Grrrrrr patch panels that don't fit
 

Well I spent a while today repairing the pass lower front fender area that always rots out. I cut 1/2 " below the body line on the fender and then just above that on my patch so that I had a little room to adjust. I had measured it every way I could think of trying to verify that they were the same and would be close if I referenced the body line on both. Well the two fit like a round peg in a square hole. The only way I could make it fit was to remove the inner from the new patch and then tweak away. I didn't remove any more material just a bit of hammer and dolly and one relief cut. Everything came out OK when I welded it up. When I compared it to another fender the darn thing was 1/2" shorter up and down and the the inner apron wouldn't line up.

The moral is if you use one of those patch panels be real careful the one I got was waaaaaayyyyyy out.

I am going to see if the inner fender can be made to work with this misfit fender now. If it does I'll be the only one that'll notice but it still really ticks me off. :mad: Anybody know if somebody makes a really good one of these patch panels or are they all the same?

I dont know if they are all the same,but I put one on awhile back about 1/2" below body line same as you did and had no fit or length problems. I don't know who it was made by though. Good luck with it .John

Just out of curiosity where did you get yours ,I am fixing to do the same thing .

I got mine from JC Whitney. It was a pain in the ass, but mine fit OK. You have to do all of your measuring several times until you're absolutely sure that all will look right. Use the other side for reference, and just do a couple of tack-welds to get it in place, then go back and compare the two sides and make sure that everything lines up before you weld it solid.

Thanks Randy I was looking at several different sources whitney is one of them

Measure twice,cut once! lol

Heh I did measure twice and three times and four times but when all you can get is a circumfirential # to verify a linear distance it's still tough to say for sure.............Untill you compare it to the other side. The moral is compare to a good opposite fender before ya weld. And I will when I fix it right. If I leave it like this it'll bug the He11 out of me.