Triumph Spitfire Body Repair #24 - Even More Floor...aarrrgh!

To say the my last visit to the garage was not a good time may be an understatement. Between not feeling so hot and being generally frustrated, I decided that it was better to give it up than to screw it up and went home after only about 3 hours. There was some advance, but not much.

The video:

Given that I needed to repair the back of the floor at the heelboard area, much like the driver's side, I had prepared a repair patch piece for that on my last visit. I used my Harbor Freight Step Drill Bit, which I have used in various applications, to make the hole in the bottom of the B post.

Nice big hole, though a bit rough around the edges. Note the two plug weld holes to the right.

I also used my hole punch and punch two holes in it for the plug welds to the heel board and lined it up for installation.

Lined up, with some minor adjustments to do.

Unfortunately, my welding here was pretty bad. I think I did not have a good ground so the welds were dirty looking. However, I did only tack it in so I may not have to totally remove it to fix it. We'll see on the next go around.

I also removed the cancer from the front bottom of the rear wing, again a similar area as on the driver's side.

The cancerous piece as removed.

Same piece, but the "inside" view.

I pounded the cut off piece flat and used it as a very rough template for a replacement piece.

Good metal versus bad.

I worked at it for a while and it just wasn't coming together. So, I decided that I didn't need to get that particular part finished before I got the floor tacked in, but that also gave me a hard time.

When I say I wasn't feeling hot...I had a stye in my left eye. As I think I've mentioned, my eyesight has been steadily degrading over the past few years (it's all over after 40, in case you're not there yet) and I've had to start wearing cheaters any time I'm doing something within about a foot of my face. It's gotten to the point where I'm wearing cheater safety glasses as well. So, my degrading close vision along with the fact that my left eye was just irritating the absolute s*%t out of me was beyond frustrating.

So, I decided that there was nothing that continued work would do other than continue to upset me and I packed it in for the night. My plan is to get back over there on Sunday for the day, so we'll see how that goes. My primary focus will be the floor pan...it's time to get the thing in!