Metal Work

Basic Sheet Metal Repair

When ever possible I try to reuse the original sheet metal.  It fits better, it is a heavier gauge steel, and I wanted to try to keep as much steel from 1969 as possible.  Though a lot of the original steel was too far gone I was able to save a few of the panels.  They had rust issues, but they weren't so far gone that I had to buy reproduction parts.  The following pictures show how I repaired the rocker panels, the hood and the doors. 

This is a view of the passenger's side rocker panel extension.  The large hole is where the fender bolts on.  That area will be cut out, and a new piece will be welded in.  The other holes will be welded shut and ground flush. 

Here I used a high speed cutter and an air grinder to remove the rusted metal.

This picture shows how the small holes where welded shut and ground flush.

Next I cut a piece of 16 gauge sheet metal to use as a patch for the rusted area.  A hole was drilled in the patch and a nut was welded to the other side.  This will allow the fender to be bolted to the rocker panel.  This was fitted and tacked into place.

Once the patch was fitted it was welded permanently into place.

Finally the welds were ground down and the repair is complete.

Before

After

This door has a a common rust problem.  The front corner is rotted out.  This will be cut out and a patch panel will be welded in.  Luckily I had two doors.  Both were rusted, but in different places.  So I was able to make one good door out of the two.  I did this for both the passenger's side and the driver's side doors.

First I cut the patch out of the donor door.  Then I laid it on this door, traced it and cut out the rust affected metal

Next I welded in the patch, and ground off the welds.  With this method I was able to repair the door using only minimal filler to smooth out the metal.

The same procedure that I used to repair the door was used to repair the hood.

The picture looks bad, but it turned out pretty nice.

How to Replace a Door Pillar

While I was preparing the passenger side for the new quarter panel I realized that the door pillar and inner panel were rusted pretty severely.  Rather than make a bunch of patches I opted to replace the pillar and the panel.  The photo above shows how I put the replacement pillar in the exact spot that the old one was removed from.  Basically I welded  rods onto my existing interior bracing.  These rods made contact with the original panel and pillar.  I used two points of contact on the panel and two points of contact on the leading edge of the door pillar to ensure that the replacement pieces could only go back in the correct position.

Once the door pillar was removed more rust was discovered in the rocker panel.  This was cut out and a patch from a donor car was welded in.

This is a view with the rusted area removed

Here is a view with the patch welded in.

Here is a view with the door pillar and inner panel welded in place.

Here is a view from the inside

Rust converter was used and then the area was painted black  The quarter panel was installed using the same procedure as the driver's side.