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Chriswitha1600e

MK2 replacing inner wings- bit scared..

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Inner wing tops from front of strut plate to bulkhead, underwing braces all chopped out by me maybe 30 yrs ago and repaired strongly but messy also by me.

Now I'm wiser(?) and more skilled(?!) I've decided that to do the old girl justice I've got to unpick all the front-end panels again ,for reuse, and fit new complete inner wings, the whole wing, chassis rail to outter wing, not a patch panel.

I have both genuine inner wings luckily.

My worry is that all my enthusiastic but inexperienced metal bashing all those years ago may mean that the study geometry is all to pot possibly.

No point making a jig if it's wrong of course.

What's the best way to go about this? I'm thinking someone may have datum measurements I could use or maybe has a jig I could borrow?

Whatcha think guys?

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The Ford Workshop manual has all the body dimensions you need, I'm pretty sure The MK2 & 1600E owners club had a proper  jig but of course you need to be a member to use it, their may be a cost but not sure.  Dave.

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2 hours ago, frodnut said:

The Ford Workshop manual has all the body dimensions you need, I'm pretty sure The MK2 & 1600E owners club had a proper  jig but of course you need to be a member to use it, their may be a cost but not sure.  Dave.

Cheers Dave.

I was a member of the club from around 1980 to around 2010 at a guess. I never went to local meets as I worked 12 hr night shifts and couldn't go but still stayed a member as it supported the club and spares scheme of course. Then bad times hit and I had to cut all unnecessary expenses.

Had to drop membership of 3 other clubs too.

I 'think' I've got the factory manual somewhere but I've not seen it for years, 27 I think! That's when I moved to where I live now. It's probably in the loft of my old gaff knowing my luck! 

Has anyone on here actually done this job and has any tips ? assume that I have the factory measurements but my existing strut locations are all wrong..

 

 

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I had mine done by a restoration shop and watched him do it . The best part when fitting mine is that the chassis legs were fine apart from a very minor cut out a bit of rot and they were not damaged then or previously so this gave us a very good starting point as there is a triangulated fitting to the chassis leg for where the steering box goes and the holes are on the opposite side as well for left hand drive cars . Now while it has a certain amount of movement , you should from there be able to measure and match the sides along with the front inner vallance that also is hard to fit too wrong if you are careful . The reason I had this part of the restoration done by the pros was the same as yourself - you only get the one chance to do it correctly as the whole front end relys on those fitting / being welded correctly . Good luck . Steve.

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Measure, measure and measure again, l have worked to + or - 3mm  over 3000mmm for 45 years,  as above, if you triangulate, and photograph everything, you will have plenty of datums and have lots of reference points to measure from and to go off. I would work from  level ground and possibly clamp the car down to the floor to prevent twisting. The main thing is not to seam weld as this will distort the car massively, go for original, initially tack it all together, then spot weld it as per original, Ford new what they were doing, they just didn't expect them to last as long as they have, and l would do one side at a time, otherwise you could be overwhelmed by the prospect of a car with no front end.

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Thanks chaps, I have a spot welder but it would never reach in there down the bulkhead anyways, ok for the chassis rail though. Am aware of heat distortion and movement from welding. 

Unfortunately I've seamed welded(mig) all the other panels on to my original inner wings many years ago when originality wasn't too much of an issue to me so I'll have fun getting them all off again, all new at the time too, some original ford some expressed panels when I think they first started up? And the prices weren't tooooo scary!.

Just got myself a second hand Tig set up and I've been playing with that with some success on 1.2mm scrap but I'm a long way off using it on the E..

 

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My Dad used to work in bodyshops in the between the 60's & 80's.

If not using a jig, he'd remove as little as possible, replacing a panel or two at a time to ensure that he had something to line up to, tack weld the panel on checking & measuring before & after to ensure it was correct before welding it on properly.

If you take it all off in one go, there is nothing to refer back to & panels are not always a perfect fit especially these days, with reproduced parts. The originals weren't always a fantastic fit either though at times.

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