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fender patches

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sp53

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Hi all, I finally got the 61 tr3 into the body shop and I posted the two fender patches I made for your viewing pleasure. I really enjoy this hobby. I made the patches and did the welding with only suggestions from the owner of the body shop. The car is at 6 Ave auto body in Tacoma and they do great work. He painted my 58 -9 years ago and it still looks great
 

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Very nice. Can I see the other side?!!
 
NickMorgan said:
Very nice. Can I see the other side?!!
Click to expand...

I'd like to see that too. It looks like you did a lap joint and then spot welded the patch in along the joint. That still leaves a seam that should be welded shut.

When I did my patch work, I tried to use butt welds wherever I could, but sometimes you have to use a lap weld. I did use them on my front wings, as being able to spot weld the repair on stabilized that big flat section so when I welded the seam shut, there wasn't much buckling or movement of the panel. As an extra precaution, after all the seam work was welded and ground down, I filled with lead.

The real masters of this art use gas/hammer welding for patch panel work. Maybe on my next restoration I'll try and learn the technique.
 
Yes I tried to post more than one picture and could not figure out how you people do that. And yes Art I used the lap joint method. I had never welded sheet meal before and never heard of the gas hammer system either. I will do some research and take a peek myself.
 
Presumably you can lead load the wings to seal the join?
 
Hi Nick I am still kinda new to adding pictures, but I think I did attach something. Next time I see someone add more than one picture and keep the limit to 1k; I will have to ask how they do. However, perhaps the emperor reprimands them.
 

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That looks very neat and professional. I am not a welding expert, so are those little tack welds that have penetrated right through to the other side of the panel?
 
Yes Nick I basically bought a tool form Harbor freight for 20.00 and it steps the metal about 1/16 by 1/2 wide on one end and the other end has a 3/16 whole punch. You start the weld where the metal is doubled then bleed it over to the whole for this kinda spot weld. I think technically it is called plug welding. The welding machine runs on 110 volts and trust me within a couple of hours you can easily do it. When I was in my twenties, I work at a sheet metal shop, so I did have some experience cutting and bending sheet metal, but it is not really that big of deal.
 
I bought the same tool from harbor freight. It works incredibly well. I did find however, that the hole punch was just a bit small, so I re-drilled each one to 1/4" and the plug welds turned out much better, for me at least. But yours look very good.

Edit: Here's the tool from Harbor Freight.
 
I made my own patch panels because it was suggested to me not to cut away the wheel arc. The body people felt that it was too much hassle to get the new piece to fit right if I cut the arch. They suggested I work around the rust and cut it out this way.
Steve
 
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