Triumph Spitfire Paint #5 - Even More Interior Prep

More interior epoxy prep, along with minor weld repairs...will these ever end?! The film:

I really didn't do a whole lot in this visit that was worthy of update, as you may have figured out by the brevity of the video. About half of it was filling some gaps with new metal and the other half with cleaning.

First, I wanted to fill the gaps where the rear valance and wing comes together as well as the sill to A-post areas. From the factory, these were brass brazed, but I don't have that capability so I needed to do something else.

Gap on the driver's side of the rear valance / wing union.

For the above repair, I simply cut a small rectangular piece, tacked the top,  hammered it into shape, and finished welding it up.

Done, though not cleaned up.

The passenger's side's gap was smaller, but there is some significant dent repair that I need to do in that area. I was afraid that if I welded something in now, I may make it more difficult to fix that area by limiting the metal stretch, so I held off.

Gap in middle of shot, but also showing many holes where the PO used a slide hammer...ineffectively.

The driver's side front A-post to sill area, also brazed from the factory, needed some attention as well. There is a small notch cut into the sill to accept the union between the A post and front bulkhead. On this side I had enlarged the gap a bit during fitting up the sill and now needed to close it back up. I followed the same general plan as in the back and put in a small piece of metal.

Welded in.

There is still some gap here, as you may be able to see, but I'll fill this with seam sealer. The passenger's side is about the same as the driver's side after repair, so I decided to leave that alone.

Cleaned up.

This one, too.

I also filled the small hole in the driver's side rear wing that I found previously with weld metal. This came out pretty good and should require minimal additional repair.

Post-grinding. You can see the area right in the center that was filled.

The rest of the day was devoted to cleaning up the boot and the area behind the seats. I used all sorts of stuff for this: ScotchBrite pads, soapy water, lacquer thinner (remove residual seam sealer), various wire wheels and brushes and 150-grit sandpaper. I also used vinegar in a few areas that required some rust help, neutralizing it with water/baking soda after it did its job.

The goal here was to get all of the residual seam sealer out of there, clean up any remaining surface rust, generally clean the area of dirt and grime and then roughen it all up in preparation for epoxy primer. It really wasn't too bad.

Boot floor being cleaned.

Wing area. Getting inside that cutouts was a bit painful...literally.

Vinegar eating some rust in the drain channels.

Passenger's side behind seats.

Other angle of passenger's side behind seats.

That was about it for that visit.  Cheers!