I did a practice run on the rear arch cut out today. Using my donor rear quarter as the test bed.

Here's what's left of the panel.



It yielded a nice inner wheel arch to get some measurements from.



And a spare standard outer arch.



To prepare the back end for the chop I've started by removing most of the original green paint. This is done with a combination of paint stripper and a brass wire wheel on my grinder. The cutting out and welding of the new outer arch is next followed by painting then rivetting on the new alloy tarmac arch.



I then started doing some of the plugs. Boot first.



Then the drivers side rear interior.



Still plenty more to do. I'm saving them for when I crack it with the grinder. There's only so much of that thing I can stand at a time.

Made a start on the rear arches today. First job was to strip the underseal from inner wheel arch to expose the seam.



The hole in the front section that allows access to the sill is as good a place as any to start hacking into the arch with the air body saw.





With the experienced gained in chopping up the donor panel, I outlined the cut to be made around the exterior of the arch. This isn't the final size of the arch as the cut is trimmed to size once the section is removed.







I drilled a hole at the centre top to allow me to get the body saw into the panel. I then cut from top to front then top to rear. I then joined the cuts with ones from the interior and removed the section.







Found a whole lot of dirt, leaves and other stuff in the front area so i blew the whole sill out with the air gun.

Then using the remaining inner arch as a guide, i drew a bend line onto the inside of the outer panel. I then trimmed the panel to size allowing a flange of roughly 10mm. The trim line is 10mm toward the opening of the bend line.



Then using a hammer and dolly I bent the flange out ready to allow fitting of the new outer tub.





This is where I stopped for the day as i'm knackered. I also spent the morning in the garden spreading out a cubic meter of mulch.

I should add that the first bends were done with a pair of vice grips. I bent the metal to about 25 degrees then did the remainder with the hammer and dolly.

Steve, your efforts are seriously impressive

Mate,awesome work so far!
I love seeing in the build pics like this

Cheers. It's a little daunting cutting into the shell just after I got all the rust out. It's not as hard as I thought it would be. I'm now looking into what I need to do to fit a set of four links and towers.

I'm fairly sure I can keep the original suspension setup with a four link kit fitted and be able to switch between the two. Need to do some more research...

quote:

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Originally posted by fordsy

I'm fairly sure I can keep the original suspension setup with a four link kit fitted and be able to switch between the two. Need to do some more research...

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I designed my 6 link to retain all the original mounting points for the leaf springs, just in case...its definately postible Steve

From what i've seen so far the kit will fit without having to alter either the std leaf suspension mounts or the std shock top mounts. I'll have another think about them after i've finished the arches.

More work.

Cut out a long metal strip



Then weld it in starting from the top to make alignment easier. Used predrilled holes and a few self tappers to help with the alignment. Welds are a mix of plug and seam.



The dints are from me 'encouraging' the panel to fit with a hammer.









Hints if anyone else wants to have a go at this.. Make sure the quarter panel folds are in line with the inner tub. Too low and you can't align the new outer tub properly. Too high and you have to bend things with a hammer to make it fit.

I still have to trim the excess metal off the new outer tub.

Also decided today that there are two things that I won't be doing myself. First is the rollcage, second is the four link kit.

looking good mate, started on the front quarters yet?