my first mk2

[13sport]

hopefully have more done tommorow afternoon after work, this might sound like a dum question but are the ex pressed arches much better than the hadrian etc spurious ones? i only ask as they are 3 times the price of hadrian etc ones but, i have heard that spurios arches dont fit origional tubs very well at all. In fairness ive found majority of hadrian panels ive bought not to be to bad to fit, fair enough they have taken a bit of fettling to get to fit right but on that note the steel is soft and easy to work with. Is ex-pressed steel any better quality? I asume the pressings have to be better than any spurious will be but dont really want to spend all that extra if the steel is still soft monkey metal That spurious ones are

[gazza66]

May sound like a silly question but how do the rear tubs join the arches. Ive looked at loads of threads and cant quite see if there welded or what. How are you gonna join these ??

[13sport]

As it happens I didn't have any arches they had already been lopped off years ago however the 4door tubs I got had the arches spot welded and bonded to the tub, to be honest I was thinking about bonding them around the lip then leaving the sealer to go off. Once it's set I was planning on drilling some holes (with spot weld drill) throug the wheel arch lip and sealer till it hits the steel of the tub and leaving a clean hole to plug weld in a couple of places just for good measure. Might be better ways of doing it tho, that's just how I'd thought about doing it.

[gazza66]

As it happens I didn't have any arches they had already been lopped off years ago however the 4door tubs I got had the arches spot welded and bonded to the tub, to be honest I was thinking about bonding them around the lip then leaving the sealer to go off. Once it's set I was planning on drilling some holes (with spot weld drill) throug the wheel arch lip and sealer till it hits the steel of the tub and leaving a clean hole to plug weld in a couple of places just for good measure. Might be better ways of doing it tho, that's just how I'd thought about doing it.

Yeah sounds about right, get loads of piccys of that process Ill be very interested in that

[HarrierTony]

Coming along nicely mate, will be like a new car when you have it done.

The rear arches are spot welded to the inner arches on the return lip part.

[13sport]

I'd like to hope it will be super solid when it's done Tony but I keep looking at it and thinking..f#*k me I've still got plenty to do! Will feel a lot better when both tubs are in just the outer arches to sort then I can do boot floor and chuck it on the spit

[HarrierTony]

Keep the pics coming mate, it will be so worth it all when you have it done, just remember the golden rule, dont take short cuts because you will only end up going back at a later date to do it again. From what I have seen so far you are doing a cracking job.

[13sport]

well getting slightly distracted drom the welding but i guess its all to do at some point. Got the new motor stripped and painted block, rocker cover and head ready for my friend graham to kindly build up for me while i get on welding. So some familiar pictures

205 block this time tho

Managed to repair the grotty bit of the tub ready to fit hopefully this week if i have chance, busy looking at houses at the moment so not getting much time on the mk2

[13sport]

Bit more done this evening, got the nasty old tank well chopped out it had been a moisture trap over the years as there was a layer of fire glass over the top of it that formed half of the home made rear tubs when the x pack had been fitted.
forgot to get a pick of the hole but realised it was much easier to do this job before welding the tub in nice big hole to work through lol


Pic from through the filler neck i trimmed the old panel back to leave about half an inch left to plug the new panel onto and then i will only need a small skim of filler to finish the edge near the bootfloor and cover any grinding marks after the welds are cleaned up

Tub in now then repair the lower corner, probably only going use the bottom 2 inches of the repair panel and leave as much origional as possible

[13sport]

I really am a muppet sometimes, well most of the time

[south west restorations]

good to see more progress there m8.

[13sport]

Rear wheel arch ordered off ex pressed this morning so hopefully have it over the weekend. Went and took some measurements off a friends car thats still on good original arches to make sure i get them on in the correct position, infact i measured all 3 of his cars (yes he's a very lucky lad) and they were all exactly the same to the mm so i should be able to get them fitted good. Will have to let about half an inch into the quarter tho so thats where the rusty door skin comes in.

[13sport]

Arch arrived today, expensive but much better than magnum stuff.
Also managed to pick this up off bogg brothers today

for these


Should help to make the pinto go a bit better and i must say Dave Boggs a spot on chap and i will certainly be letting him set them up when the cars done.

[13sport]

Got stuck into this this afternoon after a million visitors this morning. Maged to get the tub welded in, the pics not the best but heres an idea.

Was a pain to get the tub and arch all set in the right place before welding but got there in the end and it measures perfect to the measurements i took off my mates cars. ive bonded the outer arch to the tub and held in place with mole grips until the bond goes off

Im planning on drilling through the wheel arch lip and bond in a couple of places after the bonds gone hard and then plug welding to the tub just for good measure. The panels was a brilliant fit well worth the money but postage was a tad pricey.

Just need to cut that old door skin up now and let the piece in at the top thats missing, didnt want to do it until the arch was on as there was more chance of the quarter distorting with the heat. As it stands at the mo its suprisingly straight not needing to much filler so il need to take my time welding the piece in.

[HarrierTony]

Nice work mate, keep it up, and keep the pics coming too