wahey!!! the work has started. i went to the bodyshop this evening and had a good chat to the main man. they have fitted the front clip and both outer wheel arches. the guy was telling me that they literally screw all the panels together with self tappers to check everything fits. then when everything is good he welded up the front clip and arches.
this is the passenger side:
this is the drivers and you can see where they have fitted it to the doorframe my dad and i fitted.:
the outer panel can now be re-fitted once the welds on the inner panel is ground down.
they butted the four chassis legs, but staggered each leg. they took the flanges off the two old chassis legs and cut the outer ones back. as seen on this side. they also then put new gussets ontop
you can see the but weld on the outer and the new weld on the inner right up against the flange. he kept the flange as it looked alot neater.
passenger door gaps:
passenger inner wheel arch area:
when fitting the outer wheel arches he opted to keep the original outer b-pillars and kept the replacement ones and spot welded from inside, which will then be ground back:
the replacement floor is both LHD and a late bay - the only one i could get from schofields. with it being a late bay the handbrake is differnent and therefore the frame had to be taken off:
this is the frame underneath:
the new floor then had to be bent a little more than the press and a blanking plate needs to be welding in where the late bay has the step integrated into the floor rather than the wheel arch:
the guy at the bodayshop has taken loads of pictures which i'm going to get off him at the end, so you'll not see many progress pictures just the finished ones sorry.
i spoke to him about the progress over the next week and he's going to get on with the following: tomorrow he's going to finish off the front area then next week one of the guys is going to start on the panel opposite the sliding door and he's going to replace the rear corners. i think that i am onluy going to need to use up to the swadge line, but he'll bare metel it and see.
i discussed with him about the option of a custom fuel tank and he was more than happy to design one to fit the hole rather than make a tank with a given volume. he also said that he'd make one to utilise my fuel sender - as this is calipbrated to my fuel gauge. he's going to see whether its easier to fix the old fuel tank or make a new one. either way he's going to make the call as after all he is the professional. the engine bay inspection hatch has also arrived and that will be grafted in. i really look forward to seeing it next week.
NaFe