The Ragtop Express

[TPB_Karl]

I have also fitted the rear replacement panels and corrected the fold in the bottom of the piece as this is only folded over once.







Since the bumper mount is shaped like a cone with a closed bottom, I drilled a drain hole in the front. Because I will lower the front, but not the rear.






I previously made a piece that I finally took courage and welded on. With the TIG! I dipped the tungsten probably 12 times and blew 3 holes that I had to fill... Things you learn from, and next time it will hopefully go better!











The next piece to fit in will be the lower part of the inner fender. This needs a lot of modification... But we will do that next weekend!

[TPB_Karl]

This weekend, I made the final modifications to the panel that will sit behind the passenger door and tacked the outer skin together.
But first, I cut out and repaired the floor lip behind/under the back seat and welded the bottom of the lower corner so I wouldn't fill the heater channel with water.






I removed most of the paint from the outer skin, applied primer on the inside, and carefully started welding it in place with the TIG.






So far, it looks good. It doesn't seem to have warped. Now it's time to continue with the inner fender before fully welding the outer skin.
The inner fender, however, requires quite a bit of work... First up was this weird little pressing.




Since the panel is designed for newer cars with a Z-bar, I have to close up the opening to make it more like the original. This was patched up, and the panel was trimmed to fit the existing inner fender.








However, I wasn't happy with the sharp rear corner of the opening at the shock mount, so I rounded it off a bit.



Then I realized that the bottom line of the bottom of the body didn't line up at all, so I redid the entire rear half and also part of the opening near the shock mount.



Now it's welded and ground down. This piece took way too long!




The next step will be the reinforcement piece that goes on top of the inner fender. and the mount for to the shock tower.

[TPB_Karl]

This week, I got the outer skin behind the passenger door fully welded.





After grinding it down, it looks pretty good. I had to straighten it with a hammer and dolly a little, and will probably need to do some more hammering before it gets filled and painted.




The next step is to make the reinforcement that sits inside the inner fender. I made a template for it on paper.






Then I transferred it to sheet metal. I cut it out with a couple of centimeters of margin around the edges that I could trim it down once I was happy with the shape of the piece.




After a lot of shaping and bending, I got the piece fitting fairly decent.




The opening around the shock mount is made so that I have space to remove the damper and possibly fit a kafer cup bar.





Trimmed and drilled, it was ready to be welded onto the car.






I also started making a bracket in 2mm sheet metal. Whether I'll use 2mm or 1.5mm remains to be seen.






Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish this side during the week before I leave for work in germany for 1.5 weeks. Cheers!

[TPB_Karl]

Early update this week!
I decided to use the bracket out of 2mm sheet metal instead of 1.5mm. After all, it’s supposed to be a looker!

The brackets have double layers of sheet metal at the bottom, and here I used 1.5mm as in the original. However, I made them slightly longer than they originally were.










Then, it was just a matter of massaging them into place and welding them on.









Next, it was time for the rear end pieces… But first, I wanted to free the apron while I still had plenty of space to work with the cutting tools.









Once that was free, I could start welding since I had already cut the piece to fit.









Now, almost the entire passenger side of the car is repaired. There are still some small holes in the floor/sill that needed patching, but I didn’t spend much time on those since the entire heater channels and floor pans will be replaced eventually.








With that, I’m taking the rest of the weekend off and will be back in the garage in about two weeks!

[TPB_Karl]

But before heading home, I just couldn’t resist…
While cleaning up, I found a piece of sheet metal with paint in decent condition. I just had to try cleaning and polishing it to see what the car’s finish will look like!










I was a bit too aggressive with the wet sanding and rubbing before polish, so the primer burned through. I’ll have to be more careful when polishing the body.
But that’s a long way off… Take care!