Boot cont. (Week 17)

 I was close last week but still had a little work to finish on the boot.  Not a lot of pictures for the progress this week but I've basically completed the structural work on the Boot Section.  I have a few cosmetic areas to clean up and then I'm actually ready to marry the car pieces back together.  Since the remaining work doesn't require a lot of fabrication or technique, I don't plan on spending much more blog time on it.  I now just have to do something with the floor panel and I can actually start working on mechanical bits.

Having finished repairing the tonneau section, I returned to the battery box.  I repaired the under structure prior to sand blasting but wanted to leave the rest so blasting could get better access.  To ensure patch panels were aligned, I clamped braces across the front and top

A close up of the left side, including the captive nut.  I had to repair the top side in addition to the front.

Since I started the restoration, I've known the boot lid didn't fit.  I was waiting until the fabrication was done, thinking the missing parts were part of the support.  Well, no such luck.  When fabricating the bottom boot sections, I had a brace strip to keep it at the right gap but once I removed it, the width was not enough for the lid to fit.  I was ready to start cutting slits in the side panels so I could 'make' it fit until I discovered something.  Its hard to see in the picture but this is a view looking up under the boot lip.  The lip is welded to a bracket extending upwards from the luggage/ spare tire separator panel.  One side, the weld had broken loose.  Fixing this allowed the lid to fit.  Much better option than 'cut to fit'.

After rewelding the brace to the boot lip, the lid fits much better, I am very pleased and don't need a spacer brace anymore.

Not really anything of value here, other than personal motivation.  Even though I've yet to actually weld the front and back to the sills gaps look pretty good.

Something I found when cleaning up.  This is a side view of two door hinge plates.  I didn't find these when I started so made new ones.  Obviously, I couldn't use the one on the right,  Since this was clamped tightly to another metal plate, this represents significant torque.

More personal motivation.  Not only does it look like a car but with most of the fabrication complete, I could clean the garage and start preparing for the next major endeavor, frame.