Restoration stuff, Morris convertible

Lovely work Sean, it's so refreshing to see proper skills alive and well. Nice old car, too.

Years ago I restored a 1966 Sunbeam Rapier. The guy that did the bodywork, Jeff, was fantastic. The car needed two front wings. I managed to find a genuine Rootes one for the offside, but there were no nearside ones to be had, which meant the only alternative was a pattern one. Well, it looked great until it was offered up to the car. If the rear top edge was lined up with the scuttle, the bottom sat about 3 inches below the level of the sill...To say I was gutted was an understatement. Jeff plonked it on the car, sat looking at for a while and then said "If we slice the wing from behind the headlight along the line where the chrome trim sits, then we can line up the top and bottom to the car and weld along the cut. With the trim back on you'll never see it" I wasn't convinced but didn't really have a choice. Well, when he'd finished you wouldn't have known it from a factory wing. I've had the highest respect for old school bodywork professionals ever since.
The guy that trained me is called Jeff, you wasn't in the Grimsby area by any chance
 
That'd be 'Effin' Jeff then =))

Tony.
 
Great skills again Sean. You make it look easy
 
Brilliant work Sean....as usual. Great to see skills like this are still alive ;)
 
It takes time and effort to keep old cars on the road, I had to do the first ever body repair to my Triumph last year scary stuff, once you start.

You start with a small rust patch and it ends up a big hole, but is is satisfying when all welded up and painted up knowing it is all solid again

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It takes time and effort to keep old cars on the road, I had to do the first ever body repair to my Triumph last year scary stuff, once you start.

You start with a small rust patch and it ends up a big hole, but is is satisfying when all welded up and painted up knowing it is all solid again

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Stevie what Triumph did/have you got ? Geoff
 
Funny - I've had to repair my Triumph recently. What looked like this -
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Was actually like this once the outer wing was cut off -
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I'm not the neatest welder but as the inner sill has compound curves, I had to fabricate it using 3 separate pieces. Once the welds were ground down it all looked fine. The photo is pre-grinding obviously -
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And at the end of the day it all turned out well, once the wing repair panel was fitted and welded on -
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She turned out rather well. Mine has the slant four engine like the TR7 above, only an 1850cc rather than a 2 litre. Satisfying work.
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