Panel Imaptience

I thought I'd have a go at making my first DIY repair panel for the GT6 - a panel for the N/S rear valance - and learned a lesson; to be patient. Actually, it's not strictly true that it's my first DIY panel - I have made another panel, but it was just a simple, rectangular patch for the cockpit bulkhead.

I didn't use the sheet metal bender as I haven't yet bolted it to a solid surface - given all the tools I've purchased, solid surfaces are at a premium in my workshop, especially for such a long item. Instead I used a vice and hammer, which did a fair job of forming the various flanges. The photo above shows the panel laying on its left side.

The metal stretcher / shrinker was brought into play (after having changed the heads from shrink to stretch) and was run along one flange, which created a perfect contour. 

The dotted line at the top is where the panel butts on to the central valance and would have to be either butt welded or shouldered, so it slips under the central valance, and then spot welded (or rather drilling holes in the outer valance and plug welding through the holes in an imitation of a spot weld), so as to retain the contour. Butt welding thin metal isn't recommended (burn through is highly likely, if not 100% certain), so shouldering and filling the plug welded join with bodyfiller in the only real solution.

However, I was way off on the width of the panel on one side where it butts on to the lower rear wing. Whereas I had assumed a 90 degree angle with the top of the rear valance (which it is - bottom left angle in the photo above), the angle actually increases further down the panel. An easy enough mistake to make when doing it by eye.

It only took me about half an hour to make the panel, so not a lot of time was wasted and I have plenty of 0.9mm sheet steel available.

I made another, this time using a paper template and, before forming it, I made a mirror image panel for the other side.

However, I labelled the panels cack-handed, resulting in me bending the top and bottom flanges the wrong way, which I corrected. The final result is shown below, lying on the car rear.

The fit is about 95% perfect. I will probably have a 2nd go sometime, adjusting the measurements on the basis of ones I've already made.

The basic shape of the panel is not really the issue, it's the fact there's an indent where the bumper support goes through it, as you can see in this photo from the other side, which is due to be cut out and replaced by the bought panel.

In order to recreate that indent I need to perform some fancy metal hammering, which is where I could do with taking an impression of the indent and make a former over which I can hammer the panel to obtain the right shape. However, what do I make the former from? I could only try to carve it out of wood, using the woodworking skills I sorely lack. I will, however, give it a go, once I have made 2 more panels.

To help me shape metal I've bought a leather pillow which you 3/4 fill with sand. A metal panel is then hammered out on it, using a domed hammer to create a bowl shape.

Making DIY panels wasn't an issue when I rebuilt my MGBs, as all the complete panels were readily available and cheap due to the popularity of the car. However, the GT6, being much rarer (albeit sharing many panels with the more common Triumph Spitfire), suffers from a lack of panels and some are simply no longer available, especially small repair section panels.