Headlights and front indicator area bodywork.

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Some of the first pictures I took of this part of the project. There was something not quite right about how the headlights sat in position and not surprisingly were held in by a fair amount of sticky blue putty-type stuff. Someone had made a small attempt at using some tin-plate to provide something to screw into but in reality what this needed was a full reconstruction. Pretty scary when I think back to those days. The green circles are where I am considering the new mounting plates need to be positioned.

And you get scary pictures from the inside too. I had obviously started to get rid of the underseal before I thought about taking pictures here. Little did I know the extent to which this job was going to run. You don't have much to work with here (for original alignment) when it's so far gone. I would recommend taking as much information from what there is, before you cut it all away. A real belief in your abilities is required here as most of the metal around these headlights was see-through or non-existant.

The obvious place to start was to clean everything up and see what you are left with. Get aquaintd with which metal is part of the wing and which is part of the old original mounting brackets. I found pretty soon that the lower skirt was badly repaired with some kind of glass-fibre filler and the entire section needed attention. The hole appeared when the filler was knocked out.

Welding therefore began with this section, a couple of sheets cut to shape and tacked into position. Slightly easier than what was to come.

Cutting to shape small pieces as required, first the indicator lamp was completed followed by the bridge up to the headlamp.

New hand-made sections were welded piece by piece to those already in place. Much of the existing metal above burned away. I was careful to keep the shape of the main headlamp surround. Even though this eventually was replaced it ws a good guideline to follow until I was ready to replace it.

As new frames plates are available it is a task of making good the area to fit these plates. New surrounds had to be built. Making them in pieces as shown left here made it easier to control for warping and positioning. These pieces I purposefully cut oversized; to attempt to weld into position the correct size and width pieces from the beginning would have been a bit tricky. Finally the positioning of the 'rings' for the headlamps: This was important to get the headlamp adjuster holes into more-or-less the correct vertical and horizontal positions.

With all the welding completed (apart from the occasional side wing annoyances) The whole area was cleaned off to give a surface ready for the application of tin filler. This is reputed to be the best final protection against rust. It can also be applied rather thickly and then shaved and filed off to give the perfect shape required, even if the welded pieces were slightly off-shape. A very thin later of body filler can now be applied to cover any scratches and dimples in your masterpiece!

And there you have it!