"With the car now totally stripped and ready for the spit, what is interesting is the specific telling signs of this being an early A-frame pre-aero Lotus Cortina. There are the transferrable components - engine, transmission, and aluminum skinned doors, boot and hood. The aluminum hood has four holes drilled in it for securing pegs. As the inner hood stiffener is bent around the hinge mount area - it tells a tale ! I am going to have these holes welded up and go to the more period twin hood straps at the front with hinges at the rear (aluminum welding is not my forte... ). All the other panels (doors and trunk lid) are just pressure dinged. But also note in the picture below on the left, the welded-in hump in the rear trunk floor for differential travel."

"Also, note the chassis stiffening tubes from the inner rear wheel wells to the rear chassis rails, and the one everyone misses - in the photo above on the right, the tube chassis stiffeners from the rear wheel arches forward to the chassis rails inside the rear panel area. The latter are almost totally impossible to duplicate as the tubes are welded in prior to fitting the outer skin. The welds on the vertical stiffener are around the back of the tube - not even the best welder could weld around corners in an unseen area."

"As can be seen by studying the above photo, it’s time to replace those front inner wings. The repairs done to the upper strut area of the inner wings, and various "modifications" for air cleaner clearance on one side, and for oil tank "cooling air-flow" on the other, means it will be easier to replace the inner wings than to try and repair them. At that same time, the outer wings can also be replaced."

"A desire to go back to the original fuel tank, with a bladder inserted, will require replacement of the "modified" trunk floor panel. The rear lower quarter panels are going to be returned to standard without the flares, and the rear valance is to be replaced to cure the results of earlier accident and a hasty repair."

"While we are about it the front A panels, outer sills and chassis outriggers have the usual tin-worm marks. All will be replaced."

"Once the car is up on the spit, and removing the panels is in progress, I will get more photos to you."

"Once the body was up on the spit, one interesting point came up. It was almost impossible for me, on my own, to turn it to the full 90 degree point. This started some interesting investigation, as the pivot is exactly in the axial center of the body. So where is the Centre of Gravity on this body? Playing around with a lot of crude measuring rigs, and bringing back some of my Applied Maths, I eventually figured that it was about 4 to 5 inches above the lowest floor pan level (about at the level of the top of the centre tunnel) . That is really low - no wonder these wonderful things handle so darn well !"

"Needless to say, the sight of a car in the air at a 45 degree angle has drawn a lot of interesting comments from passing neighbours !"

"So the first job is to atack the removal of the "outer skin" and address the underlying skeletal issues! First off, the job should sensibly be aproached one side at a time. While the temptation is to remove everything on that side all at once, it is possible that this will lead to the poor thing starting to buckle for lack of side strength. So the trick is to remove the skin - outer front wing, outer sill, and rear arch outer panel section first."

"I figured the best way to work, was from the inner sections outwards. The inner sill needs replacing, parts of the floor around the "Chassis outrigger" and the front jacking point need attention - the photos will scare anyone !"

"Two problems presented themselves with the outer sill. The outer sill top edge was a little wider than the original sill edge, so this had to be flatted and re-bent to match. The second problem is that the front edge of the sill (where it meets the inner wheel well) is open. The latter proved easy enough to close off though."

"Next on the bill is the inner and outer front wing - Oh boy ! Look at this hole (above the pedal area) in the top of the footwell ! My neighbors are getting a pool going - pick the year I'm going to finish................"

Latest Pictures and Text Update, October 7 2004

"As it turns out the damage to the "upper footwell area" was a lot easier to repair than one would expect. Once the whole area had been cleaned up, the rust hole was cut back to solid metal areas, which enlarged the missing-metal by another 50%. And as the area was not a compound curve, it was easy enough to make a template and cut new metal to fit. A lot of fiddly tacking and welding- and all fixed! The top of the kick panel is a compound curve, however, and that was repaired with a section cut out of a new repair panel made for the job, supplied by Ex-pressed Panels."