Rosy, a restoration project - Bodywork

At long last with the engine almost in a position to run, I was waiting for the exhaust system which I now have as whilst I was waiting for it I started attempting to do a pre-fit of the body panels.  As you can see from the photograph it looks as if it is fitted!  Looks can be deceptive, without welding and grinding equipment I have become stymied!  When I stripped the panels off all those years ago in 2000, little did I realise what I was letting myself in for.  I had all of the panels where they had had the 1960's renovation carried out on them (aluminium panels pop riveted on to the rusted wings, etc and fibre glass filled then ground down to make it look good) repaired by cutting out the rusted areas and new metal being welded on.  This was then ground down to smooth it off, shot blast to give good paint adhesion and filler sprayed.

I have now reached the stage where I am attempting to fit the panels and I soon realised you need the ability to weld and grinding tools to finish them off when they are finally fitted.  As I have no welding gear and for that matter I cannot weld I am asking a colleague of mine to have a look at it with a view to him fitting and spraying the body panels.  He came as I was typing this article, inspected what I required and said what I had suspected he would say.  "This needs to be done in a body shop", guess what his occupation is, he owns a car accident repair shop!  So in about a fortnights time he will pick up the car and take it to be assembled at his works.

However I have included some before and afterwards photographs so you can see what I have had to contend with. As mentioned in the section on investigation 90% of the ash frame was rotten the only piece I salvaged was the cross member with the body tub number stamped on it, here you see two photo's showing the before and after.

  Body tub number before ...  
  ... body tub number after.  

  Rotten timbers and plywood panels removed from behind the seats ...  
  .... the starting handle still in position.  
  These two photo's show the extent of the corrosion and the ash frame going rotten before restoration.  
  They have now been fitted to the new tub by Andy King after the doors had been rebuilt and re-skinned.  

  These two photo's show where the 60's restoration had been carried out on the front wings  
  note the aluminium sheet 'pop' riveted to the wings before being filled and finished with Ispon.  

  Repaired wings with the new steel welded on.  
     

  The radiator grill surround, for which the 'T' types are famous, was in a terrible condition when I removed it from the car.  
 
.... compare it with the repaired surround.
 

However when I fitted the surround and came to fit the tape that the bonnet rests on I found that when it had been repaired they had neglected to put the recess in for the inner hinge of the bonnet caps and also the holes for the tape to thread through.  In drilling the holes in the surround the chrome has flaked and as it will have to have the recess put in, this means that the surround will have to be re-chromed, more expense to add to the cost of refurbishing a car yourself..

  The rear wings had to have similar treatment to the wings above.  The photo shows them in an undercoated state before final fitting.