Rick-Manta Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 Given how difficult it seems to be to buy a nosecone these days I thought I'd better just tackle the front end the best I can. It's not the finish I really want but my whole project is being held up by the front end since I can't respray the bugger until I've completed most of the welding and I haven't got room to strip the car fully. I'm just intending to patch up the front end with some sheet steel to a point I can remount the wings, my (3rd) replacement lower valence and before welding the lower valence, I'll drag the subframe out of the way and stick it outside. I should then just have enough room to get to everything at the front and I can also work on prepping the engine bay for paint and sorting out the transmission tunnel for the LT77 bellhousing. Today I managed to chop off as much as I could of the grot in preparation of some new steel which I'll weld to the valence once I've got the bits of old metal and a piece of radiator mount off my donor valence. In the picture you can just see it, it'll be a trick to cut all that off without taking a load of the metal I need off with it!! Although I've repaired on of the inner wings (the other side attempted but went wrong) the outer edges of the headlamp recesses are gone and there's no join from the inner wing to the nosecone since that metal is missing. It'll have to stay that way until such time that I do find a complete new panel, but luckily I've been donated a pair of quad lamp surrounds with a mounting plate instead of four bolts so that means I won't need the outer edges for now and I'll just have to swap my irmscher quad lamps into this aftermarket one. I also ground out much of the rust dotted about in the two slot grill which you can't really see in the picture but it's there. While I was at it I thought I'll try to splat some weld to fill the two holes which are to mount a metal Opel badge. The bootlid one I filled it and would be hidden under the spoiler although it lokked good and invisible even under the etch primer, I thought I'd try to weld the fronts. My welding gears on the blink so the wire feed was very on and off but I managed to build up two dog shit swirls of weld and ground them off flat. There is a tiny pin prick left on the right hole but I rubbed over a skim of filler before I left so I can rub it down tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2908642343 Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 Rick; Looking good, will have to have a drive over and have a look at progress. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick-Manta Posted August 1, 2009 Author Share Posted August 1, 2009 You're more than welcome John. There's been no major changes since you were last this way to be honest as this nosecone was really holding everything up, plus a bit of lethargy I'm getting rid of the vinyl roof so I've got a bit more work to do, including taking the windows out which I could have avoided before I was down my yard today but the rain's been more like a monsoon which I want to keep my new bare metal from so I didn't get anything done. Hopefully tomorrow I can get on with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantadoc Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 Looks like you could do with one of these for the nearside Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick-Manta Posted August 23, 2009 Author Share Posted August 23, 2009 The offside's just as bad, just out of the picture shot. Fortunately I have recently aquired a replacement 4 slot nosecone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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