1975 Peugeot 304 S Cabriolet with hard and soft tops.

I need to get the car back up on the spit as doing this on the ground is wrecking my knees. I am in constant pain especially on the inner side of my right knee and going up stairs is now difficult. So a bit of a delay while I take off the doors, bonnet, front wings and the front and rear suspension to make the shell light enough. (No idea where I am going to store them) Will make up better bracing this time after the last disaster.

Ray - Don't know if you use this trick or not but once you have dressed the welds back I would always recommend placing a strong light / torch immediately behind the weld if possible - this will highlight any pinholes in the weld seam / weld area 

Slow going this but getting there. It's one thing being told how to do something or watching a YouTube video of it being done and another thing altogether trying to do it yourself. Front section of the repair arch cut, black paint sprayed onto the car to show the scribe line clearly and the wing then cut for a butt joint.



I left a small tab for the Cleko clip to help the panel in place until I got a tack weld on the bottom. The arch was then eased out and the tab cut off. This worked well. Pity I forgot to do this on the rear section as that was a pain to hold in place



The corner of the rear panel which holds the bumper welded on and the next section roughed up and welded on.



About an inch cut out of the repair arch (it's from a different car) and the shrinker used to pull it in at the bottom and welded in.





Spot welded all the way round, cooling with the air gun as I went then filled in between the welds a bit at a time. Took ages and i still got distortion.



Border line too hot in the tent today but got to get on. No idea how I am going to do the inner arch so it mates up to the outer but can turn the car upside down and make it sort of easier. More later. Much later ha ha.

Easier ha ha. If only. Yes that is the first wheel arch I have done and a little disappointed with the distortion considering the time I took doing it and constantly cooling the weld but overall especially considering it was an arch from a different model I am happy enough.

Question time now though.  In parts, especially the front section of the arch the weld is lower then the surrounding panels such that when I start to grind it down I touch the body before the weld is dressed back. I imagine it is ok to leave this as it is as it will be stronger and just fill over the top? There is no access behind it.

Other issue is a panel I made is bowed out somewhat and pretty sure I can't knock it back so should I use a 1mm? slitting disc to cut a slot in it and tap it in then weld or:
I watched a YouTube video a few nights ago (Trev's Blog) where he shrank a panel by heating it with a blow torch and knocking the hot spot in with the point of a hammer (is it called a pick?)

Ray - Either of the 2 methods that you outlined above would work 

Just caught up on this - great work and progress. Looks like you have taken on a bit of a project. Be worth it in the end.

Keep going it is looking great the other side will be easier cut and paste

Another close on 7 hours done today and as usual not a lot to show for it. The little rust hole I found yesterday became somewhat bigger before it got better.



Repair panel made up using the shrinker to get the curve.



Welded in along with some more for the end of the sill and I took the opportunity of drilling a hole of the appropriate size for the grommets I have to allow for wax injection later.



Another bit of inner arch repair welded in.



Just one more piece of inner arch to to finish shaping on Monday (the black bit you can see which is lying loose at present) and then that is that part done other than lots of dressing back of the welds.

Carrying on from yesterday with the mess that was the inner wing / bump stop. Absolute torture but got it acceptable in the end although not sure what shape it was meant to be as there was nothing to compare it with. Got the other side to look forward to but actually rather pleased with the results of the last 2 days.
The metal on the car is weird stuff. Many times I have it clean and shiny with a good ground but instead of a nice crackling weld I get a sort of hissing fizzle and a weld that looks very porous.





Also patched the hole in the boot which I had left as it was handy for access to the inner wing and fuel filler areas which made that easier. Still need a little more welding to tidy it up in places but essentially it is done.