Wing Prep – Part 1

After a bit of a hiatus(!), I’m now finding a bit of time to get back on with the work.

The first thing to be done was to carry on with the offside wing and wheel arch. When I left it before, the only bits that still had the old underseal that needed removing were the front wheel arches. So I removed the front subframe and suspension components:

TR7 with front suspension removed

The arch area was pretty grotty:

TR7 wheel arch

But cleaned up alright and proved to be quite solid:

TR7 wheel arch after underseal removal

There was a small welded panel just underneath the suspension turret, but it looked quite solid and professionally done (for once!) so I left it well alone.

With that done, I cleaned it all up, applied metal ready then a coating of POR-15. I’m using the same process for painting as for the rest of the underside (strip to bare metal, clean, apply Metal Ready, paint with POR-15, topcoat with POR Chassis Coat), however I had some problems with the order – I somehow managed to order black POR rather than the grey I’ve used before, not a problem really as it’ll be painted over, but I preferred the grey as it was easier to tell what I’d painted over when I do the chassis coat – and the Chassis Coat itself was out of stock for the next eight weeks. . Oops.

Still, I did the POR painting, let it dry and then put the subframe and suspension back together so I could roll the car out and make a start on the wing. Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures of the arch after painting but before putting the suspension back on, but here’s what I’ve got:

TR7 wheel arch with POR 15 TR7 wheel arch with POR 15 2

Nice and shiny – unfortunately it won’t stay that way, the Chassis Coat is a fairly matte finish.

With that done, I made a start on the wing. The first thing that needed doing was to weld the filler panel to the A post – the old wings are a slightly different design and the filler panels are part of the wing, so my car never had them – and then get the inside edge painted:

TR7 wing filler panel

That’s POR 15 again, same as the rest of the inner wing, just a different colour. Once the wing’s on it’ll never be seen so I’m not worried about that. While I had the paint out, I rubbed back and painted the inside of the wing:

TR7 wing painted with POR 15

Now I’ve got everything lined up, all that remains is to grind down the welding surfaces, drill some holes and then the wing is finally ready to fit!

 

 

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