I've been travelling a bit lately so progress is not so brisk. But I'm back and have some more things done now. First here is a picture of the jig I made to keep it straight. Two short pieces of steel were made for each side. Drilled and tapped to match the bolts for the lower front wishbone. Then welded to a piece of rectangle tube. These were bolted on one each side and connected by a square tube going across. All measured up to be symmetric.
This yellow tube rests on spacers to make the car level in all directions. Lengthwise the seam below the door openings are elected as level. This is the right reference for most cars.
Now I feel confident cutting whatever I like. And the left front fender lip was the lucky winner. It was glued onto the fender using an overlap "weld". I cut it just outside the "weld" and only through the outer panel. This because I think the lip may be straightened and reshaped to be correct. Since I left the fender part uncut, I have to clean off the old MIG seam and straighten the edge. Being an overlap that will leave enough metal to cut for a butt weld. And using TIG, it can be straightened and planished just like the bootlid.
Here you can see that the front clip is attached to the body using bent strips of unshaped sheet. So the bowed line along the top of the fender is lost for the first few centimeters behind the headlight frame. It all have to come off and get new pieces made. When being put back on the slant of the clip have to be corrected too as previously mentioned.
There were also some dings in the front fender that was not taken out, just filled to highest point with bondo. It took me less than 30 minutes to take out those. So why they did not do it is beyond me.
In this picture you can also see the frame that the car rests on now.
Now I need a measurement for putting the lip back on in the correct place. I laid a straight square tube over the top of the fenders and measured down to the highest part of the wheel opening. It came out at 170mm on the left side. Could someone with an original car do the same and report the result? Put a piece of polishing cloth on the top of the fender as protection.
Then I also need the distance from the door opening to the wheel opening at the height of the seam below the sill. And the distance to the front of the wheel opening. This so I can check that the lip used is not larger or smaller than it should be. The best would be to measure the radii, but that's not so easy.