Bordfunker

Mat, I have been eyeing one of these up for almost year now, and really ought to have bought it when I was doing the passenger side rear wheel arch. Pete, mine came with two sets of jaws, one for stretching, the other for shrinking, you just swap them around depending on what you need to do. It’s not very big either, and the handle comes off, so it can be tucked away without taking up too much space. Karl

Mat, I know what you mean about them being 'air hungry'. I tried this with my usual skinny coil hose and it was very sluggish, but improved massively when I hooked it up directly to the big rubber hose. The new air tool isn't the only new acquisition on my part, as after much dithering and deliberating I decided to cough up and buy a shrinker/stretcher. What's one of those I hear you cry? (Alright, maybe not cry exactly) It's one of these.... Great, but what does it actually do? Essentially it does what is says, it shrinks and stretches things, like this.... Take one piece of flat steel, which was promptly folded up into an L-shape along the black line. This was then run through the jaws of the shrinker, the shiny chrome bits, which started to impart a curve like this.... You can see the jaw marks on the steel. Another couple of runs through gave me this... ....and with a final run through this. I know what you are thinking, all very interesting, but so what? Remember this? I need to sort out the outer edge of the spare wheel well, as currently it is distinctly wonky, so need to create a curved section in the horizontal plane, i.e. across the pic, and an L-shape in the vertical plane to form the back of the well. As you can see my previous efforts to achieve that were somewhat lacking, and I thought rather than spend £150+ on a new spare wheel well, I'd spend slightly less on a tool that would allow me to fix it, but which will also come in handy for a number of the repairs required on the bulkhead. That's my rationale and I'm sticking to it, and while I was at it I bought a big sheet of virgin steel to start the new panel with. Marked up ready for cutting out. Time to bend...... It's amazing how many radii perfectly match an off cut of scaffolding pole! Here the steel has been persuaded into shape with the aid of a large 'Birmingham screwdriver' over the open jaws of the vice. Overall I was quite happy with that, but did need to trim that big flange down as with hindsight, that was never going to work in the shrinker/stretcher. Long story short, half an hour with the shrinker/stretcher and a selection of hammers and pliers, and I was able to produce this.... Not perfect, but much better than what was there before. I used the back of the wheel well to help get the shape right, and this is now trimmed and tacked in, but as usual in my rush to get stuff done, I completely forgot to take any pics. Overall I'm really impressed by the new tool, even if I do have a lot to learn about how to get the best from it, it has made life a lot easier, and hopefully cheaper in the long run. Karl

Sometime you just have to walk away and sleep on it. Not literally as if you slept on the part you were repairing, you would probably stick to it! Karl

Is it really a month since I last posted an update? I haven't been idle, though not necessarily working on the car, as first we had Mrs B birthday, followed by a weekend away in York as a belated birthday treat for Mrs B. That was 2 out of the last 4 weekends accounted for, with no work done. So what exactly did I manage to get done in the remaining 2 weekends? Nothing exciting to be fair, just a lot of welding of panels that I had already fitted last month. Having said that, that little lot was about 5 hours worth of welding, grinding and generally cleaning up. I also took the opportunity to fit the rear over rider support tube, using my trusty piece of dowel and the quarter panel as a jig. Which left me with this little bit to fix. Not sure why I didn't sort this out earlier, but it is a relatively easy fix, just requiring a small repair patch to be made up. The patch needs to complete the lip around the boot aperture, so will need to be L-shaped in order to achieve this. Now I could try and bend it up out of one piece of steel, but it is far easier to make it out of two sections like these. Ignore the rather rough looking strip at the top, it will improve in appearance. First up tacking the boot lip strip to the rear panel piece. Which was then seam welded along the outside edge, and then cleaned up to something a little more acceptable. And punched out ready for plug welding in place. The tacks on the inside were further cleaned up after this picture, as the flange needs to be clean to accept the boot seal. Test fitted. And clamped in place ready for welding. After which I forgot to take any more pics. I did also take the opportunity to clean up some scars on the bottom of the rear wings. These were simply welded up to restore some strength. Then ground back, leaving me with this. Much neater. And finally a new addition to my arsenal... I haven't had much of a play with it yet, but it should help with cleaning up some of the more obvious welds, and there are quite a few of them! Hopefully it won't be a month before the next update. Karl

Pete, that is full on weld porn there! Looks like it should be a hell of a lot stronger than standard. Karl

Colin, that tub looks a million times better than the last one! I would be inclined to invest in a good quality spot weld drill, and drill out the spot welds carefully to separate the panels one by one. Try not to use a chisel as it can easily tear through the metal (Ask me how I know), particularly old rusty metal, and you’ll be wanting to re-use the panels from the convertible. Karl

You are not mucking about with those chassis repairs! Really liking the reinforcements, and looking at your pics the car definitely needs them. Got me thinking about reinforcing the Herald’s chassis now! Karl

This one is a long way from complete, as once the tub is complete it will be time to re-visit the welding on the chassis, before turning my attention to the front bulkhead, which makes the tub look good. So I reckon there’s at least another 3 months of welding to do, and that is without mention of the bonnet, which I know has a lot of filler in it. The bonnet however can wait until next winter. Would you have a customer in mind Colin? It does rather feel like that. I think I must have put in about 50 patches and repair panels into the tub alone so far, most of them no bigger than the palm of my hand, and quite a few considerably smaller. Karl

This has been a extra long weekend for me as I had Friday off as well as today, but Friday was spent running family back and forth, youngest son to work, Mrs B to the dentists, picking up an order from Mrs B, before going back to pick up youngest from work again. Where does the time go? Saturday, a day of shopping and gardening, as well as dropping youngest son off to work again, he works in a vaccination centre, so I feel like I'm, doing my bit supporting a key worker, before picking him up again. And putting the coat rack in the hall back on the wall after pulling it down the day before. Best not to ask as I was trying to cancel the smoke alarm at the time! Sunday was more of the same, but I did manage an hour an half in the garage tidying up various bits and pieces around the edge of the boot floor, so not very exciting, but ultimately quite vital to the finished result. Oh, I also made Mrs B a planter for the garden, so quite DIY intensive this weekend. All of which meant today needed to be the day if I was going to get anything substantial done on the car this weekend. Work started pretty much where I left off yesterday, doing edgy bits, but also prepping the boot side repair panel for welding, which meant punching holes, stripping red oxide primer from areas to be welded before applying several coats of weld through zinc primer. It's important to remove all non-weld through paint from the areas to be welded as it could lead to a weak weld, or no weld at all. Talking of edgy bits I had forgotten to do a couple of plug welds on the boot floor repair section, so it was out with the spot weld clamp, pulling the two sections tightly together. Fail to do this, and the weld doesn't join the two pieces, or spreads out between the two leading to a gap. Now previously I have done plug welds on the second lowest setting on my welder, which produces a nice strong join, but as you have seen from my previous efforts, can lead to a rivet like weld. This time I increased the power by 50%, and wound back the wire speed a bit, which no only reduces the amount of metal going into the weld, but also reduces the amperage supplied at the arc. The result was a much flatter weld, but still plenty strong, which should make clean up a little faster, you can see the result here at the bottom of the picture. Much neater. Generally, ignore the weld above it! Another edgy bit requiring attention was the back of the boot corner reinforcement section, which I had hacked about previously. All I did here was clamp a copper block behind the section to be welded, leaving me with a nice clean back to the weld, and then run weld over the top. No need for anything special here, just make sure the weld is solid, before cleaning it up with a flap disc, leaving a nice tidy repair. All that then got a coat of zinc primer for protection, after which all the edgy bits were finally complete. A test fit of the repair panel did however show up a minor issue. Now I am guessing that this is as a result of me chopping the boot corner reinforcement panel about to fit the lower repair section. Comparison with the driver's side showed that it was only about 2mm lower than that side, so rather than stress about it, I decided to file a small section out of the top of the aperture, that would be the black bit in the picture above. Not the neatest, but nobody is ever going to see it, and it at least now aligns with the out rider support bolt. As per the driver's side the repair panel needed a bit of tweaking to obtain a decent fit, which meant making a series of cuts to allow the flange to follow the contour of the underlying panel to which it was about to be joined. You can see in the picture above where I have cut the flange away from the repair section, welding the flange to the boot floor, before grinding back the raised edge so that it was flush with the flange section, then welding it all together. But I'm jumping ahead here as there was about an hour of 'fitting and fettling' required first, adjusting the fit, and using self-tappers to hold the panel in position, along with lots of clamps. It looks like there is a washer around each hole in the pic above, but it's just just where I have used a small rotary brush in a cordless drill, to take everything back to bare metal around each plug welding site. I probably don't need to do this with a decent weld through primer, however having had a bad experience with cheap weld through primer in the past, I'm not taking any chances. You can see how the self-tappers pull the two panels together, keeping everything where it needs to be for welding. Time to get welding then.... You can see my plug welds are flatter, more like a chocolate button now, than a rivet from the Titanic. You can also see where the flanges need to be welded to the edge of the repair panel, but only once the edges have been ground down with a 40 grit flap disc. All of this will be ground back to leave a nice neat edge, but that's a job for another day. I also started on welding up the boot side panel to wheel arch joint, but ran out of time this afternoon. Still a fair bit of welding and clean up required, but really pleased that the boot side repair panel is now in place, and we are drawing close to the point where the last welding left on the tub will be the spare wheel well. However the omens for progress are not good next week, as Saturday is the Bicester Heritage Scramble!, the first I have been to in about 18 months, and Sunday is Mrs B's birthday, so the chances of garage time are slim to none. Karl

Colin it all depends on how keen you are on maintaining originality, as replicating that shape is going to take some effort if you want accurate. If you cut the top of that as it stands, it’ll probably be too far gone to weld around the edges, and the moment you touch it with a welding arc it’ll just disappear in a puff of smoke. If you are not too phased about keeping it original, then I would fold up a simple U shape with flanges to give you a profile like one of the later tub mounting points. The alternative would be to fold up a square of sheet steel to form the sides, weld in the top section, and then flip it over and weld a flange section around the lower edge. It wouldn’t be an exact match, but it would be closer. Looking at the original design it’s an even worse rust trap than the later design! Hope that helps. Karl

Remember I was going to get a fresh bottle of welding? Well, went to get the new cylinder from my local farm shop yesterday, which used to be just over the road, but is now 3 miles away on the other side of town. Old bottle dropped off, new one in the back of the car. Got home, hooked the bottle up to the welder, opened the valve....... Nada, nothing, not even a flicker of the gauges! Took bottle back this morning, ready for a ‘discussion’, popped the bottle in front of the sales desk, and started my tale ‘I got this yesterday......’ Before I could even finish, the sales assistant shot back with, ’Oh yeah, Nigel gave you an empty one didn’t he. He realised after you’d left!’ OK, well that made that easy then. Full cylinder now hooked up on the welding trolly ready to go. Apart from that, I’ve done nothing on the car today, as too busy sorting out the garden now that the rain has stopped. Karl

Thanks Tony. The Ercol has stalled for the last few weeks, still need to rub it down with wire wool before it gets oiled and waxed. There is a long weekend coming up though, and knowing the weather...... Karl

Given the weather this weekend spending time in the garage wasn't the problem, just getting their or back without getting soaked or blown away by the wind was! Having braved the trip down the drive, and having to put the bikes out on the drive, and rig up a tarpaulin that wouldn't get blown away, I could turn my attention back to the small sections that I had cut out last week, and more importantly replacing them. This was the first bit, the flange on the inner wing which the boot floor side panel attaches to. This is a nice simple L shaped repair section, which I formed in the vice with a rubber mallet and panel beating hammer. They don't get much simpler than this. I used a couple of pieces of angle iron as the jaws of the vice weren't wide enough to form the entire repair section. Offered up, adjusted, and clamped in place. As per usual I stitch welded the section in, as the metal is too thin for seam welding, well with my welding skills it certainly is! One patch down, next up the smaller patch at the junction of the wheel arch and the rear wing, i.e. filling this unsightly gap. Again, another basic L shaped repair section is required, but I'll spare you the 'making' pics, and skip to the welded in and cleaned up pic. Still a bit more work to do here, mainly where you can see the nick in the joint between the two sections. The issue here is putting that much heat into a thin edge, and because of the proximity of the rear arch, it is impossible to get a copper block in as I normally would to protect the edge. A bit of thinking is required before I finish that bit, but at least it doesn't prevent me getting on with the rest of the boot corner repairs. I then turned my attention the to rear edge of the boot that I cut away last week, and this is the first stage of a two stage repair. Just like the driver's side, this area was a little frilly, and would never survive contact with a MIG welder. Good to know that Triumphs are consistent when it comes to rust!🤨 The above picture was taken part way through clean up. Given it's location I have no choice but to clean these welds up, as they will sit beneath the lip of the boot corner panel, so need to flush like this. The welds on the homemade boot floor panel have yet to receive the tender ministrations of the angle grinder. Similarly the edges of the boot floor I repaired last week received the treatment, for the same reason. Thank goodness for 120 grit flap discs and my power file. If memory serves, this was the first boot corner that I tackled, and my lack of both experience, and over enthusiasm was all too clear when I took a look at the boot corner reinforcement panel. I had had to replace the 'foot' of the panel with a Chic Doig section, replaced while the boot floor was still in place, and I really hadn't made a particularly convincing job of it. By this point I was keeping a close eye on the gas supply, remember I said about a month ago I was getting low, well now I was getting really low on welding gas. With that in mind, and my dislike of welding from underneath, I clamped the remains of the original reinforcing panel to the Chic Doig replacement, closing the gap, before tacking it firmly in place. I'll do the final welding when I flip the tub over for the test fit on the chassis, when I can weld with gravity, rather than against it. As well as the inner join, I had made a complete pig's ear of the side of the reinforcement panel, and joining the new to the old, so cleaned up the gap, and made up yet another L shaped repair section. Now the reinforcement panel is not your normal 1mm steel which I usually have to hand, so I had to have a sort through my box of steel odds and ends for something suitable, which turned up an old steel shelf bracket, which was the right thickness, and ripe for sacrifice. By now I was pretty much out of shielding gas, so quickly welded up the bulk of the repair section, and gave it a quick clean up. All of which has put additional strength back into this corner of the car, even if I was the idiot who partially weakened it in the first place! Finally I test fitted the boot corner repair panels, just to reinforce the feelings of progress. First order of business this week will be to get a fresh bottle of gas, before hopefully moving into the final round of welding on this corner. Karl

Paul, similarly I found evidence of braze around the base of the front bulkhead, however that looks like it had taken a hit at some point so who knows. Using it to fill gaps would make sense though around the rear arch join as that joint doesn’t appear to be flanged and spot welded. Karl

No update last week, as I was busy building a new planter for Mrs B, but normal service has resumed this weekend with a couple of sessions in the garage avoiding the rain. Last time I got the boot corner repair section partially welded in, and started cutting out the remains of the repair panel I so poorly fitted a couple of years ago. All of which meant several hours of carefully cutting and grinding out the old panel, all of which revealed a number of frilly bits around the edge of the boot floor, none of which was a surprise given the experience with the driver's side. At this point, you are probably thinking how long does it take to remove one panel, well normally not that long, but some idiot, AKA me, had decided it would be a smart move to seam weld in the edges of the panel! Hence it all taking a little bit longer. Not exactly the largest of repair patches going in. Note what looks like braze in the red circle? Were these panels brazed to the rear arch, or evidence of a dodgy previous repair? Five minutes with the welder left we with one less frilly bit. Next up was this even smaller patch. Next up was chopping out a section around the boot corner aperture, after it just disappeared when attacked by a wire brush in the angle grinder. The black mark is to remind me where the lip on new section needs to end. I'll make the curved section at the back separately, then weld the L-shaped lip to it afterwards, having finally learnt that lesson, and not making additional work for myself. After that there are two more sections to make up and weld in, but that is a job for next weekend. Not exactly the most stellar update, but things should get a bit more interesting now that I have cut out the remnants of the old panel. Karl

As per usual I have spent much of this weekend restoring something old, except this time it wasn't a Triumph. Don't worry I haven't turned to the dark side and bought an MG! Quelle horeur! Mrs B has always wanted an Ercol sofa, and we picked one up last weekend, but someone appears to have stained it a very unattractive dark brown, so obviously that needed to come off. Cue 8 hours of Mrs B and myself sanding and scraping off old stain, leaving us with this... It still needs going over with wire wool before it gets a coat of oil and wax, at which point the webbing will also get replaced. That took care of a couple of afternoons this long weekend, but I did get some time in the garage to work on the other old relic in my life. Last week I made up the new boot corner panel, which meant this week it must be time to cut out the old one. Chop chop! To make sure I got the corner lined up properly, I decided to the leave lower boot side panel in situ for now in order to give me a reference point while I welded it in place, which meant cutting around the edge with the air cutter first. Time for a test fit. Looks like a slight misalignment of the body to chassis mounting holes between my homemade boot corner and the corner reinforcing plate. Before I did anything to correct it, I thought it worthwhile to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be, so out came the WSM. No issues there, everything was within tolerance, albeit Triumph's very broad tolerances, so just a case of enlarging the holes in the reinforcement plate a tad. But hang on Karl, doesn't that mean that the holes in the corner repair panel are incorrect and not the ones in the reinforcement? Its amazing what you forget over time, and I'd completely forgotten that I had replaced the base of the reinforcement section when I first tackled this repair a few years back, therefore I'm not 100% certain I welded it back in exactly the right place given my lack of experience at the time, hence consulting the WSM. The main thing is the holes are where they should be, which meant I could drill out the holes for the plug welds on the corner repair section ready for welding in. You remember I mentioned that I was getting low on gas the other week, and that I was going to get a fresh bottle. Well I still haven't got around to it because this one keeps on going with the needle hovering just above zero, but with good pressure and clearly audible gas flow! I know, I'm cheap! Given that, I was only expecting to get the new panel tacked in this afternoon, however the Gas Gods were obviously smiling on me, which is odd for 4.30 on a bank holiday Monday if previous experience is anything to go by. Anyway I ran with what I had and managed to get a large chunk of the welding done, both around the edge of the panel, and the plug welds to the reinforcement panel. My plug welds are slowly improving. And that was it for this weekend. Hopefully next weekend should see the boot lower side panels cut out and the new panels starting to go in, furniture restorations permitting. Karl

Pete, please see pic below. Measurements are as follows: Big hole 54mm Small hole 24mm The big hole centreline is 75mm from the boot edge, and the outer edge 95mm from the rear edge of the wheel arch. The small hole centreline is 113mm from the boot edge, and 25mm from the rear of the arch. Hope that helps. Karl

Peter, I’ll take a look and post the measurements when I’m next in the garage. Karl

After last weeks hiatus, this weekend almost went the same way, what with taking daughter for a routine hospital appointment, then a trip out to Bedfordshire to pick up another Ercol sofa for Mrs B. However all of my family commitments were completed by midday Sunday, which meant an afternoon in the garage beckoned. The first order of business was to finish off the few little bits and pieces left over from the driver's side boot corner, namely the boot corner aperture, which just needed a couple of welds, and the corner knocking back into shape. Here it is mid-clean up, but post minor conflagration caused by the sound deadening and seal sealant behind catching fire! The boot corner welds also got a going over with my newly replaced power file. I'm not aiming for a seamless finish, just strong and tidy is good enough. One last area on the driver's side that needed a revisit was a small patch that I welded into the arch corner a while back. Now this was done when the welder wasn't really living up to it's name, and so it was time for a revisit, so I simply ran the welder over the joint, ensuring decent penetration and thus bondage(Fnarr, Fnarr). Then it was out with the flap disc, and a couple of minutes of careful grinding back left me with this. That will need the merest skim of filler when the time comes. That was the first half effectively complete, so time for a half time cup of tea and a biscuit, you don't that in the European Super League! Time to get back on the pitch and tackle this. If memory serves, and it frequently doesn't, this was the first boot corner that I tackled, and I made a right hash of it, cutting the hole too big and the repair panel too small, and then having to weld in additional sections to complete it! I'd used a Chic Doig repair panel for this originally, but this time I decided to make my own, starting with this. I crudely marked up the raw steel to indicate the limit of the steel that would be required for this repair section. The idea here was make sure that I had a big enough piece of steel, without wasting any. As per the other side of the car, I started forming the curve of the panel where it rises from the boot mounting to the boot floor proper, by hammering the edges of the steel over a section of scaffolding pole in the vice to start the curve off. The curve was then refined by beating over a smaller diameter form, in this case a large socket, until I could slip it over the existing panel. The challenge here is that you have two curved sections coming together at the corner, and unlike the driver's side, the panel is much deeper due to my previous cock ups, making blending the two much more difficult. Now, if I was any good with a hammer I could shrink this puckering down to create a smooth corner, but I'm not, so I cheated and slit the corner like this. This then allowed me to hammer the corner over a selection of dollies and hammers to give me this. What this leaves you with is one section of metal overlapping the other, which we don't really want, so it was out with the mini-disc cutter again, and simply cut along the outer piece of steel, cutting away the excess. This was after a couple of rounds of hammering, forming, and cutting to give me this relatively neat corner, at which point it was time for welding. That's starting to look a bit more boot corner shaped, even if it isn't quite the same standard as the Chic Doig panel, but then there's only around £4 of steel in my panel, and a couple of hours of my time. Two minutes with the flap disc, leaves us with this. At this point the panel itself is too deep, but that's what I'm aiming for as the next step will be to cut out the old boot corner, and then cut and tack this new one in before I start replacing the boot side panel. Here it is resting in place for now, though I have since drilled out the two chassis mounting holes. I'll probably give that a coat of weld through primer this week ahead of cutting out the old corner. I can't remember what state the boot corner reinforcing panel was in, but I'm sure I will soon found out, but fingers crossed it won't need the patching that the driver's side did. At least this coming weekend is a long one, so hopefully we'll see a bit more progress. Karl

The South African accent still catches me out, as well pronouncing G’s as H’s, particularly in people’s names. Still not sure I believe you about Australian wildlife. No update this week as in the words of Jesse from the Fast Show, ‘This weekend I have mostly been doing gardening and DIY!’, so no progress on the car. Which was probably not a bad thing, as I’ve just realised I’m almost out of gas, so before I make a start on the passenger side, a trip to the farm shop is in order. Karl

The engine is looking very good there Colin, and nice save on the backplate. Probably best to forget about the tub for the moment, I’m sure something will turn up. Karl

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Pete, I’ve been working in IT long enough to have a flexible attitude to deadlines. Pete T, you may have rust free cars, but you also have a plethora of wildlife out to kill you! I work with a bunch of South Africans, and even they don’t want to go to Oz! Colin, I might be purchasing another metal working tool shortly....... Karl

Thanks Pete, the aim is to get the tub fully welded by the end of this month, but not sure I’ll make that deadline. Karl

Just when you thought it was safe to back in the garage, and maybe even open the garage door, it starts snowing again! Although I have been off this week, I haven't been able to devote my whole week to the Herald, instead having to drive to Cornwall on Wednesday to pick up an Ercol sofa that Mrs B had managed to score on E-bay. If nothing more it was a nice day out, and good road trip, probably the first since 2019. I have also made a start on sorting out the downstairs loo after last year's leaky waste pipe incident, which has all meant only a couple of afternoons in the garage this week. However I have made the most of it, and continued work on the replacement boot floor corner, and boot side corner panel, starting to getting the homemade floor repair panel prepped for welding. Which first meant drilling out the holes for the plug welds which hold the boot floor to the reinforcing panel, which meant making a template first given the odd shape of the reinforcing panel to make sure I got the holes in the right place. Looks like a poor attempt at a Picasso, but did allow me to put the holes where they needed to be. Well, all bar two, which I put in the wrong place, so had to weld them up on a copper block. A quick flashover with the grinder left me with this. Nothing for it now, but to give everything a quick coat of weld through zinc primer, and then set everything up for welding, starting with the obligatory tack welds. All of which was then seam welded, leaving me with a new, and solid driver's side boot corner. At this point it became clear that the boot side repair panel didn't quite match the profile of the boot floor, probably as a result of a combination of my repairs to the boot floor itself, and the repair panel being a pattern, rather than original part. Either way, it needed to be fixed, which meant making some amendments to the repair panel to better allow the joining flange to mate properly with the edge of the boot floor. Above is the area to the side of the car, but the section at the rear where it curves up to the boot floor also needed the same attention. It all looks a bit crude, but will all be welded up in due course. I also took a small slice out of the front of the repair panel where it meets the rear of the arch, as it was a fraction too long in the flange. All of which meant it was time to break out the welder again and start attaching the boot side panel permanently. My plug welds still look more like rivets on the Queen Mary, but at least I know they strong, and they will get sorted later. This is the side of the panel, where I made the cuts to allow the flange to conform over the boot floor as it rises from the mounting points. You can see how the flange sits a few mm lower than the side of the panel itself. The gap was closed up by pressing the handle of a hammer against the panel, while tack welding to hold it all in place, before applying a couple of weld beads. The section at the rear of the car got the same treatment. The flange on the repair panel is quite narrow here, leading to it blowing through the punched holes that I had made for plug welding, all of which meant some messy looking welding. The welds inside the boot got the same treatment, which meant sitting in the boot of the upturned tub welding a myriad of plug welds, while occasionally setting fire to the remains of the sound deadening material in the boot! You can see the soot marks from my mini conflagrations! Everything then got a clean up with a flap disc in the angle grinder, including the old over rider support tube, before getting it set up for re-attaching. Luckily I had a section of wooden dowel that was a tight push fit to the support tube, and the remaining section in the boot reinforcing panel, allowing me to get the alignment spot on before firing up the welder. And that pretty much saw the welding on the driver's side of the tub pretty much done. There are a few little bits which I will need to revisit, like the boot lip corner, which needs a tidy up with a panel beating hammer and dolly, but I'll get around to them when I tackle the passenger side, which just left me to put a coat of etch primer over everything to prevent flash rusting. All of that was about 8 hours work over a couple of days, the bulk of which was spent on preparation, getting panels to fit properly, fitting and re-fitting to get it as good as possible before committing to welding. I still have the passenger side to do, but having done the driver's side, I at least have a clear plan of what to do, and what to look out for, and the tub now feels substantially more solid than it did when I took it off the car. Karl

Colin, probably a good idea putting the tub to one side for now, as it does look very Frankenstein! I’m sure something will come up regarding a decent replacement tub. Karl