Despite it being a cold wet winter some work did take place as we took over half of our garage and went to town on things like the wings. The poor old car suffered under a cover but came through very well in the end. Soon (when the builders come and do our drive) it will be moved into the other half of the garage, safe and sound.

This month we have mostly been restoring the wings. When it arrived, we noticed the car had a slightly swollen look on the passenger side.

When the filler was taken taken off both wings the reason was revealed. The swollen one had been repaired in the past, rather crudely, by gas and heavy arc welding that resulted in the normal seam joint disappearing. This welding was then hammered down taking the sides out enough to give the bug eyed look.

The good thing is that quite a lot of original, if distorted, metal still exists.

On the driver's side the rust bug had been at work and a lot of cosmetic surgery was needed to get it into shape and back to original strength.  I had to rebuild the lamp ring and the indicator area completely to do this. 

This was my first attempt at panel beating and was pleased with the result. All I can say is don't be afraid to give it a go. The remaining  gaps were then lead filled and roughly filed down to shape. Again, give it a go and don't be afraid - it is not difficult to do and 100% better than filler. Just watch the health precautions needed when working with lead. The flange to support the front valence has yet to be added.

There is a photo montage of the restoration available here.

I recently took a week off work and attacked the passenger side of the car to cut out and replace the usual rust areas. The picture shows progress to date before and after for comparison. Note that nothing is yet welded, just held in place with screws. It's a good idea not to weld until you are sure that everything is in the right place. I have already had to move things due to the fitting of something else. The cosmetic impact alone is remarkable and I now get strangers walking by, stopping and asking about the car, whereas before they just saw an old wreck.

Before:

After:

I will do a step by step photo montage of the driver's side reconstruction soon.