftermarket aluminium fuel filler cap:

But the most import job was fabricating a sturdy transport frame for the body shell’s next phase; chemical dipping, to get rid of the remaining paint and surface rust, and E-coating. Hopefully the car will be shipped to neighbouring Germany within the next few weeks.

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:

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!

On a mission!

I wanted to use ‘t Kreng for the final check of “our“ LTV Nachtrit a few weeks ago, but the weather forecast wasn’t in favour of it. So I used my little Landy instead. And it turned out to be a wise choice. It rained quite a lot over the day, making road conditions quite slippery and treacherous in places. The fallen leaves didn’t help here!

But that left me with a challenge for ‘t Kreng. And I have given myself until the end of the year to successfully complete this challenge. So I have decided to use that car as much as possible for the last two months of 2025. Starting with a works related trip to the sewage treatment plant in the small village of Rimburg which is currently being renovated. I decided to take the scenic route there!

Roadside chapel (het Waarderkapelke),

on the plateau above the village of Rimburg.

Starting with a business lunch in the old water tower of Rimburg.

‘t Kreng in front of the temporary influent pumps,

used during the renovation of the sewage treatment plant.

I also used the car for a trip to inspect the progress on the body shell of the DHC this Saturday. The welding on the rear of the car is nearly finished. A few shots:

And the challenge? Have a good look at the picture below!