Arch de Trimophe,
So, what has been happening since I last checked in?
Well, progress has been made and a potential world first achieved.
During the welding and bodywork phase Father Dermist commented that the rear wheel arches really were in a terrible state. This I think was partly due to the fact that FIAT (Lancia) didn't know what to do with the wheel arch / rear wing interface. Theres gaps for mud to get into and little ledges looking to attract corrosion.
So as the welding came to an end my dad had some spare* time to devote his talents to tackling the thorny issue that FIAT failed to get to grips with.
Cue, Chicken mesh.
Ok, this is mark 1. The chicken mech was formed to the shape of the wheel arch and then 1.5mm thick length of steel approximately 20mm wide were strengtheners where added to form a kind of skeleton. This will become clearer in a minute.
Fibre glass was liberally added in all the right places and voila!
It took quite a bit of fitting and Dad thought he could improve the technique so here we go Mark 2 on the opposite side with the added excitement of the petrol tank filler neck and support being in the way.
See the skeleton now? This has to bend round the filler neck(plastic part).
This was then filled with newspaper (rather than chicken mesh) and again liberally fibre glassed.
Voila!
Fitted it looks like this
Both liners use the fittings that are already available in the rear wheel arches plus a few M5 holes drilled through a strengthening rib.
Hopefully they will prevent any further damage due to corrosion happening.
Whilst Dad did that, I scratched myself and got on with dyeing the carpet.
As removed.
Sun damage
Initial try with the spray dye.
Overall view after the first pass. I have two more cans to go.
When I left you last time the car painted a fetching shade of red oxide, inside and underneath. Another coat of black this time for the underneath and a matching coat of white applied to the interior.
Sound deadening mats were added to replace the ones removed previously.
So, we are bang up to date and momentum is gathering.