Triumph Spitfire Body Repair #38 - Inner Wheel Well (or Arch)

Better late than never, I suppose...

I continued with the boot area repairs, moving out a bit this time to the inner wheel arch. This is going to be a bit more complex of a repair as the fender flare is damaged as well as the inner wheel arch itself. And, they both come down to meet the lower boot area (strengthener that I replaced) and the lower wing itself.

"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." I've found that if I  look at these more complicate repairs in composite parts, stitching them all together at some point (like with the boot floor patch), I tend to get a better product than if I try one huge patch at once.

Cancer removed trying to show the intersection of the 4 (more?) metal pieces as the bottom of the wing stitches together.

That was the task, which I was not able to finish in this visit, but which I made good progress on. I had previously cut the similar area of the black car away before I realized how bad the damage to Dorothy was. In those pieces, I had the very bottom of the inner wheel arch, or at least what wasn't rusted away on the black car.

What I ended up using from the black car.

Same area, but from inside the wheel arch. Primed here, though, so time passed.

Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough to complete the repair down to the bottom of the strengthener, but it was pretty close.

Hard to tell, but there is about a 1/2" gap between the gray primer and the black lower wing portion.

In parallel with this, I was building a new inner wheel arch, which turned out to be rather easy. I just cut away the old metal and used it as a patter for the new. I will cut the bottom of the patch to fit as I bring the bottom all together.

Showing cut-away of both the wing and the outer wheel arch.

Very rough fit of the inner wheel arch patch...very rough.

Luckily, the outer fender flare from the black car in this area appears to be in fine shape. I cut that out this afternoon (12/1) as a matter of fact and it's in the back of my car awaiting transportation and transplant!

Rough fit of lower wing repair patch.

I hope to get over there for a few hours this weekend, but lots of basketball and winter soccer make it tough (the kids, not me). Calculus isn't much fun, either. But, I get over there when I can and get done what I can in the time that I have. Not a perfect situation, but it's a hobby after all. Until next time...