[na79]

Which meant I could start to rebuild the lower back corner, finally starting to get solid again!







Everything seems to be lining up well. Once I had welded this lot in and offered up a few more sections, I realised that there are quite a few small pieces that I need to fabricate which join the rear door upright and tie everything together, but they are quite simple sections. I'll try to figure out what they are and post pics so that everyone can see what's going on in there! Hopefully will be able to get a lot of the left side finished in a few weeks, then I can copy it all and sort out the right!

[tctor68]

Good to see you posting progress again Nick

Think you should start up new venture

Bedford Cf restorations

You certainly have the skills for bodywork and fabrication

Keep it up

Tor

[Phil Bradshaw]

Once again a real joy to see some excellent work in progress.

[na79]

Thanks a lot guys, it's been good to get back into it.

After getting right into it the other day I decided that I needed to spend a day trying to figure out what pieces make up all the internal support and fill pieces.

Specifically joining the floor and sills to the wheel arch, and all the strengthening sections around the rear valance and base of the rear door uprights.

I spent a long time trying to get all the outer sections lined up with the inner arch, and eventually got everything to sit right.



Then with the replacement outer arch section.



And finally with the rear valance too, so I could check that the rear 1/4 panel was tight enough into the middle to meet the joining edge of the rear valance.



It took hours to get it to all sit right, and I had to make loads of small adjustments to some of my home made inner panels, but I'm happy with how it's coming along.

[na79]

I then had to figure out how the rear floor fill attached to everything, and also what the inner valance door pillar mount looked like. As far as I can tell the door pillar mount usually extends higher than this, and is welded between the door pillar main upright and the door hinge support, but I don't have time to fully deconstruct the door pillar, so I'll strengthen it in a different way.

This is what I figured the sections look like from the ref I found. (without the door pillar obviously!)







Tomorrow I'm going to try to recreate the sections that fill the gaps around the floor to inner arch sections, and also repair the bottom of my rear door pillar.

[na79]

Spent a lot of time last week fabricating and preparing loads of sections that tie in all the floor to wall sections.

First was a complicated piece that joins the front of the inner arch to the inner and outer sills, the floor, and also strengthens the side wall upright. Again, fortunately, I had an old piece for reference that wasn't in the best shape, but enough left to hammer flat to create a template for new ones. I then cut a decent area of flat metal away from one of my old outer door skins and cut this section from it.



I then spent a fair amount of time working it into the right shape with the sill and arch in place, to get it right.



While fabricating these new sections I have also been copying them so that they're ready for the other side when I get to it. So these are the two finished sections primed and ready to go!

[na79]

Then the section that does the same but for the rear of the arch, this piece is similar to the front, but doesn't have the added function of supporting the side wall.

[na79]

After that I then continued to strip my replacement arch and then used the surrounding floor section and made a fill piece to reinstate it all.

This is the main piece



Then all of it welded in, tidied up, and had a good dose of Kurust.



So now, finally, I have the inner structural sections of the left hand side re built. It's taken a long time to figure all these sections out and get to this point, but it's now starting to come together nicely. This is how it's turned out.

[na79]

I then had a go at repairing the bottom of my rear door pillar. Where it ties into the sill and rear valance, and also it's own support, it was rusty and full of holes from removing it. I needed to cut it away, and could use a piece I had cut from the donor arch to replicate it.

These are the old and replacement sections



Fitting the new section



This is it tidied up.

[VDUB384]

Your certainly going to town on it and making a very good job of it keep up the good work and the progress report.
Dave