Rallye Project

Main section of the inner wing now replaced.

Some more patching happened.

The current entertainment is this:

Had some fun along the way. There are many seized bolts snapped in the captive nuts. Normally you’d be able to get them loose by welding a new nut on – by the time they get cherry red, they should come loose. I sheared three nuts off this one on the slam panel…

…then this happened after I gave up and drilled it out.

Strut out and a bit of a tickle with a twisted knot wheel in the grinder to get the underseal off and the work needed is greater than originally thought.

Chop chop! The seam welds on the engine mount made it a bit harder… Needs a bit of a clean up and then some fresh metal can start going back in.

The O/S/F wheel kept going flat so whilst the strut was off I took a look at it and discovered that it’s had a big impact at some point and the inner bead seal has had it so I’ll get a tube put in that so at least moving the chassis around the workshop is a bit easier.

So I looked at the offside front inner arch and knew that I couldn’t just leave it as it was. It wasn’t just the aesthetics, it looked structurally bad.

A little love from some 1mm cutting discs and we’re off…

Ermmm, there’s three layers of metal where the 16v engine mount has been added on when there should only be two.

That’d be that extra plate that was welded on then…

I’m seeing daylight through holes that shouldn’t be there and the bit around the grommet hole (particularly below it) is very ropey. Looks like I’ll be doing some more cutting and making a bigger repair patch…

Bonnet mod is finished:

The other job was tidying up the battery tray which had been chopped and was bent outta shape. This is after I put a big adjustable spanner on it and got it pretty much straight:

Bit of 1.5mm zintec and some shaping in a vice with a BFH, welded, finished and final shaping and it’s done. Another small job off the list.