1975 Peugeot 304 S Cabriolet with hard and soft tops.

Well I didn't think it was going to be straightforward and it wasn't. Every time I put a couple of tacks on the offside (immediately cooled with the blow gun) the gap closed up too much. Nearside wasn't affected. Four times I had to cut the weld and start again and eventually ended up with the door gap wider than I would have liked but ok.

Need to try and get all the metal filings out of the outer sill before I close that. trial fit of the piece I cut out and no surprise it fitted ok.


Welding the bit I cut in the wrong place was easy as there was no movement there.


Drivers door. Not as good as I had it prior to welding but acceptable and much better than it was.


Passenger door. How good is that? It has taken me days and days to achieve that but what a difference from the way it was. Well pleased.


Lovely night so a well deserved (in my opinion) beer in the garden coming up.

That's a superb result, I'd be more than happy with that outcome too - a very well deserved beer indeed.

Now just consider, if you can tackle and solve that, everything else should be a breeze (but get some bracing fitted first! )

Got a bit more done today but slow progress with the tack and cool method especially having to move the welder from side to side.



Weather was horrendous today and while I am under cover I am essentially outside and soon had a river running through the "tent" until I felt it would be safer calling it a day. My feet were wet, power cables were getting wet and I was lying in a puddle. Better forecast for tomorrow.

Ray - You could certainly try improving the bumper using your proposed method - providing its not too badly sprained it should go - but sometimes there is too much spring in them and regardless of how much you try they just return to the deformed shape 

I love the "face" on these...not sure why exactly but they just look right!

I worked for a Peugeot dealer in their bodyshop for about 12 months in the early 80's - the panel gapping's on model range were all pretty wide but the oddest thing I came across was a newish 504 pick up that I put a front end on - no matter how I tried I couldn't get the hydraulic clutch to bleed - ended up bleeding it backwards - connected a small bore hose to one of the front brake calliper bleed nipples that I then connected to the clutch slave cylinder bleed nipple - then by pumping the brake pedal & opening / closing the calliper brake nipple forced the air back up into the clutch master cylinder - very odd but it worked 

Rear wheel arch time now I think although when the outer is cut off I will have to sort out the inner arch mess as that will give me better access. Advice required here Chris please.
I have repair panels for the rear corners from France as they have the bumper corner mounting holes which will (should) get me started alignment wise if I fit the bumper first.



I need to cut off the remaining section of the rear panel bib to get the cut in the correct place so will cut below the line initially then trim more precisely.



Then cut the main arch, again probably less than needed to give me some leeway. This is from a BMW 2002 and is slightly too wide but was thinking either cut a section out of the middle of it or use snips where I have marked the new panel and put it in the shrinker to pull the arch in. Second option might give me a lot to weld up??? (The full kit from France was too expensive and some time ago, just by chance, I noticed an advert for the BMW arch repair panel which said can also be used for Peugeot 304.)




No idea what I will find as there is a lot of filler in the wing and the inner lip is much wider than it should be. I will not be surprised it there are 3 panels here instead of 2.



Does that sound like a plan? Once that is cut off I will most likely have more questions. As always, thanks for your time. (Plenty more pics if you need them)

Thanks Chris.  I'll take some brave pills and have a go. One problem is I don't know the correct shape of the arch due to what someone has done previously. That was one reason for buying the small repair panel as that determines the rear section of the arch and  I suppose the end of the sill is where the lip on the arch start. I'll have a when I go out.

Bit quiet on the 304 progress because there has not been any. It is too bloody hot in the tented garage.
Measured the temperature of the bonnet today about half an hour after the sun was no longer on it and got this.



Then touched the probe (it's the tyre temp gauge I used when I was racing) against the inside of the tent and got this.



Just not possible to work in that.