Most of this work was done during last winter ('11) and involved just the front sheet metal, all of it to the fire wall as a stopping point. During this time the 80% of the wiring harness was redone, electric windshields wipers swapped in, electronic ignition and a Delco alternator adapted to replace the old generator.
There isn't much to talk about the hole process. Everything was sandblasted, any rust out was completely cut out and replaced with new clean metal. I reworked the sheet metal to 95% of perfect, the rest was mud and sanding primer. I'll comment on any thing that stands out.
After carefully taking the car apart (do no damage as possible), granted most of the nuts and bolts may have never been off since the factory, so a lot of torch work of heating up the bolt head and soaking it down with WD-40; some of the bolts still protested slightly, and all but 3 came out cleanly (one snapped, and two free spun when the backing nut let loose.
The first on the hit list was the hood, if you look at the previous posts, the spot where the hood emblem was supposed to go, was cobbled up with metal, so a new "beak" was rolled out on the English wheel to get the cup size right and then used a hammer and sand bag to create the crown. I knew there was already some sunken warpage from the old cobbling, so just the crown of the beak was t match up with the body line, and the rest would fit into the existing hole, to allow for some filler. In retrospect; I probably should of just cut the whole section out past the warpage and made the beak as a two part, but it's done and it works. I flipped the hood on the back and found a couple dozen stress cracks, two popped seam welds, and a slight misalignment (passenger side was 1.5cm longer then the drivers side from the popped welds). All these age effected spots were fixed, and then gathered up all the sheet metal and headed to Dan's to sandblast.
Quite a bit of rust out and an old patch panel was inserted (welded to the inner piece!) these parts were all cutout and the surrounding area cleaned up before adding new material.
To keep strait lines, use masking tape!
All cut out and not pretty. The inner brace needed cleaning up to get rid of the old patch and all the old bits and pieces that wrap around the edge. note I did weld a brace in before cutting out the whole spot, if i had neglected to do so the fender might have warped, and then I would have had to guess the curve and how it fit. always brace your work when cutting out patch panels.
As an experiment I made some thin strips on the backside and tack welded them in, this will be my brace and welding surface for the new patch panel.
I took a brand new piece of steal, cut slightly larger then the patch I was going to make, this is necessary; as I work the metal, it allows me refine the shape slowly and excess is easily trimmed off.
For anyone who has not tried out one of these wheels, they really are fun (at least until you slip your fingers between the two wheels). The basic principles behind these:
- Use a die that's at or slightly more rounded than the curve you want to make.
- How much vice pressure between the wheels count, the more pressure the more stretching of the steel happens and the quicker the work gets done, though too tight and you quickly destroy your work by over stretching.
- Direction always counts, for a simple curve; only move the piece in one direction, don't rotate it. For complex curves, rotating the metal is necessary and possibly switching out different dies depending on the desired shape.
- Don't rush yourself, it will take time to learn and feel the shape your going for.
Lots of small trimming was done to make sure it fit perfectly, then using clamps to keep the metal from moving while welding, I made little spot welds every two inches to keep the fender from overheating and warping. this process was repeated over and over, letting the surrounding area cool before adding more heat. Finally everything was ground down, and the final result was a small valley along the weld that's easy to fill in with plastic filler later. Remember plastic filler or 'mud' should never be more then a 1/4 inch, preferably less than 1/8 if possible.
Under the headlight was worse then Swiss cheese. There were many ways of trapping road grime and mud up under there originally where the moisture could sit happily for a long time slowly eating away. There was not much for me to work with as it had to all be cut out and replaced. As before I marked off an area that covered all the damage and welded in some braces before cutting out the piece.
My first step was making little flanges I can work with later when the patch panel goes on top, this also adds strength and build out the areas that had to be trimmed to the quick.
Isn't that a funny piece to make. If I had to do it over again, I would have built it in two parts that are show below (still welded together). I like using tape when making body lines, it has some flexibility for sweeping curves but helps pull lines strait when you need them.
The general shape is what I'm going for to start with, never rush this stage, for the most part, hammer and sand bag were used to get somewhat close, but to make those complex curves the torch was needed to get the metal nice and red and really bend it to my will.
Some comparison shots of the old and new pieces, once again this piece was off and on several times before welding into place. The ring lip was left off as it was not important yet to squish that curve in at the same time.
The headlight ring lip, very crude shape to start with, but with time to slowly get it were I wanted.
I put the headlight bezel on to verify the metal came up to meet the bezel perfectly before final cleanup. I was happy with the end result.
The passenger fender was not as bad, but the same steps were taken to finish up.
That's it for the fabrication on the front. next up blasting and plastic filler, primer and paint.
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