Front End ('A' Post Forward)
The car came with a badly fitted apex, wing and front panel, the wing and apex on the other side were missing, as previously said, it was a "half baked" project that had been abandoned. I wasn't happy with the standard, but it seemed a waste to throw away the panels, the apex I just cut off, but the wing and front panel were joined together well, and in the right place. They were just fitted to the car badly. the result was I cut the wing and front panel off as one piece. The inner wing was knackered anyway, so it required repair regardless.
The front panel needed some minor repairs.
Both scuttle ends will require replacing, as will the air vent holes in the inner wing / fitch panel. The drivers side A post needs a small repair, and the shock mounts are rusted through on both sides, everything forward of the shock mounts is rotten and will need fabricating.
Next drop the sub frame, move the motor to one side and sort the front out (and decide what to do with it).
This page is getting long now, so I'll start a inner wings page in the index so I can carry on the wings ,apex & front panel on this page. After it was stripped I could patch the two bits of rot in the bulkhead.
Then I could fit the scuttles and closing plates.
When the other side was done, I could fit the wings. Bolt the front panel up to the subframe first, then you can see how far your out...quite a bit with some panels. Since I decided to refit the wing & front panel that came with the car I knew things weren't going to be straight forward. I was right, they took a lot of adjustment with my wife helping at one point.
The bonnet was bent, I didn't spot it straight away though so it caused at 2 hour job to be a 4 hour job. Not sure if I want an ariel in the passenger wing either. I may fill it later.
The apex panels required the usual pulling and pushing.
I stick a couple of tacks on the inside to hold them to the fitch.
I've decided to smooth over the top of the apex join with filler. I didn't used to, but I notice rust apearing here on older replacement panels, so I'll give the filler approach a go to stop the water getting in the edge.
The o/s wing to scuttle joint was a pig. Next time I won't be re-using the panel that I took off, even if it was this good.
The fitch was in need of plenty trimming before I could fit the apex
and even when it was trimmed, the apex required serious adjustment to make that fit, the wing was sitting too low on the outer edge.
I got it eventually....
But I'm happier with the other side that I fitted from scratch...
Done, all I need is two more door shims to push the door back atouch to get the gap equal.
