A common issue with patch panels (fix)

[65standard]

As with some patch panels, there are some fitment issue that are expected. Here is a left side cab corner patch made in the orient that just is a little off. I decided to correct this.

Here the door gap with the cab corner is folded over a little off.


To correct this, I marked where I want the folded corner to be with blue tape.


Then I used a body hammer and dolly that matched the folded edge. I held the dolly back from the corner and at my tape line. Then hammered the folded over corner until I moved it in with the tape line. I worked the edge along the tape line until I corrected the edge. Took me about 60 seconds.



The new edge.


Another view. Here you can see where I moved the corner 3/16 inward to nothing.



Then I welded the cab corner in and metal finished it.


Finally, I primered it, body caulked the seam between the rocker and cab corner, and painted it. All within three hours. Again there is zero bondo used or needed if you take the time to fit the panel perfectly and metal finish the weld. By this I mean carefully grind down the weld without heating it up too much, get it as close to the parent metal with a grinder, then correct any low or high spots with a hammer and dolly, go back and file the weld down more until to even it up with the parent metal. Then block sand the area to see if there are any small lows or highs, correct and repeat until perfect.

The end result is a perfect repair that is undetectable.


The after view.


The before view.