B9471122 rebirth

Update, I have sent the doner fenders to a panel shop to get 45 years of minor dents removed before rewelding them back on. Th chaps were amazed that they had to be welded on. That got me a little bit worried. The chap assured me they could do the work however there would be filler, if I wanted only metal, mortgage my house. :( We reached agreement, will wait the result. While waiting I have completly removed the black sound proofing stuff and today hit the underneath with colour. Hope to post piccies tomorrow. The only repair was a few edge seams folded in and the torn part of the rear right rail. Oh thanks to Jan Servaites I now have the genuine colour for midnight blue (its very DARK:eek:) I love it. Will keep trundling along, hope evry one has a great Xmas with family and we can forget about Tigers for one day.:D
 
I have spent some time refitting the replacement fenders to the car. I have been pushing and shoving to line up the rear upper section of the front fender to the upper valance. Especially difficult as the car is a Mk1 and the doner panels are from a alpine 5. Having some success knowing I will have to build a new rounded corner for the bonnet (hood).:)
 
Hi all, have done the major work on the body, still have the door to change from a straight to curved corner, similar with the LAT bonnet. getting closer to paint. Cheers Steven
 
The challenge

steven said:
Hi all, have done the major work on the body, still have the door to change from a straight to curved corner, similar with the LAT bonnet. getting closer to paint. Cheers Steven
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Don't forget to back off and take the long view of those panels once in a while. And accept some compliments for sticking with it all . . . . .
 
Need a bit of advise or persuasion. After replacing the right front & rear fenders, have now started on the front left. It has been repaired in the past with the front half welded to the rear half directly above the wheel curve. When they did that, they bent the inner rear section that attaches with sealent to the fender inwards, why I do not know, if left that way all road crud can pass into the rear sealed section and stay (rust conditions).
They also somehow bent almost the entire length of the fender where it meets the bonnet opening, down into long bend. This required lots of bog to regain the correct curve. that I have removed. As well it has 2 dents around the wheel curve.

So, my question, I have another front fender in the loft of my shed. Do I bring it down, seperate it from the metal it arrived with and then remove the left front fender from the tiger complete with bends and bog, restore the rear sections that have been bent backwards and go thru the involved process of refixing the replacement fender?

Or do I leave the existing fender, when it goes to the paint shop, pay the extra for experts to restore the fender? maybe with more bog.:confused:
 
Body Mud

If good metal is available, use it and follow the factory seaming. Otherwise you are cheating your project. I've never been fond of body mud either. Rust naturally continues under it and will gleefully eat away. We insist on our body guys & gals shaping the metal until only a vinyl build coating is needed for final block sanding. Keep at it . . . . .
 
0neoffive said:
If good metal is available, use it and follow the factory seaming. Otherwise you are cheating your project. I've never been fond of body mud either. Rust naturally continues under it and will gleefully eat away. We insist on our body guys & gals shaping the metal until only a vinyl build coating is needed for final block sanding. Keep at it . . . . .
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The way to stop the rust from forming under any filler is to epoxy prime the bare metal first. If you don't, it will rust. Keep the filler thin.

edit: I have changed my reply from etch primer to epoxy as 65beam has stated. He jogged my memory of what my panel man has done.
 
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rebirth

after being taken back to bare metal,my cars were scrubbed down using scuff pads with soap and water to remove dirt ,etc. then they were coated with red epoxy primer. the body work was done over that. the epoxy was used as a sealer before final primer coats. anyone that has seen the wife's series 5 has seen how the finish has lasted since 1995. works real good! one suggestion is to remove all of the original lead filler in the seams, especially in the seams near the trunk hinges. it tends to crack and shows thru the paint plus we have found rust under the lead. the seams should be welded solid and ground down.
 
Thanks for the advise, because today was such a lovley day, fired up the Alpine (with the Holbay engine). It takes a few minutes for the 2 webbers to wake up. The following hours were spent with excellent company on a 200 Km ride. We visited a chap who has raced cars since the 50's, still building 1300CC 4 cylinder race cars with huge blowers turning out 300HP in a car that weighs 700KG. Wow, and the chap is 75 and still racing.
Regarding my build, risked life and limb pulling the left fender down from the roof today, had a brain wave, the doner parts have the front inner panel as well. :D So I can find all the spot welds attaching the vertical inner front guard to the curved inner guard and seperate it. :D

Yippe, will have a very good Tiger body done all by me.
 
65beam said:
one suggestion is to remove all of the original lead filler in the seams
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How do you accomplish that lead removal? Is heat and scraping enough, or in the end do you need heat and some lead-absorbing fabric or other material to draw out the final bits?
 
Wilbur Bud said:
How do you accomplish that lead removal? Is heat and scraping enough, or in the end do you need heat and some lead-absorbing fabric or other material to draw out the final bits?
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I found that heat will melt the lead and it will seek the lowest point. eg, splash on your floor. I just used a wire brush to make sure all lead wqas removed. Regarding the comment about removing lead because it cracks, I heard exactly the opposite from many sources, The plastic filler used nowdays is very likley to crack, the lead system is far superior and does not show cracks.

About to do another front fender and this one will have the verticle piece between the fender and the inner fender replaced as well, that will fix all the bad repair in the past. More spot welds to remove, I am getting better at it.:D
 
Steven
The lead does tend to crack at the top of the rear wing where it is spot welded to the soft top panel due to the flexing of the bodyshell. Many people seam weld this joint and lead back over it which sorts the proplem.
 
Well, as we have wonderfull autum weather, 16C morning and 25C daytime, its perfect weather to carve up the Tiger some more. I am very happy with the rebuild of the right side, all parts replaced, both fenders and door. As they came from a doner Alpine V it has taken some work to change the corners to rounded ones. I have now removed the left front guard (fender) because it had been repaired before with lots of bog and left the rear internal parts bent inwards, allowing all road grime to enter and RUST.

The replacement fender has been removed from its confines with the cut up car supplied with the Tiger. While I was removing the damaged one and getting ready for the replacement, I treated the area that was never painted and acid treated it and then red oxide primed it, it will never be corroded.

Today I fitted the replacement fender, it is a bit of work when the V fender has different connection to the top however I and my cutter managed.

It is now clamped and waiting for welding, not tomorrow, its Sunday here and one of my grandsons is being baptised. :D
 
Quick update, left fender welded and joint filler started. I say started because its winter here and I did not seal the filler container well enough, had to scrap out the weld cover as well. OK, no worry, found a 6 year old container from my Alpine build, smooth as, and did the job. Will be posting update images soon.
Quick comment, I am not a purest, however I appreciate a well built/restored car. This Tiger will have Alpine front and rear fenders right side, Alpine door right side. Alpine front fender left side.

So, that leaves the left rear fender and the left door with the holes for the side stripes. No where else.

Thinking maybe to have a sleeper Tiger without side strips or do I take the risk of drilling the numerious mounting holes for the bright trim?
 
steven said:
Quick update, left fender welded and joint filler started. I say started because its winter here and I did not seal the filler container well enough, had to scrap out the weld cover as well. OK, no worry, found a 6 year old container from my Alpine build, smooth as, and did the job. Will be posting update images soon.
Quick comment, I am not a purest, however I appreciate a well built/restored car. This Tiger will have Alpine front and rear fenders right side, Alpine door right side. Alpine front fender left side.

So, that leaves the left rear fender and the left door with the holes for the side stripes. No where else.

Thinking maybe to have a sleeper Tiger without side strips or do I take the risk of drilling the numerious mounting holes for the bright trim?
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Do the holes.. set up a string line from the front headlight area to the rear badge. Unless its a MKIi you should be striped.. my MKIA doesnt have the stripes (or scripts on it) I am however going to put them on.. and thats on nice shiney finished paint i will be drilling.. and worse.. into weld.. a tiger needs its stripes! :D
 
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