Looks perfect doesn't it!

Well it's not, under that lovely skin the tin worm never sleeps, let's see what he's been up to!

Here's a well known spot, the corner where the wing meets the scuttle, by the steering pump bottle.

Our foreign correspondent had seen this car, and told me this corner needed attention, so I wire brushed it and painted some rust converter on the metal. I would put a skim of filler on the next day, then a lick of paint, and it would be like new!

However, the previous owner had thought of the same thing, and had already done that operation. So after a bit of digging the full extent of the rust damage was found.

As said before, an Integrale bravely hides its wounds until it's almost too late! But we'll tackle this repair properly.

This Delta is a European Evo1, and has had rust repairs in the past. I peeled away the mastic filler on the corner and down the wing joint, the extent of rust damage here did surprise me,

although I suppose it shouldn't have!

I found some archive photos on the net showing the extensive work that had been done to this car. But the repairs seem to have stopped before this area was reached, this corner must have been a repair too far!

It's a good original car, with a smart paint job. So I'll get stuck in to the repair, let's get started.

The wing would have to come off, so I jacked the car up and removed the wheel. I disconnected the winkers and spotlights, removed the mesh grilles, undid the two big bolts to pull the bumper off.

I removed the wing liner, and also the sill cover, to gain access to the lower wing fixing bolts.

I opened the front door and removed the three wing fixing screws, the top two are allen headed, the bottom one is 10mm hex head. There are two screws right down at the bottom, and two more at the front which would be hidden behind the bumper,

with these and the top bolts removed, and the winker repeater unclipped, the wing can be lifted off.

With this done I could see the full extent of the corrosion. The metalwork over the wheelarch was sound, and welding had been done to the lower front inner wing area, around the big bung.

A lot of screws to remove

Full horror revealed

I made sure no wires or pipes ran under this area then chiselled and cut away the corroded areas, and tidied up the edges. I ground away all the rust back to metal.

I made a cardboard template and cut the sheet metal to fit, there was an old alarm sensor hole I wanted to cover too.

I had decided to cut out and weld the vertical border of the repair piece separately, folding this on a tight radius would have been too difficult.

I welded the upright section to the repair plate, and with a bit of trimming, it fitted fine. I then gave the bare metal a spray of primer, when that dried I ground the welding areas back to metal again.

Cardboard template

Test fitting

Raised flange in place

I tacked the section in place, knocked it into shape, then welded it fully. I radiused the top of the flange with a pair of vice grips, 'dressed' it with a hammer, then ground it to shape and neatness.

I gave the repair a good spray of primer, then next day I flatted it down again and gave the area a skim of filler. Then another sand down and more primer, This will do until I get the car over to Pete's for painting.

Primer, lots of it!

A skim of filler

More primer, ready for painting

The previous repairers had fixed the windscreen corners, but their paint didn't stick to their primer. So when masking up for this project to protect the paint, the tape pulled some paint off. I've flatted it a bit, but Pete will do the job properly.

He'll take the paint up the screen pillar, and lose the edge at the top of the screen.

I brushed behind the wing area with cellulose gloss red of the correct colour, when that was dry I ran a bead of mastic down the mounting rail and re-attached the wing. I had brushed painted all the mounting areas behind the fender, so I carefully refitted the screws and secured the wing.

The sill cover was a bit damaged and needed paint, so I left that off. I took the car and the paint code to our painter Pete, he mixed up some fresh paint and completed the job you see here.

As always Pete did a great job, he lifted the window rubber, and lost the paint edge at the top of the screen, and blended in the scuttle at the washer jet. Pete didn't paint the outside wing, but repaired and painted the sill cover. That's now refitted also.

As always, Pete did a top job, I feel much better about this Delta now, I don't like a job half done. We've got some summertime travel plans with this car, so the next step is getting an MOT.

While the wing and all the fittings were off this car, it was a good opportunity to replace the belts. I did this, and the water pump. It was a tricky one, the engine was very close to the side rail, but nothing a good length of 2x4 wouldn't fix!