With the tub back on the frame and bolted down with the final pad configuration I spent the early part of 2014 fixing issues with the outer body panels. I had already made one pass with these panels and in fact had spent a good part of 2012 doing the major structural repairs. Almost every panel had rust or accident damage that needed some combination of fabrication, welding and body solder. Now however it was time to focus more on fit and finish because the goal was to start painting this year.

The right hand door to scuttle alignment was poor and I discussed options with Stuart. Should I cut, bend and weld the door or lead fill the scuttle to match the door ?. I opted for the latter since I was now pretty comfortable with the tinning butter and lead sticks. I used some aluminum flashing to constrain the lead as I applied it to the scuttle.

With the lead roughly applied I cleaned it up with a body file.

A bit more filing and now the scuttle matches the door.

The two rear wings also needed some surface repairs, mostly dents and the usual parking lot scrapes down the sides of the wings.

Both doors had issues even after the major rust repairs had been done. I attended to those also in early 2014.

It is interesting that as I progressed closer to the time when we would start the painting process the repairs that seemed ok two years ago now looked bad enough that I needed to revisit them and improve them. An example is the front of the right outer sill. I had already done a lot of work in this area when I first fitted the sill but I still was not happy with the surface and the shape at the front so out came the body solder kit again to fix that area.

That is pretty much how the first half of 2014 went. A long process of adjusting, fettling and taking the panel fit, alignment and surfaces to the next step as we approached the time to start painting.