The Shed gets a nose job

As mentioned previously, repairs to the bodywork of The Shed had been started after it hit a Deer almost a year ago. The first job of the day was to re-connect completely the electrics which ran from one side of the car to the other behind the nose piece, having been partially cut when the old material was removed.

With the electrics re-connected and tied up out of the way, work started started with cleaning the area round the hole ready for welding and then welding in a couple of pieces of steel close to the headlights to give the shape of the nose, against which the main part could be formed. A piece of sheet steel was then held at the bottom, using three pair of mole grips, and carefully bent round to the shape of the remaining part of the nose and the new piece by the headlights. The steel was just tacked in place at first to allow me to get the shape of the nose and determine how much needed to be cut off. Once roughly trimmed down the weak welds were broken, followed by final trimming of the nose, then the piece was fully welded back in place.

It will need some filler put in to hide some of the welds and remove other imperfections, but for now it should do the job. Not too bad for an afternoons work, the leading edge of the nose is not as sharp as it should be, but it should do for now.

Next major job will be to re-constitute the drivers side wing, a few choices here. Either I replace the whole wing, get a arch repair panel or try to patch it together with numerous pieces of steel. At the moment my preferred plan is to get a repair panel, as it would be a lot easier to fit than a whole wing and would look better than anything I could make with bits of steel.