Bodywork off and finishing welding

 Today's job, remove the body and finish the welding. Most of the braces had only been tack welded, and I needed some better access to finish the job. The body came off relatively easily (certainly a lot easier now the face has been cut away). 

This was the first time I'd seen the frame without the body hiding part of it. For the most part it looked ok, but the three bars were 'odd';

These pictures show that they don't quite line up. The ones under the body look consistent, with a gentle change between the two. But the bonnet one is very different, with a centre 'peak' that the other two don't have. This suggests that while the bonnet does need to come down, it's actually the centre that is holding it up. So rather than bringing the whole thing down 78mm like I thought, I think the sides are correct and it's the centre that is holding it up. That bar is going to be left alone for now, I've not cut it down any further so I still have an opportunity to reprofile the bar. 

The rear looks really good though;

The second photo is after I'd turned things upside down to finish the welding. The rear is probably better than most of the rest of it, mainly because I had cut it straight to the chassis rather than have it conform to the body. The whole chassis looks quite good while upside down though;

I finished the day welding up all the missed parts, painting the whole bottom, and preparing the bottom for putting the floor in. Yes, I think that is going to be the next job, partly to make things look more complete. I am now getting very close to the stage where there are not many jobs left, so I might as well start making things permanent. I just need to find the drill attachment for the rivets, it's a big yellow thing so can't have gone far. 

Oh, and rivnuts... I want to get those installed for the centre console and probably the side panels. They're easier to deal with, as I only need an M6 bolt to set them.