Project Pickle - finishing off the body work on the outside: rust (part 7.4)

 One probably unexpected similarity of traversing the Atlantic ocean and welding in the rear wheel arches after someone else has already "attempted" to fix them before you is that you have to traverse a featureless void filled with disappointment... No seriously though there wasn't much left that could give guidance aside from a bit of a reinforcement rib on the B-pillar and a rough idea where the arse-end of the car is. 

As I don't have a sheetmetal nibbler, I had to break down the outline down into straight lines.

Also as I am only blessed with two appendages for holding stuff in place AND welding, I resorted to using sheet metal screws to pin the repair panel in place...

... cut out a section ...

... and then weld it in.

Whilst the sheetmetal distorted quite a bit (it would have helped to have some structure on the inside), the result is rather acceptable, if I may say so.

Same story, other side.

With the wheel arches sorted the front wells were next and let's just say, I learned that you shouldn't cut them before the floorpans are securely in place. 

Or you end up with a lot of extra work on your hands.

Luckily on the passenger side I had refrained from "fitting" them up previous to everything being in place, which made it a lot easier - aside from going back and forth about fifteen times to make it fit nicely. (Which is sort of a theme here - the actual welding takes some time (fair enough), but making the panels line up decently easily eats up the whole morning compared to what feels like twenty minutes of actual welding.)

And then there was this last patch-piece to complete the welding on the outside of the body. 

So it took me from February 28th to August 1st roughly using one to one and a half days per week to finish the tin work (without rework/cleanup), which equates to around 200 to 300hrs for this part of the repair work alone. Let's just call this a financial desaster and move on to the inner wheel houses, boot floor and the other misc. stuff that still needs to be addressed. 😉 Might be a while though.