Cut, Hammer, Weld, Grind – Repeat!

The build up of the bodyshell would comprise two focus areas, addressing small repairs to the sections that had been retained and using new or good secondhand panels to join everything together.

The windscreen mounts in the front bulkhead were badly rotted and I was particularly proud of my replacement ‘inserts’ on both sides.

The battery plinth had rotted away years ago and had been crudely patched with a sheet of steel over the top – which had then also rotted. I has bought the full replacement section for the bulkhead, but decided that to fit that complete would be both very invasive, risking distortion and be very complicated, so I elected to cut out only the area I needed. I think the end result is pretty good and with battery in place, you won’t see the joins.

The front bulkhead sides each need rust repairs to their lower edges, again preserving as much of the original steel as possible – and avoiding the ribbed pressings which are harder to replicate.

I did have to replace nearside outer A-Post which was both rotted and crash damaged. However, I did manage to save the inner.

With all the ‘little’ jobs done, I began the building up the shell as a repeated series of dry runs using Cleco Pins, Molegrips, G-Clamps and anything else I could find. These dry runs were invaluable as they identified issues with poor alignment, missing brackets, etc. After each build I would marker up the affected area and write a numbered list, so nothing would be forgotten. Having resolved the identified issues, I would build up the shell again – only to identify further work required!

However, the lists got progressively shorter and I eventually decided it was time to commit and actually start welding.

I began by bolting the floors to the chassis and then mounted the front bulkhead and inner wheel tubs. This allowed me to hang the doors and from there I could fit the rear inner wings and tonneau panels. The petrol tank also went in as that acts as a good datum point for the panels that sit around it. The outer wings were fitted and everything shuffled around to get the lines right. Then everything was tack welded into place, before breaking it all down again to weld up fully.

The process I followed was outline in the Practical Classics guide to a TR6 rebuild and it seemed to work well.

This whole process took months and at times it felt that weeks had been spent to achieve very little. It was tempting to simply weld it up and adjust with a hammer at a later date, but that’s not the way I work.

Three years after collecting the remains of the bodyshell from the strippers, I now had a solid tub ready for paint.

After the usual cleaning and prepping, I started on the underside – etch primer, grey primer, stonechip in the wheel arches and the boot floor, then a second grey primer.

As the weather turned colder once more, I did at least have a painted body tub.