Body Heat

Part 3 of the "Get a Wedgie" TR7 restoration series

We continue Get a Wedgie with Part 3 covering the bodywork that has taken place on the TR7. As mentioned previously, the overall condition of this 1980 TR7 was excellent. It is by my own quest for doing things right that some of the ensuing repairs were made. Much if any of the body repairs took place in the bow section of the car as the aft was virtually rust free, dent free and free from any monetary investment.

Repairs to the front valance were required because of too many encounters by the previous owner with those nasty concrete stops that seem to grow out of the asphalt in many parking lots across the US. The valance was bent twisted and in such contortions that repair was futile. A new valance along with several other sheet metal components began what is now serious capital being put into the car. Removal of the old valance is straightforward in that the spot welds are drilled out or in my case were vaporized by the tool of mass destruction called a plasma cutter. Very effective and very quick. Although I found out that there is an attachment for these things specifically for spot welds. That will certainly get entered on my holiday tool list. Anyway, most of the support brackets while not twisted beyond recognition, did require reforming and placement. Tool Man and Hammer’s TR8 helped a lot by providing some measurements to get some proper datum points for these brackets. Once these brackets were positioned, it was a matter of clamping and welding the new valance in place. The previous and following photos show before and after.

Next on the agenda was the major sheet metal repair of the project. This involved the front wheel arches. Unlike many of the previous TRs, the 7, the 8 have inner and outer arches that are welded together at the wheel opening. This seam is a great spot for the rust worm to do its nasty work. Bulging seams (and not the ones caused by eating too much) are a telltale sign that serious problems will be forthcoming. Depending on the level of your restoration desire, I feel its false economy to not address this area properly. You may be able to hide it with filler but eventually it’s going to look like crap again. You spend a lot of time and money painting a car, why have it look nice for a few years only to see rust rearing its ugly head through your paint.

Arch repair takes a bit of work to get it right. Ahh, that’s where this experience thing comes into play. First sourcing repair panels and then fixing or repairing them is required before they even get put on the car. Now wait a second, they are new! Unless you buy complete quarters, most repair panels come with a fine print message of "some fitting required". Most of the work I needed to do was to match the inner sections to the outer arch. If you were to clamp them together "as-is" you would see that the seams won’t even closely match up. This required me to cut the inner arch at specific intervals to allow me to better match the outer arch. The arches are formed using presses and you can’t exactly bend a formed arch without causing some kinks. Leave the kinky stuff for the bedroom, not for wheel arches. Once cut, you are able to clamp the inner to the outer and have the seam match up perfectly. You ain’t done yet. With the two arches clamped, I carefully weld the inner in the places where I had cut it. Now you have a foundation that can be welded into the repair section that the outer will sit nicely on.

Now we are off to start slicing and dicing the old stuff off. In order to properly dismantle a inner and outer arch on a car you sort of have to take it apart the same way it went on, well at least the arch area. This means that all of those spot welds along the archway need to be drilled or plasma blasted out. But before you do any cutting or splitting, make measurements first! At strategic points along the arch, I measured and marked specific distances to various edges on the quarter panel and along the arch itself. This way when you position the repair pieces, you match those measurements. Too late if you chopped and lopped. Makes sense right? You can see some of the lines and notes I made on the following picture.

Next I used some "high-tech" to separate the old sheet metal. The good ol' plasma cutter makes short order of this and the thin dark line you see is not rom my marker but the cut I made with that tool. What you don’t see is the entire arch coming off in one piece. Can you use metal shears (scissors)? Yes, but it is a bit more difficult since they work on pushing one part of the metal in one direction and the other the opposite way. This is a problem with long formed cuts. Consider the purchase of an air powered metal shear. This is another cool toy since it essentially makes two slices and cuts a 1/4" swath through the metal. I have one of those as well, but when in Rome use more plasma. The inner arch section is removed in much the same way. Obviously you are not removing more of the old metal that the patches are intended to cover. Measure twice, cut once. If you do remove more than needed, consider a different hobby.

From there, final fitting of the repair sections can commence. I made a tool that will basically allow me to put a lap joint in along the entire cut. I don’t do the inner as it is not necessary to be that perfect. The outer yes, since that is the one that will receive the most attention as that’s the one everyone will see. The inner repair arch is attached and welded into place. The outer get a little prep done by drilling holes along the archway. These holes are used to weld the inner and outer together and simulate the work you would do with a spot welder. For those who attended a previous welding clinic, I showed you that trick. With the lap joint and all, I placed the outer in position, verified the measurements and welded it in. Just remember to be patient by only welding small sections at a time. If you try to do the whole thing at once you’ll have a warp-o-rama on your hands.

Grind off excess welding material and your ready for some filler and paint. Now any body guy that says he doesn’t use any filler is a friggin’ liar (this is a quote from a professional body repair guy). The trick is to prepare your sheet metal work to use it sparingly and only where it is needed. It should not be used to compensate for bad sheet metal or to compensate for 2-inch deep dents. We have great tools for that, but that is for our next installment of Get a Wedgie, Part 4 - Paint Your Wagon.

Project Totals
	   Current Phase      Totals to Date
Hours:          32.5              137.0
Cost:          $435*            $453.72

*Inners         $178
Outers          $178
Valance         $ 79

By Joe "Stagmeister" Pawlak