Houston, We have lift-off

Finally, the preparation work is completed which has mainly consisted of rearranging the garage (tidying would be too far); building a new shed so that the John Deere lawn mower can be garaged out of the garage, and other garden related tools stored in a more fitting place; having new electric garage doors fitted so that I can have the door closed (it is winter) without fear of not being able to get out; Christmas decorations put away for another year. Yes, the new onsie has been donned and I'm actually in the garage doing proper car stuff.

First up was to get the car up on axle stands so that it's a better working height and I can get to the underside - plus the wheels have to be off to access the bolts for the wings. Next, strip the chromework and ancillaries (grille, bumpers, headlights, rear lights, windscreen frame (just lifted off as it wasn't even bolted in - no need as there's no glass), hood frame and wheels. Final job of the day is to soak all the wing bolts with PlusGas hoping they will come easily next time.

In all, it was an easier start than I was expecting, mainly because the difficult nuts have all been accessed before and not put back properly - I'm sure this trend will not continue. Another discovery was that the offside front wheel hub must have been replaced at some stage with the wrong part. It was playing with my mind thinking that a LHD car had left hand knock off nuts on the right hand side (also which is nearside on a LHD car). It's just a bodge so a replacement right hand hub will have to be sourced. Note: As wire wheels only have one central nut, they are different threads on each side so they do not spin off when driving.

Next job will be to remove the nearside wings (front & rear) then we can see what horrors lie underneath the bodywork - my expectations are not high at this stage.

Update - 13/1/2019

I started on the left hand side as this appeared to be the worst of the two. I was pleasantly surprised that the front and rear wings and door came off fairly easily - a combination of a good PlusGas soaking and a few missing bolts (it's evident that this is not the first time the car's been stripped down and not, necessarily, put back together well). Again, pleasantly surprised at the condition underneath. Yes, the sill was no-existant, but I was expecting that anyway. The inner wings and A Post are all fairly sound, but the B Post has rotted at the bottom.

Flushed with success, I started on the right hand side. I can only assume that, as this is in better condition, it has not been interferred with so some of the bolts were a little more stubbon - but no match for a impact driver, hacksaw and brute force. I was wrong about being in better condition - just about the same as the other side. Although the front inner sill looked fairly good, it crumbled with light finger pressure. Inner wings and A Post in good condition and nothing left at the bottom of the B Post. There's a little rust hole at the rear inner wing / boot floor joint but nothing a small patch won't rectify.

Next step will be to start cutting out the rotten sill panels, but I'll wait until the new panels are delivered so I can see how they go and take a few measurements.