L322 Golden Girl's wheel arch job

So the Golden Girl was showing a few little bubbles on the outside rear arches, and I mean little, none bigger than a 50p piece. By a few I mean maybe half a dozen or so.
Still, being a bit precious about her I decided to pre-empt some of the horrors we have seen, and get the rear arches done, before it was actually needed. What a conscientous owner I am
The guy who operated on her, took some photos!



This is the story so far. More to follow

One thing to note: I bought the arches and inner sills, rather than have them fabricated by the body shop. What he told me, and I think at least one of the photos show, this still left a gap, where he had to make a piece to fit.
The last photo is of my door handle. He very kindly did this for me. As he started to rub the Golden Girl down the paint just flaked off. The original owner must have had reason to have this touched up previously.

kermit_rr said:

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Yep. I wholly concur

Forgot to add, ' check your jacking points boys and girls. Really check them'.

Looks like you made the right move there in getting it done, if left it could of been a whole new ball game

brianp38dse said:

Looks like you made the right move there in getting it done, if left it could of been a whole new ball game

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Yep. It shows that just because all looks good, things may not be as it seems. I wish I had taken some pics of the 'bubbles'. When the taxi driver came to pick me up, from the body shop, he asked what was being done. I showed him the bubbles and he thought I was mad getting arches replaced , as in his words " you can't even see those". He is a former L322 owner, now has a Disco.
So don't be fooled folks by how good these might look on the outside. Mine was one of the best I and others have seen. I got compliments on her every time we went out. Eapecially when I told her age. If you have an older one, that hasn't been done, look closer!

Reminds me of when I had my Disco

I have learnt over years welding up motors, what you see is only a quarter of what lays beneath

An interesting series of photos.
I take it he's given the cavities a good coating of cavity wax?

brianp38dse said:

I have learnt over years welding up motors, what you see is only a quarter of what lays beneath

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Amazing what you find when you start poking at rusty bits.
Spent a day with the mig on the n/s sill of my Classic a couple of weeks ago.
Which started when I noticed a small hole about 1/4" across during my pre-MOT inspection.
Just glad the weather was good as I have to do it on the drive.
Sailed through the MOT.

Ratae said:

An interesting series of photos.
I take it he's given the cavities a good coating of cavity wax?


Amazing what you find when you start poking at rusty bits.
Spent a day with the mig on the n/s sill of my Classic a couple of weeks ago.
Which started when I noticed a small hole about 1/4" across during my pre-MOT inspection.
Just glad the weather was good as I have to do it on the drive.
Sailed through the MOT.

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Its great fun keeping cutting back till you find good metal to weld too.
its one of those, well i cant leave it like that i dont want to have to do it again in a couple of years jobs

brianp38dse said:

Its great fun keeping cutting back till you find good metal to weld too.
its one of those, well i cant leave it like that i dont want to have to do it again in a couple of years jobs

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Angle grinder with 1mm discs for most of the cutting back - and cutting out the new metal from sheet steel.

Dremel with flexi extension and the small reinforced discs for the difficult to get at and fiddly bits.
I tried it when I did the rear sill body mount on the other side a couple of years ago.
You do go through a few discs but I find myself using it more & more due to the controllability and precision.

Power file to clean up the surface pre-welding (much better than a wire brush on the angle grinder) and dress the welds afterwards where I can't get the grinder in.

brianp38dse said:

I have learnt over years welding up motors, what you see is only a quarter of what lays beneath

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This wasn't even a quarter. All the bubbles could , together, have fitted on a £5 , with space to spare. The inner edge was hardly noticeable. Just a few little mm bits of 'rust'.
It was only because I had seen some absolute horrors that I decided to do her. So glad I did.

Ratae said:

An interesting series of photos.
I take it he's given the cavities a good coating of cavity wax?


Amazing what you find when you start poking at rusty bits.
Spent a day with the mig on the n/s sill of my Classic a couple of weeks ago.
Which started when I noticed a small hole about 1/4" across during my pre-MOT inspection.
Just glad the weather was good as I have to do it on the drive.
Sailed through the MOT.

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He's been very thorough
Addit: He is a bit of a perfectionist and said once he,started he would find other little bits, (like the handle) but when do you stop? He was pointing out a 1mm bit and saying he would love to do it, but it would be a full bumper job.
I got him to do the headlamp wipers this time. They looked awful with the silver paint flaking. They look good now. It's p'ing with rain , so will take photos when dry
At some point, in the future she will go for a full respray but not yet.

Whoa..

Reminds me of my old Classic!!

Henry_b said:

Whoa..

Reminds me of my old Classic!!

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At least a Classic is still worth something after the work.

Headlamp wipers

I dread to think what we would find under Otto's blemishes then. Something for another year, once we have him running and MOT'd again so we can enjoy him for a bit.

Scotiawhiskers said:

I dread to think what we would find under Otto's blemishes then. Something for another year, once we have him running and MOT'd again so we can enjoy him for a bit.

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Otto is a P38? I think they fare better. Not sure though. @RangeRoller dt , @Henry_b et al

Yes, P38 4.0. Heading towards reassembly after head gaskets. Big pot of copper grease on standby. If I have to go in there again I want stuff to move when it should...