Body's off the Frame (Again). Hopefully for the last time

Its been about a year since I've posted, life continues to interrupt my progress but I have reached a milestone.  This update is a review of the body work.

First, lets review the driver's side fender.  If you go back ands look at some of the older posts, you can see my first attempt(s) at repairing the fender.  Well, as I progress through this project, I get much more confident in my skills and much better at recognizing my mistakes.  After my initial fender replacement, I started adding filler and noticed it was going to be WAY too thick.  I decided, even though it meant starting over that this wasn't acceptable.

As you can see, I made several attempts to flatten the sheetmetal by cutting and welding.  All of this just made it worse so I just decided to start over.  You can see the cut lines based on the flat part of the passenger fender.

After cutting the fender back off again using the same lines as I did originally, I used 1/8" welding wire to repair/ replace the edge.

I cut back the factory edging to good metal

Clamped and welded the new rod to the old..

After cleaning up the weld, looks like a single piece

Next, using the NEW passenger side fender as a template, identified the flat spot on the fender and cut a new patch panel.

With the center section replaced, I wasn't satisfied with the lower section of the door so I went ahead and replaced it too.

Instead of folding the metal over the 1/8" welding wire, I just tacked it and then followed it up with a fillet weld

Test fit before welding

With the new panel installed, it made the subsequent bodywork much easier.

Skipping through the many hours of grinding, hammering, shrinking, this is the finished panel.  I overall pleased with the results except right above the fender vent.  I worked for a long time on this but I couldn't really get behind it to make it better.

It'll still need a little filler but overall, its relatively flat.  This is a horizontal shot.

And a vertical shot.  There is a slight arc to the fender design.  I used the replacement passenger fender as a reference to ensure the arc matches.

Now, being satisfied with the fender, I could get back to finishing the bodywork.  Before getting too carried away, I reviewed the body lines one more time.  I printed a stepped guide to measure the gap consistently.

Drivers fender/ door gap 

Drivers door to rear fender.  I was pleased with the gap but not the roll of the door vs the fender (or so I thought) so I added some metal to the fender to match the door.  Later, after repairing the door frame, I ended up grinding most of the additional metal back out.

Passenger door to fender alignment

Top edge of the passenger door to B pillar.  I wasn't initially pleased with the vertical alignment of the door.

After working with it for some time, I am much happier with the alignment

Passenger door to rear fender

Ultimately I'll use high build primer and block sand but went ahead and added filler to the areas I know need a little more help than just high build.  Even with all the work I did on the fender, it still ended up needing filler.  I used a magnet across the fender to ensure the body filler wasn't very thick.

Having replaced both fender lights, I went back with filler instead of using lead like the factory.

Having fresh metal, I thought I'd try my hand at welding in the passenger fender using TIG instead of MIG.  Turned out pretty nice

The nose wasn't in too bad of shape except around the bumper mounting holes and the lower edge.  I hammered out what I could, did a little patch work and lead removal around the lower edge of the headlight buckets.

At some point, the car was hit in the rear on the right side of the license plate holder.  Oddly enough, the steel license plate holder faired worse than the boot lid.  

After a few more weeks of removing and installing doors, fenders, boot and bonnet (many times), I'm finally comfortable with the results and have pulled the body off to start priming and prepping for paint.

I'm Back

 Well, to all of you wondering what's been happing for the last two years, let me catch you up.

Since my last post in 2021, I became a small business owner (Tea Shop), quit my corporate job and moved to the Pacific Northwest.  All of this has slowed my progress and my postings but am finally in a position to start making progress and posting again.  

Since my last post and especially over the last few months I've made some progress, let me catch you up.

When last I posted, I was hopeful that I would soon be firing the engine up.  Well, that did happen but took a little work.  If you have read some of my earlier posts, you know I had to do a little work on the main cap and oil pickup.  When I cranked the motor, I wasn't getting any oil pressure.  I had to add an extra quart of oil to get it to work.  I found a pickup on eBay and will install it before final assembly.  After this was worked out, I cobbled together enough parts for the carburetors to start it up.  There wasn't a distributor in the pile of parts so I used the one from my E-type.

 Not having the cooling system all plumbed up, I didn't let it run very long but it sounded good.  Knowing that the motor works, I wanted to test out my fuel injection system.  I ultimately wanted to install on my E-Type but wanted to try it out here first.

I have a lot of experience using the Megasquirt system for ignition but haven't used the Fuel Injection system before.  I won't go into all the details here but basically, I am duplicating the factory Jaguar system from the 80s with a few modifications.  I use o-ring seal injectors, manifold pressure sensor (MAP), throttle position sensor (TPS) and coolant temp sensor (CLT).  I originally planned to use a mass airflow meter but discovered that Megasquirt doesn't support the GM sensor without significant external wiring and modifications.  For another day.

Don't think this is its final home but mounted the coil pack to the side of the block above the oil filter

Sorry the pic came out blurry but here is a shot of my custom designed FI manifolds

A shot from above.  I made the water manifold from square aluminum but will probably redesign it before final assembly.  

I'm also learning to weld aluminum so added the T-stat housing to the end.  Problem is it doesn't leave enough room to connect the hose.  Another reason to redesign the water rail.  Just use the T-stat in the radiator, like the car was designed.

Pop quiz - What happens when you draw a hard vacuum on a thin sheetmetal airbox?  The outside pressure crushes it like a tin can 

In case the above pic doesn't paint the picture for you, I was able to start the car using the EFI and as soon as I closed the throttle, it crushed the airbox and the test was over 😟

Didn't start the car with it but did get the airbox designed and welded together before leaving Nevada.  

Not for this blog but with the initial success on this motor, I did bite the bullet and install the system on my E-Type.  It works great, I love it.  It will be part of the final drive train.

This was one of the last things I was able to accomplish prior to packing things up for the move.  Prior to moving it to Washington, I do have a few pics.

I got the parts back from chrome, OMG, the grill looks amazing

Finished working on the signal lights.  Seam welded them all the way around, not just tack welds

Took care of some prior damage and body filler that appeared after sand blasting

Putting the body back on the frame for the move.

With the body back on the frame, I found the boot lid didn't have the proper gaps at the bottom.  I tried spreading the quarter panels but couldn't get any spacing.  The only way to solve the problem was to cut down the boot frame to make space.  I used spacers down each side from top to bottom to ensure the gap was the same all the way down.

A view of the other side after making space

The grill looked so good, I had to see what it would look like installed

Along with all the chrome, all of the powder coating is done too.  I installed the top frame.

More chrome added

Car is prepared for the move.  I installed all the parts I could so they wouldn't get lost.

And thus ends the Nevada story

In April, 2022, it went into storage until I could make it a safe home in Washington.  Finally in October, I was ready for the move.

Skinny tires, tire straps and moving trucks with highly sensitive accident avoidance systems are not a good combination.  Truck slammed the brakes and the car lurched forward

I was sick to my stomach when I pulled back the tarp and saw this.  Fortunately, upon further investigation, only the fenders took some damage and that was easily fixed.

First pic in its new home.  I went with a 4-post lift since I had to leave the 2-post behind.

Now, in its new home and with my new career, I have had some time to start working on the car again.  Having spent some time welding aluminum, I decided to finally tackle the doors.

The front bottom edge of both doors were pitted and eaten through.  Since they are aluminum, its not rust so erosion from road rash?  Whatever, I want it gone.  First cut out the corrosion.

Next, make a patch panel

And, weld it in place.  My welding skills are still not super and even after cleaning, it was still difficult to get a nice bead.  Oh well, grind, grind, grind

Same thing for the other side.  With all the body filler removed.

Corrosion removed

New piece welded in.  Still not stellar welds but after some grinding, it'll look just fine.

More on the doors at a later date.  The skins look OK now and the wood panels on either end overall are in good shape but from what I can deduce, the screws/ nails that attach the skin to the wood have rusted away or come loose and the door doesn't hold its shape properly.  Just not sure how I'm going to fix this short of pealing the door apart (which I don't want to do).

Now for something completely different.  Did I mention that I had a woodworker friend that helped me with the burled dash panels?  He took the time to soak/ heat and peel the veneer off the backing and reattach it to new substrate.  They look amazing.

While the dash panels were in bad shape and now with them repaired, I wanted to install the wood to see how the other pieces looked.  I will have to do a little work before final assembly.

The other side

Self motivation pictures.  Getting close to prepping the body for paint so assembling everything before I tear it all down

Top is installed, most of the chrome, all fits pretty well so far

Nothing is in permanently yet but just need to see the red interior

And the boot

And finally something I've learned over the last couple of weeks.  Before moving to Washington, I mounted the body on the frame and made sure the gap were good.  Unfortunately, I made the gaps correct by adding shims to the boot mounts.  Well, turns out, WHEN you add too many shims to the boot, the spare tire won't fit under the frame rails anymore.  After dropping the rear clip down to allow for the spare tire, the B pillar didn't align anymore.  I've since basically had to separate the front and back (on the driver's side) from the sills to fix it.  Good thing I only tacked everything together.

This is the gap after all my rework.  

So this catches you up on my current status, I should be back to posting updates on a regular basis again.  I'm excited to be making progress again.  A lot of the underlying work has been done, just finalizing body work finish ensuring all the interior bits fit.  Come back later to see more.