I haven't been keeping track, but I thought California was having their worst drought in recorded history ???
Is this in the South only ?

 

Here are the pics of most of the body now in primer, and the air vent cut outs in the wheel wells.

Primaz had done the same thing, but I was going to put vent covers on them to make them look better, but after some discussion with Primaz I have taken his advice and left the grill covers off as they would reduce the airflow a lot and defeat their purpose.

I wanted to keep as much wheel splash out of the engine bay as possible, which was the other purpose of my grill idea, so I have ended up adding deflectors to help this but not reduce air flow.

The hole you can see above the rear wheel arch was rust which I had cut out and will deal with this when I fit the rear arches.

Repair panels arrived today, so I have started fabricating the rear arches which I will weld in. More on this in another post.

 

Daimler Mk2 or anyone else who has welded in the rear arches, how do you deal with the area behind the door where the Zeus fasteners usually fix the spats ?

I was going to spot weld this and leave the edge as if it was still removable so to speak, and fit the zeus fasteners just for looks, but I'm not sure that's the best way to go, any ideas ?

 

I think we are over the drought and we have had rain for most of the last two weeks. The local reservoirs are full and driving in the rain is a drag, been driving extra careful as my 3.8s is a daily driver which shocks most people.


Jon, great work on the body. I am not familiar but to me I think if you go thru the extra work to weld them it would be good to hide all of the old style so that the fenders look part of the car with no seams, etc. Do those fenders have a inside lip? I just mention that as in my other cars, Datsun Z cars, a good thing to do is to roll the fender lips so that the inside fender has no lip and is smooth; that will give you more tire clearance. On my 3.8s we used a frame puller to give a slight 1/2" bow to the rear fenders which you cannot see just to ensure there were no tire rubbing issues. We had to use a frame puller as the metal on the 3.8s is like a tank.

 

Thanks Alan,

I think you are right re welding them in, it's not about the work it's more to make sure it looks right, I will fully weld where the arch meets the fender with no seam showing, it is behind the door back edge where the spat would fit, I think I will probably now weld that too.

The rolled edge rolls out first so the inner edge does not reduce tire size, I have a full set of wires already, they are not perfect, but I will see how they clean up, if I end up replacing them I will go with a wider wire wheel, but I am going more stock look so I don't think I will have any issues.

 

FYI, you can go traditional look yet get wider custom offset wire wheels. On my 3.8s I am running 17" x 8.5" wheels with 245 40 series tires on all four corners. I am sure you could fit 225 wide tires with no issues with the right offset wheels.

 

Thanks Alan, when it comes to wheel choice you are absolutely top of my list of go to guys, I will definitely be discussing this issue with you in more detail at that time, offsets are a dark art to me, I'm sure it's straight forward once you know what you do.

many thanks
Jon

 

TilleyJon,
Tell us you've cracked the code and not guessing. So Primaz is Alan? Doug said one day he was going to find out.

 

Darn it, is his cover blown, now I will have to kill you !!!!! I think that was some sort of quote from a film or something ?

SORRY Primaz

 

Got a little more done on the rear arches, I wasn't happy with the shape of the front arch panels as they have too big a diameter, and I wanted to emulate the sports spat look.

So using a fiberglass spat I had bought before, I cut slits in the new panel so I could open them up and match the curve to the sports spat, I left tabs on the panels which I had cut down from the original, I could then tack weld tabs on these to hold the shape.

I then used the off-cut from the panel and did the same with this to make up a reinforcing piece, shaping this to the existing arch, I then spot welded this to the back of the new arch panel and then shaped the whole to match the existing arch.

I need to hang the rear doors to mark the shut line, I can't transfer this accurately enough from the spat, so in the meantime I have started on the other side so that both arches are ready to mark the shut lines before I finish the last of the fabrication and weld them in place.

 

why did you not just buy the metal sports arch and weld it in,

 

Very good question, stupidity is probably the best answer, you kindly suggested that you had used front arch repair sections for your rear arches, bingo I thought great idea ! So I ordered them immediately, I hadn't realized that they are a different shape !

I wanted the keep the same shape as the sports spat, so in hindsight I should have got the metal sports spat, would have saved a bunch of work, also bear in mind I ordered some fiberglass spats months ago and hated them as they didn't fit perfectly, I would also have saved money in the long run !

So I think stupidity is definitely the best answer

 

I did the same as you got the GRP ones CRAP ,
just wanted mine to look same front and back,
I have got some rear spots spats in steel, and don't look same as front arch that's why I used front repair panels,
you look to be doing a good job anyway,

 

Aren't the rear sport spats a lot more expensive than the front wheel arch repair panel? Seems like an affordable way to get the same effect.
Thanks for all the discussion and advice- I have been learning a lot!

 

Thank you.

I guess this is the biggest mistake so far, so it's just frustrating.

Now you have me thinking if I'm making a mistake not having them the same as the front, but I've butchered the repair panels so I will stick with it, I think it will look great, fingers crossed.

When I get the axles back on I will see if I'm happy with my decision, I can always cut they out and start again.

The worst part is getting the shut line right where the arch meets the door, I will have to swing the doors back on the car to check this before I finish fabricating and weld them in, I have templated the door, but something doesn't look quite right !


The repair panels are a lot cheaper, but with all the extra work I'm not sure it was really that much cheaper, mind you if the metal spats fit as well as the GRP ones then it would be a pain to get them to fit properly !

 

the metal ones are a nice bit of kit,and fit like a spat,
but don't look the same as the front.

 

Thanks ! That makes my decision more stupid ! It was the fit of the GRP ones that made me decide definitely not to spend the extra on the metal spats as I thought the fit wouldn't be great.

Hey ho, lesson learned, I should have asked on here earlier, good info for others. Don't buy GRP spats, get the metal sports spats.

 

Got one of the arches welded in this evening, the other one is not far off ready to go in.

I still have a bit of welding and cleaning to do, and have a couple of low spots to dolly / pull out, nothing a bit of filler wouldn't fix, but I prefer not to use filler unless it impossible to dress the joint.

So far I have managed to use less than a small handful of filler on the whole car, I leaded in the sidelight and the poor repair that someone had done on the right front wheel arch, it was my first attempt at lead loading, so I was quite pleased with the result.

 

Very impressive work Jon. One of these days I should learn how to weld. You have expressed some concerns about mucking around with the spats/arches, but you can always fabricate some new ones if you don't like these

 

Jon, I finally read your thread start to finish - looks like you've made a lot of progress in a very short time. You are a brave soul for tackling all of that rust repair - very nice work.

I hear your frustration with the rear wheel arches. If it's any consolation I don't think there's an easy fix. The after market Coombs spats are stupid expensive and the mounting hardware interferes with tire clearance if you want to go big. Cutting down the originals is a lot of work deconstructing the mounting brackets and rolling the beads. The front repair arches still look like the path of least resistance - not certain I understand the reason for altering the radius - assume you wanted a tighter look at the rear?

I notice you plated over the spat mounting surface which is inside the shut face of the door but outside the weather seal. I know I don't have to say but make sure you've got this welded up tight so no water can intrude. For some reason I didn't weld up the spat fastener holes since I have some rubber plugs that fit - now thinking that might have been a mistake (one of too many to count). The area between the bead area and the tub is also a little tricky. I welded and then covered with seam sealer before painting and undercoating - not sure if there's a better approach.

A big thanks to you and Clyde for finally unmasking the Z man - who would have guessed ALAN! I had him pegged for a John or a Paul for sure, so this is going to take some getting used to. Sure as hell beats calling him Primaz though.