As you might have come to expect as a faithful reader of this blog, I had to try again after messing up my first attempt at the license plate panel. What you see above is the sorta-finished second item.
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I got the panel for below the rear bumper cut out and the wire bead bent to shape. 3/16″ steel doesn’t really want to bend that easily and I’m guessing symmetry isn’t going to be this panel’s strong suit…
Sorry for the lack of activity here at Rusty Heaps, but it’s been One of Those Years. In any case, I did finally get the second door skinned, so I’m running out of excuses for not tackling the front fender on the passenger side. Aside from a lack of funds, anyway.
Many many moons ago, my buddy Paul gave me this gearbox in exchange for some help on his Mark II (to be clear, he’s an innocent party here). That’s a genuine XJ6 gearbox, and I was going to use it as the centerpiece to convert my own car to a manual. But, and this is what life is now like for me (alas, alack, etc.), BAC Rusty (who sold it to Paul) had created a special lightweight version which might just be too hot for this car.
I have one door done! I am excite, as the kids say, mainly because it’s another thing actually done. Note if you’re really going to do door skins, go read Ron Garner’s Mad About Morgans posts on the subject–he has genuine wisdom to pass along, unlike yrs trly. I’d guess the metal part of the door took about 20 hours of my time; it will be interesting to see if the other door goes quicker. I doubt it.
I have the fender on the driver’s side for a test fit and filling. It needs some adjustment at the very tail end, and it came pre-dinged and whatnot. I had hoped to sand it off the car, but will maybe set up a fan and try to blow the dust outside. We’ll see if that works.
The tub is skinned–doors are next, and then fitting the rear fenders. I’ve put a couple of coats of primer on the work so far to see where I’m at. It’s also time for a “jeebus there is a lot of dust” cleanup of the car and shop.
But we knew that. I have put on and sanded back off a gallon of filler on my new steel panels–I (finally!) was able to get some primer on one tonight. The filler isn’t too thick, but that beaded spare opening really pays havoc with keeping the panel flat.
Not mine, obviously, that’s a lost cause.
I started the quarter panel on the driver’s side…I still have to dress the fold-overs a bit more, properly cut around the door catch and guide, and decide how to fold the very tail end. It’s a lot tougher than it looks to get nice folds, and this panel has a lot of tool marks on the flanges (which will be hidden, but still feels a bit blah).
Update: Made an extension for the back, see bottom of post.
I had the rear deck panel pretty nicely completed…until I looked at pictures of a few other cars and thought “hm, the vertical bit at the rear of the panel looks a lot narrower on those cars. Hm.”
