Old Fords never die

The plan is for the car to have a full strip down and respray at the end of the year (2009). In order to preserve the car while it is used throughout the year some bodywork is required to be done. The next few pages will show the progress of the work being carried out. We start here with the nearside bodywork.

May 2009: This shows the rear corner of the cill has rotted away and requires some attention before it gets any worse.

May 2009: The rear part of the cill and arch has been sanded down to reveal what the rust damage has done. It is not as bad as expected.

May 2009: The exposed metal was not too bad and the effected area was cut away. As usual a cardboard template was made and I used 1.2mm sheet metal this time rather than 1mm. This was shaped and welded up.

May 2009: The area was cleaned up and a coat of filler applied. Here you can see it has been roughly shaped and will get a guide coat before any further sanding is carried out.

May 2009: Leading from the crease in the rear door are scratch marks on the rear arch. Luckily the arch has not been dented but the marks have started to go rusty.

May 2009: The rear part of the arch has some rust which will get sorted. This will get sanded back to metal to see what the extend of the rust is.

May 2009: The rear arch has been sanded back to expose all the metal around the rusty areas. You may be able to see all the rust was just surface which is good news. The area of exposed metal was treated with Metal Ready

May 2009: A few coats of primer have been laid down. 3M guide coat placed before final sanding down to ensure no high or low spots exist.

May 2009: A few coats of Solar Gold applied. Looks a lot better and as the offside did not cover all the primer on the rear edge.

May 2009: At some point in the past someone has caught the rear door and left a crease in it. This will require the inside rear door panel to be removed and the dent removed as much as possible with a hammer and dolly. The less filler the better.