mikeatrpi Posted August 26, 2005 Share Posted August 26, 2005 I used a cut off wheel on my angle grinder. Man was that easy Ditto. Sawzall is sometimes difficult to get into these areas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 1, 2006 Author Share Posted February 1, 2006 OMFG!!! Did it really take him 6 months to finish this? Um... yes. But lemme explain. It was too damn cold to be out in the garage and I only got a garage heater about 2 months ago, then I got sidetracked, made a rotisserie, stitch welded the whole middle section of the car, fixed the cowl rust, I mean I wasn't just working on this... The Tabco panel on the driver's side was a perfect fit. The one for the passenger's side was way wrong. I fought with it for a while and ended up aligning the front part of the panel where it attaches to the rocker, and then cutting the quarter. WRONG!!! For anyone else who has never done bodywork and lacks common sense, match up the damn body lines, not the seam. I ended up having to cut about a pie shaped section off of the front of the panel to get that front part to line up. Once that was lined up and the body line was close, I figured out that I had cut the quarter about 1/2" too high. So I tacked on the replacement Tabco piece, then made a "bridge" piece that hung down about 1" below the bottom of the quarter and tacked it in place. At this point I spot welded the patch to my bridge piece. Then I took a piece of sheet metal and cut it to fit the gap. I had to grind down my spot welds so that the top little sliver patch would fit flush, then I welded that strip to the original quarter and the Tabco piece. For the amount of screwing up I did, I think it came out OK. The back piece in the wheelwell had been cut out, so I used a flat piece of sheet there, contoured it to fit the inside of the Tabco piece, then welded it in. Tedious. Hundreds of little spot welds going on here. I also welded the whole front seam, because I think that seam lets the water into the quarter and that's why we get rust there. Might have been a little overkill to weld the whole length of all the seams, but that's what I did. The only thing left to do is patch a couple of holes that are just a tad to big to weld shut. I figured I'd use the fiberglass or bondo or whatever to fill these little holes unless someone has a better idea for me. I had a friend who used to do bodywork over yesterday and he suggested running another bead down the front seam at the rocker. Both sides have a little gap there because of the way the body curves in to accept the panel on top. I could do it, but I'm thinking I can just bondo it. Suggestions? The very first pic is the bridge to get the quarter attached to the Tabco piece where I cut in the wrong spot. After that I realized I had too much work to do to sit there taking pics, so the rest are all after shots. Enough already pics below... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 1, 2006 Author Share Posted February 1, 2006 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeatrpi Posted February 1, 2006 Share Posted February 1, 2006 Cool. You may have taken your time but you do good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nismo280zEd Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 looks pretty good, make sure you weld it shut, if you don't feel that confident that it is completly sealed use marine grade fillers as they are waterproff. DO NOT USE BONDO unless you want to do this again in 4-5 years. Once i weld all my bare metal I use a product Ernie turned me onto "Zerorust" I paint it by brush with that stuff, let it dry good, then "scuff" it with 80 grit so the filler sticks, then i use a marine fiberglassed re-inforced body hair putty. Basically waterproof filler with glass mat mixed in. This stuff is super hard to sand though so don't go globing it on. Put it over all the weld areas as this is like laying fiberglass over it to seal it. This will ensure no water will come through your paint from the backside again. Once you use that stuff, use a sanding filler (waterproof) or atleast water resistant. depending on your money budget. Sand that with 80 grit to get the major hi's and low's (cross sanding). then hit it with 180 grit, then primer, then 220, 400 paint, clear. BTW the nasty black guey stuff came stock. It was a problem when i welded up the same area on mikes car (on3go). -Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jayru Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 What did you use to patch the inner wheel well where it meets the dogleg? What did you end up doing with the inner rocker you cut open at the end? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 9, 2006 Author Share Posted February 9, 2006 I left the end of the rocker open. The patches were just cut out of a piece of sheet metal. It already had a white baked enamel finish on it which is why they are white in the pics. I just ground off the paint around the edges. Baked enamel is stuck on there pretty good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatMan Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 I like how many colors your car has been painted. I would think that so many coats would do a better job at rust protection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 15, 2006 Author Share Posted February 15, 2006 Thanks a lot, BRO!!! For the record, red and silver are the only two colors it has been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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