An Audi, and a Vauxhall

Keep digging, there's a good car underneath!

For a change I figured I'd sort out the back panel ready to go on. Those who read the first page know I bought a back panel off eBay with a bit missing, and need to join on a spare top section that I already had. For some reason, the HC estate back panel is made in two pieces, with the top section (the light apertures and boot flange) spot welded to the lower valance section. Saloon and coupe back panels are pressed in a single piece. Unfortunately my spare top section wasn't removed by drilling out spot welds as it should have been, but was cut off above the join. The first step therefore was to weld a ~20mm strip to the bottom edge to allow it to be plug-welded in place. This was done and, after the welds were ground down, a short step joggled into it to match the other side.

When I came to offer it up and measure various parts, it turned out that the distance from the light aperture to the "hump" at the top of the valance was much shorter on the untouched side than it could be on my repaired side, by about 3mm. Turns out I had the same problem (though not as bad) with this back panel as I did with the one on my previous Sportshatch job - the two sections had been spot-welded together in the wrong place. Now, you may be thinking that 3mm on a seventies Vauxhall is no big deal, but if you look at this atrocious photo:



you'll see that in the top one, with the bad back panel, if I line up the pressing so that the light aperture joins the corner of the quarter panel, then the hump at the top of the valance (in the yellow ellipse) doesn't match. This also means that the bottom edge of the valance won't be in the right place to join the inner valance. Compare that to the lower part with a good back panel, where both sections line up correctly.

Only thing for it, then, was to drill out the spot welds and separate the top and bottom half. I've now done that, welded the two upper halves together, and when I've ground the welds down I'll weld the top and bottom together again. This adds further support to the argument that the reason NOS panels are still around is because they're panels that were ordered when the cars were newer, didn't fit properly, and were put on one side and a replacement sourced. Then, for some reason, they've sat around instead of being sent back to the factory.

We used to find a lot of the old Vauxhall panels werent brilliant, replacement HB Viva front wings are all wrinkly if you look down them which i guess was down to worn tooling

Someone did tell me all the poorly pressed panels were sent out to the dealers to sell on rather than used on production, how true that was I dont know!

Epic! you could do with a better work light though!

Must be nice to be making some progress on it though 

Any addition of solid metal is a result/progress in my book!

Ive never worked out what that little panel actually achieved, guess it had a purpose?!

I finally fixed the front section of the drivers floorpan in place last weekend, so that's all that corner done now, unless you count a little bit where I cut it too short. Haven't decided yet whether to try to weld a piece in, or just use a slightly larger blob of mastic to close it off.



Yesterday I spent a bit of time making and fitting about 2/3 of the inner wheelarch, another job that needs to be done in order for the rear quarter to fit. This afternoon I spent a bit less time cutting it all off again, as it was holding the quarter a bit low. Grr.

I've sold quite a few of my floors. I'd like to get them better, but they go in OK with a bit of pushing. This is the first time I've fitted one myself, though, as I hadn't got the bead roller when I did my last hatch. I was quite relieved that things lined up properly.