Triumph Spitfire Paint #4 - More Interior Prep

With the interior prep, like the underneath, I'm concerned with doing all of the required hot work before I paint.  That way I don't burn any paint, if I can help it, that I'll have to go back a retouch. Of course, I keep finding missed spots underneath, so it may all be for naught anyway, but one can hope, right? To the video:

Therefore, this visit concentrated on finishing up said hotwork. I had essentially the same spots on both sides to do; namely cleaning up (and when I say cleaning up, I mean adding weld metal) some poor welds and finishing up ones that I skipped over. The focus was on the front top of the sills where they weld, horizontally, to the  A post, the transition pieces between the A post and the sill, and just general cleanup and attention everywhere else.

Passenger's side all cleaned up.

More of the same...but closer.

It wasn't really any more exciting than that. If I wasn't such a dork, you could have watched me do it in the video, but I knocked the camera and lost the shot.

I also closed up the seam at the back of the sill at the A post. You may remember that I did this forever-ago when I thought it was a good idea. I would not, however, recommend doing this until after the sill is installed as it allows for some flex when you're trying to get it all fitted up.

Seam closed.

With all of that welding done, I was on a roll, so I decided to address that rear wing bottom trim piece. Turns out these come cut wrong from whoever makes them (I think all of the usual suppliers provide the same part) and, well, I can't have that. The passenger's side was a bit "worse" than the driver's side, so I took that one on first.

My bright idea was to "put back" what should not have been cut off. I first needed some metal and to bend it around something that was thick to provide the space  to fit around the panel seams.

Metal partially bent around my old angle grinder wrench. Worked great!

The required gap achieved. Sorry for the blurriness.

With the donor piece now formed, it was time to cut it to fit what I needed. A quick paper template provided the correct sizing.

The cut-to-fit piece. Only about a half-inch long.

With that done, it was a simple matter of clamping it on and welding it to the existing trim piece.

Voila! I'll mention that big hole that you see right next to the finisher below.

I was really happy with how this worked out. For the other side, since there was very little room, I just added some weld metal and ground it down smooth to fit.  Rarely have repairs worked out so well for me, where it just worked from how I envisioned it to how finished up. Maybe my experience is starting to pay off!

That done, I cleaned up and called it a day. Doesn't seem like I did a whole lot, but it was a solid 6-7 hours of work. Both sides of the sills required about the same attention, and each wing had to come off, one at a time, all sucking up time.

I still have to contend with some holes that I have at both rear wing finishers and also up at the sills. These areas were originally brazed. I don't have the equipment to braze anything, so I'm not too sure what I'm going to do yet. I mention in the video that I'm going to leave it for seam sealer, but I'm not sure that's the best thing to do. Still thinking about it, but I'll figure it out on the next visit since it will be the last bit of hot work I need to do, if I do, before paint.