TC rear fender (wing)

[Robert Kampas]

Dear listers,

After removing all of the body filler from my right rear wing (fender) that which is left resembles the biggest piece of Swiss cheese that you could ever imagine. In fact there is no metal at all in a three inch strip right against the body tub for about half the radius of the fender (wing). The other three corners can be brought back to shape with a lot of work but the right rear is amazing! Knowing the rarity of original body panels, am I doomed to despair or can such a piece be repaired? Or would it be better to search for the rare hen s tooth? Perhaps someone on the list has or knows of someone who has such a tooth for sale to fit a 47 TC? While I am at it are there differences in profiles for the rear wings just like there are variations for the front? The rear tips of my rear set seem to differ from one another having different angles when one looks at the lower edges. Any help would be most appreciated.

Cheers,

Bob Kampas

[Dave & Diana Dwyer]

Bob

If the majority of the shape is still there, it can be repaired.

The bit that you mention close to the body is mostly cylindrical, rather than curved in two planes. It shouldn't be difficult to make a replacement piece to be welded in.

TIG welding would be my choice, because there is a really good control on the low heat required to reduce distortion.

We just added 20mm to the back edge of the J2 bonnet to compensate for 70 years of people trimming it, and with some care there was almost no distortion.

Regards

Dave Dwyer

J2, TA, TC

[Viv James TraX Interconnect (Pty.) Ltd]

Bob, When you have spent as long as I have staring at TC rear fenders you will realize that probably no 2 are the same. My advice is to use the original if possible and if you can find a real panel beater like I was lucky enough to find, you will be surprised what can be brought back to life. If not, try really hard to find a similar shape to your good one or you'll need your real panel beater anyway!! There's nothing worse than a TC with really different rear fenders and there are plenty around like this! On the bright side, you'll only get them "similar", they are never the"same". Viv