Hi,

I've just fixed up the main chassis member whilst progressing with my hell-hole repairs. Next I'm going to weld in a new RD inner wheel house panel in place where the PO had done some questionable 'repairs'.



You can see in the top picture the rear trunk lid hinge bracket is an absolute mess - basically welds on top of welds on top of welds... So this whole panel needs to be cut out as high as possible and replaced. I've cut off a large section of the rear wing (fender) to access this whole area too. (Middle Pic).



Bottom pic shows the supports I have had in place whilst doing these repairs under the car. I also have bracing where the doors go - fixed between the seat belt mount and upper door hinge.



So the question is...when the upper body is cut so thin (behind the sail panel - shown by the green circle in the pic)) do I need to worry about it flexing or buckling at this point?..do I need to brace this area or will the stiffness of the main chassis keep it all in place?

Cheers, Ollie.

Don't think you need to brace it, as the longitudinal and sail panel provide the bulk of the strength there. If those are intact, you should be fine.

With that in mind though, weld slowly and cool the metal down in between runs. The heat generated is more likely to shrink the metal than the metal deforming from weight or stresses alone. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice...I'll get on it!

Keeping the metal cool is key. When I was welding in larger panels, I would cool with compressed air after every 1" of weld bead or so and alternate which area of the panel I was welding.

Lookin good Ollie - keep on rollin!

Cheers Bob! I've cut out the window to fit the panel into now - nasty nasty job grinding out the trunk lid hinge - will post pics later.

Yep, I've been using the compressed air trick after following your thread!..it worked well when patching up the Longs.

Thanks..