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” a few more pics of progress from yesterday and today……the areas of repair are becoming less complicated!”
“Right hand lower front wing/sill and A panel support repaired; right hand rear wheelarch repaired. I still need to complete the wheelarch repair with a lower section that ties into the boot floor, but we have also made and fitted a new wheelarch lip which can’t be seen in the pics.”
Overall, the QP3 was pretty much the same car regardless of where it was delivered. Besides the obvious changes for specific markets (e.g. right hand drive in the UK, Australia, Japan, South Africa), there were also subtle differences between the US and EU market.
The US required ‘more bumper’ due to their safety regulations compared to the EU, resulting in bumpers that stick a bit out from the body front and rear. The US lights are 165mm x 100mm sealed beams as found in a wide range of US cars of the same era, while the Euro models used slightly larger Bosch and Marchal H2/H4 lights with replaceable bulbs.
US front end:
Euro front:
It may not be obvious from the pictures, but the Euro headlights are larger and with rounded edges. The bumper sits almost flush to the front of the car, whereas the US version sticks out a few inches in the front, and enough in the back to provide a convenient ledge to sit on.
Not a big deal, but one that subtly changes the overall “look” the car has and results in a different overall impression.
Which do you prefer, and why? Leave a comment and let me know!
Rumor has it that the communist government in Italy during the 70’s – 80’s made a deal with the USSR for steel to supply their automobile production, resulting in cars that rust more readily than their competitors. Hopefully any historians in the audience will be able to verify or refute the accuracy of the rumor, but as anyone who’s ever owned an Italian car knows, they rust like no others. I don’t even think that a Jag could rust faster, and that’s saying something.
Meaning that 33 years on, mother nature has had her say in the matter, and the results aren’t pretty. The expert’s assessment is that this is no big deal and pretty common and far from the worse they’ve seen, and I’m comforted by the fact that they know their way around a pair of tin snips and welding machines. Blindfolded.
E.g. “The car is pretty well as I expected, PLEASE don’t feel in any way downhearted at the seeming extent of the metal repair work………….this is very much the norm.”
“First few pics show the stripping completed (including the ‘detail’ stripping of the body suages, glass reveals, rain gutters and all of the other difficult areas).”
“As you can see I have begun the metalwork on the most complicated areas…….the lower front wing/sill structure and having cut away the corrosion on the left side we found the lower A panel support had rusted out also, so removed a larger section of the front wing to enable access to cut the rust out and repair properly. I have also drilled a hole in the support panel so that we can fully protect it with a cavity wax at the end of the job. Finally new sections made for the outer panelwork (sill and lower front wing) and welded in.
Next stage is to do the same on the right side.”
Excellent work. I’m looking forward to seeing how this continues.
Most of the body stripping went without incident and didn’t take long at all. Until the shop got to the front passenger door…
“We have come across an issue with the front right door……..it’s had some significant damage in the past and I wondered if it might be worth you asking Mr NNN what his plans are with the spare doors he has stored with me – the front right is straight and sound, though does require a small amount of welding to the outer skin (in rust terms it is much the same as yours); I’m not terribly happy with re-repairing your existing door as it has a considerable depth of filler (bondo) in it at the moment – see pics – and although we do use shaping filler I really don’t like using it in that sort of quantity. Let me know your thoughts.”
Thankfully, Mr. NNN was very generous and offered to sell me his door at a mutually agreeable price.
Thus the work continues.