Repairs to the Coachwork of a 1946 Bentley MK6
This MK6 Bentley is in regular use and visited the workshop for some unobtrusive "running repairs":
As is usually the case with body repairs the first symptoms were just a few bubbles in the paint caused by the area of rust on the Near Side rear wing shown on the left. The extent of necessary repairs is influenced by the amount of filler in the affected area: Years ago it was not uncommon for bodyshops to carry out overlapping brazed repairs like this one and to hammer the join well below the surface before applying considerable thickness of body filler. The photo on the right shows a steel ruler taped across the line of the wing with the pen used to indicate the thickness of body filler which has been removed. It was decided to cut out sufficient metal to restore the line of the wing without excessive filling and to remove all the overlapped brazed joins and replace them with butt welded replacement sections.
No repair sections are available for these vehicles so it was decided to fabricate repairs from steel sheet in sections. Cutting away the first section of outer wing revealed further corrosion to the inner wing which had been concealed. The rusted section of inner wing was cut away and new steel was butt welded into place with no overlapping join which would encourage further corrosion. The photo on the left shows the repaired inner wing area after cleaning back to bright metal and painting with weld - resistant zinc paint.
Work proceeds down to the lower edge of the rear wing. The photo here shows the original wing flange left temporarily in place as a guide for the manufacture of the next outer section. Further corrosion is also revealed inside the box section at the lower edge of the rear wing.
The extent of corrosion inside the box section at the lower edge of the rear wing is greatest because of the water which has collected inside the lowest point. The photo on right shows the internal repairs treated with weld resistant primer before boxing in again. This paint withstands the heat generated by welding and leaves the concealed areas inside box sections protected against further corrosion.
The extent of the corrosion to inner and outer sections continued across the rear of the vehicle below the spare wheel cover aperture:
The inner and outer sections were cut out and replaced in the same way as the rear wing. All box sections are cleaned to bright metal before painting with weld resistant paint. Once welded repairs are completed the box sections are all treated with anti corrosive wax treatments as appropriate.
The cellulose has been on this car for quite some time so considerable trouble has to be taken to obtain a correct match for the well weathered finish. No record of colour was available so the first step was to obtain the nearest colour match currently obtainable from colour charts. Once the paint has been mixed to a sample taken from the vehicle, final adjustments are made to the colour in the paint shop. These photographs show the repaired area with suitable finish and colour to match the existing coachwork.
