Whilst I waited for the garage to warm up a bit, I had a bash at the templates for the front reinforcing plates. The idea is to have them vaguely replicate the original ones, only a bit wider to suit my brackets. I may change the plan a little, but I can't think of another sensible way to make this.
Then I moved on to the rear reinforcing plates. One would be a simple flat plate, but the rear one would be more complicated to fit and weld in.
Both shapes were transferred to 2mm sheet before the rear one was cut and bent to shape before being welded. They were then loosely bolted into place to make sure all was well.
As I was happy with the fit, the suspension bracket was fully welded to the chassis rail. I guess I'd missed a bit of oil or something, as one of the plug welds needed cleaning back.
The rear reinforcing plate was then welded in. Some of this took a while as I could either see the weld or get the torch in, but not always both. The vertical weld against the chassis rail on the back of the bracket was the worst one to do. The welds have yet to be cleaned back, but they will be to make it look cleaner.
The front plate was much easier to fit.
With both plates in, I was about out of time before dinner, but there was just time to fit have a trial fit of one of the suspension bushes. Whilst the rear plate looks like it blocks the bush, with the angle the wishbone tube will run there is plenty of clearance.
