1960 TR3A Restoration - Front apron and other front end repairs

This car had apparently been hit at the front right corner which resulted in some significant damage to the front apron as well as the front curve of the right front wing. This area looked ok until I started removing the paint and bondo and this is what I found:

There was similar damage to the bottom right corner of the apron.

The original repair involved drilling many holes to pull out the worst of the dents and to provide an anchor for the bondo that was applied to recreate the wing and apron shape. My first task was to hammer and dolly to try and improve the shape and then I welded up all of the holes. Next I used body solder to re-create the edges and curves of both the apron and the front of the wing. I did this with the front end assembled so I could get the curves to match. I had a sheet of thin aluminum between the wing and the apron so they would not get bonded together with the lead.

The apron had other minor issues including dents, other random holes and the right hand headlamp pod had been pushed in at the front. So there was a fair bit of hammer and dolly and lead filling needed. Most of the cage nuts were either broken or missing so the flanges and the cage nuts all needed repairing or replacing and then test fitting many times.

After all that work it was time to test fit the front grill.

Even today the front apron is not perfect and it will need a little more work before it is painted.