NEW METAL

I was expecting a call from Trevor at the bodyshop and he didn't disappoint, he said the welding was done, but he needed to discuss the way forward in respect of the amount of paint that they had had to remove to get to bare metal.

I was there the next day and sure enough all the wheel arches and both sills had neatly stitched in new metal. I was surprised that they had probably only used about 20% of each of the repair panels. At the rear it was only the arches that had been replaced and the major part of each panel was propped up against the wall.

 The front arches had taken slightly more metal, but the rest of the wings were in very good order. Only the very bottom of the sills had been replaced and there was no trace of rust internally as somebody in the past had sprayed all of the cavities with Waxoil. There were several other welded repairs, a small area at the bottom of the drivers door and left front valance..

Trevor showed me how thick the paint was where they had feathered it back to bare metal for the repairs, he pointed out, that there could be a future problem of the new paint crazing particularly in this transition area and it would be much better to cut all the old paint back to the metal. They had already had to do this on the bonnet, which was now in primer.

You have to rely on the expert for good advice and I had it on good authority that Trevor was an honest professional, so I agreed, but it seems that I should still get Stella back before Christmas.