The Rear Deck

So after having eaten my words (with some barbeque sauce), I managed to replace the rear deck.

This car was damaged.  My current guess is that someone dropped a garage door or something like it on the driver's side back of the car right before the trunk lid.  There is also a crease in the beading and a depression.  Well, not any more.  I straightened it out.

I decided I couldn't leave the rear deck as it was.  The whole thing dropped down like 3/4" in that corner and nothing would ever fit correctly.  The deck was also flattened and I would have had to build it up with filler - no way.  So I ordered the panel (which you can get!) from Moss, who made a special order request to British Motor Heritage.  I was told 4-8 weeks for delivery.  I got it in two.  They must have had one handy.

Okay, time to get to work... Here's the rear deck without the sheet metal.  I made a bit of an epic fail and cut part of it off, but reattached it and you'd never know.

You can see evidence of my previous repair on the left.

This really wasn't all that hard.  The hard part was drilling out all the spot welds and removing the old metal.

After some massaging and a few test fits, it lines up pretty well...

I also removed some lead where the PO (or their shop)did a repair to hide even more smash.  I folded the edges of the metal down so I have that 'seam' on each side where the new panel fits. It looks pretty good.

Here's the boot lid in place, but not attached.  It sits a little low, which is what I expect since previously it was flush (and then the lid stood proud of the deck when attached with the seal in place).

It lines up really well, and the deck is level instead of being pushed down on the left.

I plug welded the rain channel to the brace underneath, and it's solidly affixed.  I just need to plug weld the panel on the edge inside the cockpit, fix up and smooth out some welds, and it's done.

THEN I can say I'm done with metal work.  No more words to eat!