Back to the Daily Grind

I have made significant progress on the vitara so I will congratulate myself know that nobody else will bother, ie 'er indoors. I have now managed to reconstruct the inner wheel arch at the rear drivers side of the car, trim the outer wheel arch panel to suit and weld the lot to the car. If only my welding was a little flatter then I would not have to spend so long grinding it back down flush afterwards.

This first picture shows the reconstructed inner arch and the outer arch trimmed ready for the outer panel. All areas were painted in my pet paint. Red Oxide.

The next two show the rear of the inner arch around the petrol filler area.

All the welds will have seam sealer brushed over them to smooth them off before underseal is applied. The next shot shows the outer arch finally welded to the car.

This panel was difficult to fit mainly because the area around the filler was not part of the panel so it needed to be trimmed around but leave enough metal to fold into the filler recess to create the factory look. To be fair it came out ok and should look fine once filled and painted.

As with the other side the rear of the sill had to be capped off. This side was less rusty than the passenger side so the repair panel was a little smaller, as shown.

This final picture shows the detailed trimming I had to do at the rear and also shows the row of plug welds I made to attach the inner to the outer arch. I hate welding upside down. Gravity has a nasty habbit of dropping hot weld splatter down your neck. I have perfected the self preservation of ear drums technique when welding in tight spaces and upside down. I wear ear defenders. Until you have experienced a lump of red hot metal inside your ear you have not fealt pain (or fear of going deaf).