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| Driver's side done, time for the other side |
Although work has slowed down due to business and family obligations,
not to mention the Florida summer finally rearing it's steamy head,
I've still been chipping away.
Lately, I've turned my attention to
the passenger fender. Overall, the fender is in better shape than the
driver's side. The headlight brow was gone, of course. There's less
heavy pitting, which was a pain to resolve on the other fender. The
lower quarter, however, was a little worse, requiring some fabrication to create a new edge.
When I cut the lower quarter rust away, I found the inner brace pretty pitted, but it seemed pretty sturdy so I decided to clean it up and work with it. The back edge of the fender was gone as well, but the inner brace made a good template to cut a new piece of sheet metal for the edge.
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| Rust cut out. Inner brace looks worse than it is. |
I don't have a brake, or any way to bend a good edge on metal, so I ended up lightly tapping the edge with a body hammer until I created something of a rolled edge. I then welded my little strip of edge metal to the inner brace, and then welded the lower patch panel to the rolled edge. Once I ground my
welds down, it looked pretty much like one piece of sheet metal.
The
headlight brow was a piece of cake after that. I also had to replace
the inner headlight brow sheet metal, but since I'd done this on the
first side, it went quick and smoothly.
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| New edge and patch panel |
I've laid down a layer of
all metal bondo and begun the first stage of sanding. I hope by next
weekend the fender will be prepped for paint with a smooth top coat of
filler primer. I probably won't paint it yellow until I get the hood and
trunk ready, to avoid wasting paint.
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| And the finished product |
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| Now to focus on the headlight brow |
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| More cutting... |
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| More welding.... |
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| And more grinding. Ready for primer |
