I haven’t finished fitting the rear of the heater channel yet due to the changes I will be building into the body to make it a pickup so I decided to complete the front of the car first then move to the back at a later date. I’m trying to keep everything bite size so I don’t get overwhelmed by the work in front of me and since the front is important for the look of the car then it’s worthwhile to try and get this done. It should help spur me on to do the back.

So time to strip paint and rust, this is the worse job to do so I try and use a variety of tools to do it to relieve the tedious nature of the work.

A bit of rust here and there with the spare tyre well completely shot.

With a a bit of time away from work gives me a chance to unstitch the front end to see what I can save.

Out comes the rotten washer bottle recess and the spare wheel well. A spot weld cutter is very handy in this area.

I was thinking about making my own repairs but simply I just don’t have the time and the repair panels are relatively cheap but can can repair the washer bottle panel very easily.

And after a clean and rust treatment It was easy to weld back into position.

Next it it was time to cut away the front left inner wing panel. Spot welds all over this panel.

Then time to align everything so on went the bonnet, after drilling out the broken bolt for the bonnet hinge. The right hinge is broken but will make do for now.

Just have to to do a bit of lining up and cleaning before I can weld in the repair but I’m making progress. Also to free up some storage space I fitted the anti roll bar, the front brake callipers and the correct ball joint I’ve been meaning to fit for a while now.

Next time one I will be welding in all these panels and then fitting the doors ready to start on the rear of the car.