Triumph Spitfire Metal Work #10 - Front Valance Repair & Metal Work

I only took a few pictures at the garage on this visit. Turns out hammer and dolly work is rather subtle for to photography (or at least for my photographic skills). The video, while not great, does it better justice, so here's that:

That being said, there was some stuff to go through. I focused on hammer and dolly work (hence the title of the video). In keeping with the fact that I rarely have a well thought-out plan for each visit, I decided that the front valance would be a great opportunity to do some on-the-job training (otherwise known as OJT). As this panel is pretty well hidden being so low to the ground, if I messed it all up, it would be hard to notice!

It went okay, but I was having a lot of problems with the front valance twisting on me. If there's one thing I've picked up on during teaching myself metal work is that moving around metal "over here" impacts metal "over there" and I didn't want to "fix" one area only to find that I messed up another area.

Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to weld back in a clip (for lack of a better thing to call it) that had come off. This was another example of an area where I think Coventry messed up and didn't properly spot weld in a part. Given that I was having a lot of flex in the valance, I figured if I welded this clip back in and then fit the bracket that went between it and another similar clip, I would stop the flex. This didn't end up working out too well in practice, but I did get the repair done!

The "clip" in question.

The clip clamped in. View from "inside" the front valance with it upside down.

The clip welded in and cleaned up. View from top of valance looking down with valance "right-side" up.

That done, I went back to mostly hammer and dolly work again, the video showing this better. Eventually, however, it became hard for me to see and feel the highs and lows (dents) in the valance. Most, if not all, of this was due to the dull and horrible topcoat paint. The light reflected off of it so poorly (not at all), that I couldn't see any contours. Without that, I couldn't properly assess my highs and lows, so it needed to come off. My paint stripping disk made short work of that problem.

Nice and clean.

That done, I went back to more dent work on the front of the valance. I then shifted focus to getting the brackets that I had repaired back, which required removing the paint on the inside so I could then coat it all in epoxy primer. This wasn't too difficult, of course. Other than that, there wasn't much. Watch the video, it will be more informative.