I never knew that body work was so mentally and physically taxing… I am knackered.
Right, lets pick this up from Saturday morning. The rather wonderful Lady P told me that it was pointless spending a week of nights getting the repair finished, and the knock on effect this had on my working week, why didn't I just spend the weekend finishing it off? I was quick to take full advantage of this but not before I had procured 2 bottles of a rather nice white to ensure that the path to the shed was properly…lubricated..
I know I have said this before but this was the hardest cut I have made to date.
I ummed and ahhed on this one for ages. Do I make a smaller cut and leave the slightly crumpled area or bite the bullet and chop it all out to the good.
Suppose that picture answers that one!
With the cut made I trimmed down the last bit of Martins truck to fit the hole.
Problem was I couldn't get it to fit as I wanted it.
There was too big a gap around the top and getting the swage line to line up around the back of the cab was causing all sorts of issues
Martins panel had some fairly heavy rust issues at the cab bottom and Woodys bottom was a bit beaten and full of filler (narf narf) so I decided to make that repair once I had everything else done as it would/should be easier to melt them together once everything else was lined up. More of that later…
More pushing and more cutting
but still not happy until I just decided to drill a few holes and use self tappers to hold it in place whilst I tacked it together.
Still not perfect but getting there
Nearly!
They say that out of the mouths of Babes and Children comes forth truth…
Well after sitting looking at the pigs ear I had made of cutting the panel and still not getting it to fit, my youngest son ventured forth into the night with a beer and stern words from Lady P that I was taking the P at 10.30pm. His comment? I’ll hold, it you tack it.
And just like that it all lined up! Sure the Beer helped….
Fast forward to this evening because I am fairly sure you are all bored with my ramblings may I present…
All buzzed in. I knew it was time to call it quits as the more astute amongst you will notice the rather odd pattern to the welds on the lower repair patch… Yup, forgot to turn the gas on…
Gap pretty good.
Still got to finish off the bottom and tidy up the sill ahead of putting that patch in but quite please compared to what was there before…
Bit annoyed with myself that I warped the top of the panel (will be hidden behind the bed) but,if I had paid to have the work done, there would have been a layer of Glenn Miller over it and I would never have known.
At my work rate I hope to have this all finished by Tuesday evening at which time I will stop boring you all with this particular stage of body work and go back to talking about interesting stuff.
So, on that bomb shell…Goodnight!!
P.
Just noticed that this is my 400th post - time to go and enjoy the other bottle of that rather good white!