In April 2011 I was ready to start on the tub repairs and began at the front. As we all know, these cars were assembled using bare steel and then painted. This means any panels that were spot welded together were candidates for water to get in between the panels and rot both of them. A prime example is the front brackets that attach the tub to the chassis. These are spot welded to the inner wings and the image below is pretty typical. In my case both the inner fender and the bracket had rotted through.

After consulting with Stuart a plan was developed to remove the rotted area together with the bracket, fabricate a repair section and repair the bracket. Here is the rotted section cut out with the cut going back to the turret so we had a natural seam.

Next I made a repair section and joddled it where it would be welded to the inner wing. I had left a flange near the turret and I would plug weld along that joint.

Here is that panel clamped in place.

Rather than make up a complete new bracket I decided that since it was just the flat part of the bracket that was rotted I would just cut that out and replace it with new steel.

The bracket was plug welded to the inner wing and the bottom section of the repair panel folded under the bracket and plug welded similar to the original arrangement.

Both sides of the front inner wings had the same problem and both got the same treatment.