Ruby ARQ Rejuvenation

[Ian Williams]

Geoff, I am talking about length, the outer part of the rear wing has a lot of shape so will be quite ridgid and will hold its radius well unless its damaged, thus if the repair section is too short it fight the outer section which will cause the repaired section to flatten as is the case with your wing. Conversely if it was too long it would cause the repair to have a tighter radius or bulge. As you will no doubt be aware if you heat sheet steel then cool it you will cause it to shrink, thus the weld line will have shrunk. If you strike steel with a hammer against a dolly it will be thiner where you have hit, in other words stretched, hopefully you can see where this is going, to remove the shrinking effect of the weld you planish the weld line. You probably in this case need to cut away the old repair make a template or buck of some sort the hold the wing and new repair section which you will make to the correct shape, scribe the repair section to fit accurately into the hole on the wing, weld it in place, then dress and planish the weld. It should now fit nicely unless there are other complications that I can not see from your pictures, whatever you do do not strike areas that have not been worked or damaged, you will simply stretch, or possibly shrink them and cause yourself more headaches.