Rusty Justy

[Paul Baldwin]

So, after I had turned the car around and re-jacked it I could now get access to the other side. I got it up as high as I could with the stands and space I had available.
It turned out half the outer sill and the inner sill on the passenger side was toast as well as the outer and inner rear wing. Thankfully the rest of the outer and inner sill were in remarkably good condition. As I didn't have access to a sheet metal bender and the fact that you couldn't buy new sills I decided to just replace what needed doing.



Let dog see rabbit as some of the old uns say round here.



As you can see from the photo above that left me with a bit of a problem. The inner arch lip was totally missing I had no reference points to work to whatsoever and had a real WTF do I do now session. I simply couldn't get access to replace the missing metal with the new rear wing back in situ, especially as you can't even buy a panel to cut up and use.

Without guessing or taking the wing on and off a hundred times to check progress I decided on another plan of action. I cut another long strip the same width as the return, laid the wing on the bench and cut the strip to allow me to get the curve and contour I needed. I then very carefully welded each cut while the strip was clamped to the panel without fixing the two together.




Then I fitted the new wing temporarily with the strip in place and reached for the set of magnetic sky hooks (I so wish). What I did have handy were some old galv nails. So again I carefully welded the strip without fixing it to the wing so it could then be removed.



That of course gave me my reference and meant I could chop out the bad and replace it with good. Of course I couldn't get too carried away with it as I didn't want to disturb it with too much heat and have the wing not fit! The curve is a twat to cut tbh but I ended up with this



Then after fixing the crease on the poxy spurious body panel and drilling it I could set about getting it on the car.





That should last a fair old while to be fair as the zintec is good stuff by all accounts and I sprayed everything liberally with a zinc rich primer too.