Turning the corner........

........which is as good an alternative to 'going round the bend' as I can think of, presently.....

Yes, you'd have to be unhinged to take on a project like my TA14 Alvis.........

 And to prove it, here they are!

Yes, the car was unhinged. (You read it here first, folks.....)

I then took the hinges round to Roger so he could machine some nice new stainless steel hinge pins and fit them to the brass hinges.

They are now lovely and tight, so the doors won't drop when they are opened.

(This was making the achievement of nice, even panel gaps much more of a trial for Terry than it should have been......)

So, for the benefit of any TA14 Alvis afficianados out there who might have wandered into this nonsense by accident, here of some snaps of FFU 297 'turning the corner'......

The patient is definitely sitting up and taking notice........

All sill timbers, new marine ply floor and toe-board are all finished and in position.

This is the new off side sill cover, fabricated by hand by Terry.

And this is the 'former' he used to create those complex compound curves.......

 

As the late, great, Ian Dury so rightly said, 

'There ain't half bin a lot of clever b@st@rds!'

This is the nearside sill-cover welded in place.

(In a brief aside, it's worth noting that on the TA14, the steel sill-covers are purely cosmetic. The load-bearing structural timber is doing all the work. Which means woodworm, not rust, is the issue!)

Compare Terry's wonderful work with the patched up pieces of knackeration which were removed....

 

Off-side sill-cover welded in position

This wavy bit of tin, (or what my sainted Grandfather, and Motor-Engineer Par Excellence, Eric Coles, used to refer to as 'oven iron'....) was installed in 1971 when the car was last heavily fettled.

 

It's going to go, and thanks to the kind offices of Alvis Owner Club Marque Secretary Eileen Goddin, an accurate and proper replacement boot-floor will be made in steel to measurements and photos supplied by AOC member Steve Tillyer.

 

Thank you so much for your help you lovely people!

 

Detail of the nearside bottom corner of the scuttle.

 The steel had rotted through, the wood beneath was worm-eaten and rotten and the whole lot had dropped 1 and a 1/2 inches on the chassis outrigger, which had a hole in it.

Now?

Good as new.

 

I'd been very worried about the bootlid: I pulled it to bits then lost the photos of where all the bits went ( they are adrift in the datasphere.....)

I needn't have worried.

Here is the bootlid completely renewed and ready for re-fitting.

I feel I should at this point say something to the effect that I think Terry and Andy are good.......

 

They aren't good.

 

They are magicians!

Meanwhile, around the rest of the workshop, other Alvis TA14 body parts await their turn for surgery.

At this rate, we are going to have to make up our minds what colour we want it fairly soon!

:-)