We’ve done alot of underpanels lately, and the one on this bonnet was especially in need of attention. This underpanel was totally rust free, but unfortunately had suffered some pretty serious accident damage…
It was a tough call to cut the support member out of this underpanel – it’s rare that I actually see one this rust-free. But it was twisted up, and with the support member serving as “ground zero” for all bonnet alignment, having this piece absolutely straight is an absolute necessity. So we removed the original and replaced it with a new one manufactured in our fabrication shop.
The other thing that made this underpanel tougher than usual to repair was the fact that it had already been poorly repaired in the past after an accident. It had been very roughly hammered out, and the shape was all wrong – plus some cutting and welding had taken place. Our initial measurements revealed that the RH side of the mouth opening was 3/8″ too low, and 1″ too short! (as measured from the support member, forward.
Read along with the photo captions below as we rebuild this very tired panel.
Let's go back to the beginning... No, the car is not on the lift crooked - the RH seam between the underpanel and the center section is 1" lower than the left side when the bonnet was assembled. If you look closely, you c an also see how it bulged out there - just below the bumper mount hole and above that little dimple. Finally, note how the underpanel's lip is kinked to clear the inner valances - always a sign of bonnet dis-assembly and poor re-assembly...
Furthermore, it's a "false seam" - sculpted from several different applications - and brands, of filler...
And here's the proof - Funny, I don't recall reading about this type of fastener in the Jaguar parts manual?... That is a small "tower" of braze about 3/8" thick - I guess they just could not pull things together any tighter than this.
I finally managed to slice through the brass "Tower of Power" and get the underpanel separated from the bonnet, but the hits just keep on coming... That is over 5/8" of a liquid metal type epoxy. AAAAAAAAAGGGHH!!!!!!!
Here's another view of that horror from the front - we ground this out with a heavy-duty wire wheel. Also note the rough hammering it has taken to the left and the low-quality weld to pull tears back together.
It also had worms - made from bondo being ooozed into these dent-puller holes...
Here it is next to an undamaged original 3.8 underpanel that we'll be using as a template for the proper reshaping of this underpanel.
Ouch - it's damn near SQUARE from this angle!
Some of the force of the accident was transferred here, and this area was also roughly hammered out and brazed.
This photos shows some of the twisting in the support member, but it was alot worse than it appears. That rip was also basically not repairable...
...so we'll replace it with one of our perfect new units. Like I said, we've been doing alot of underpanels lately!
The first step in the repair process was to remove the support member by drilling out the spot-welds. Note the amount of rust between the spot-welded flange - remember, because these flanges are all untreated upon initial assembly, THERE ARE NO RUST-FREE E-TYPES! Every spot-welded seam on every one out there looks like this inside - and it's just a matter of time...
This area will need repair before we can install the new support member.
First step is to start moving the metal back into the proper shape, and cut out the damaged area.
Now we've welded in a patch, and planished the entire area smooth - this will require no filler, just a few coats of primer, block sanded...
Good side - 19 inches...
Wrecked side - 18 inches... Uh-oh...
Here's how this side started out. Basically, the lip was wrapped in too far, and I had to cut that poorly made flange off and "unroll" the lip, then re-roll it back into place. That makes it sound so simple - in reality, I was beating on it with a large ball-peen hammer at one point to get things started...
When I finally got things generally where I wanted them, I realized we were missing about 3/8" of metal - I guess that's what the brass tower was making up for. In addition, the 3/8" below that was pretty well wiped out, so I cut that out too, and hand-formed this patch.
Here's that patch welded in. I left this grossly oversize to allow me to trim things where they wanted to be after the fact. This also allowed me something to grab to further finesse the curves up here before I cut it off. This is still alot messier than I usually get things, but once the panel has already been abused this badly by someone else, I just do the best I can. I can usually make virgin panels (wrecked but not yet "fixed" by anyone) just about perfect again.
This is what I came up with after more planishing, slapping, and the welding on of a new flange. It's still going to require a little filler, but it's the correct shape now, the missing metal has been replaced, and we're WAY ahead of where we were!
Don't forget the worm-holes!
The same area - filled, ground, and planished - erased from existence!
Now it's finally time to install the new support member - you can never have too many Vice-Grips...
We attach the new suppoirt member via plug-welding by using the same holes created by drilling oput the old support member.
Here's a shot of the piece with the new support member installed. Note that the backside of the wrecked corner is almost as good as the front - not the jumbled mess of overlapped panels others may try to pass off as correct panel repairs. Also note the clean curvature of the mouth's lip versus where we started.
Finished! Considering what we started with, I'm very pleased with how this turned out. The piece is now symettrical in all aspects, straight, and has the correct mouth shape - although I'll probably make some final minor adjustments after I mate it with the center section. Note that we did weld up the license bracket holes, but did leave the oblong license rod hole - this is the correct configuration for a car that left the factory bound for a state not requiring a front license plate. This repair salvaged this original panel for SUBSTANTIALLY less than the often ill-fitting replacements out there - which don't seem to be very easy to obtain anyway... Give us a ring today and we can put your underpanel, complete bonnet, or entire car back into this condition!
