Repairing a few doors & fenders

[LILRED66]

I have been culling through my doors and front fenders, finding the best ones and repairing the rusty areas. Here a few pictures of my progress.

[LILRED66]

and a few of a front fender and high hump tranny cover for my '66 Chevy K10 with a Turbo 400.

[joe231]

nice work Tony!!!
keep it up!!

[Alan's Classic]

X2

[TimE]

with them!!

[LILRED66]

How about a fender nose repair? Or should I say, fixing someone else's attempt at a fender nose repair. I cut out the old and welded in a new piece from a donor fender with a good nose, but a rusted rear section.

[joe231]

if you got pics, i've got the time

[Dinos63]

nice work tony,but whats rust?

[joe231]

Originally Posted by Dinos63

nice work tony,but whats rust?

rub it in

[LILRED66]

Sorry for the quality of the pictures...my digital camera is acting up.

[joe231]

sweet!!

[protrash64]

Nice work. After buying one re-pop fender it was my last. I have decided that this is the way to go to get quality parts and have a fender waiting for this type of attention. Dollar-wise I'll be ahead of the game.

Thanx for posting the pics Tony.

[protrash64]

Givin' this a bump......and its Tony's fault. After posting earlier I went out and dug out a fender I picked up and started checking it out. It looks kinda bad in the pic but its not too shabby. Rust in the lower corner as usual, but the inner support is still decent. Has a couple dents and Im looking forward to trying to get them pounded out. Ive got 1/4 can of Duraglass for anything that I cant figure out.

[joe231]

hey Tony,
what do you charge for the repaired fenders and doors, with exchange?

[LILRED66]

Joe:

A good, used, rust-free door shell goes for $175.00 each or I sell pairs for $325.00. I have never taken a shell as a core, but I would consider it.

A good, used, rust-free fender goes for $125.00-$150.00 each or I sell a pair for $225.00-$275.00.

I am going to start giving a core credit for door shells and front fenders, so I have some to repair and resell. I will also fix other people's sheet metal, if they need someone to perform the repairs.

I cut out the rusted or damaged areas and replace with good sheet metal patch panels or sheet metal from a donor door shell or fender. I do not apply a skim coat because most bodymen prefer to do their own filler work, so they know what they are painting over.

[CSoliz]

Tony, have you given any thought on doing a "how to replace fender tip and /fender brace's for our trucks" thread? I have read so many people talking about their repairs, but I have never seen it done step by step. I will be giving this a shot on mine and would like to see how you do it. Your pics above are good, just would like to know how you placed the sheet metal together and how far you measured up before cutting. Do you overlap your sheetmetal or but them together? Thanks.

[LILRED66]

CSoliz:

Thanks for the suggestion. I have documented these repairs with numerous photos, but only posted a few of them, so I didn't bore everyone.

The first and most important thing I do is remove all paint and surface rust from the damaged areas. By doing so, you get a good picture of the limits of the damage. I do this with a 3" Rolock paint stripping disk, in lieu of a sanding disk, because it only removes paint and will not cut into the sheet metal or overheat it. Also, it makes welding the patch panel easier and renders a superior quality weld, since the impurities are removed from the heat zone.

I remove the damaged area with a zip wheel in my cutoff tool and hit the cut edges with my Scotch Brite disk again to ensure the edges are eased. When doing a fender tail, I lay the patch panel over the fender, secure it with vise-grips and cut thru both panels. By doing so, the cut edges match. I then use the butt-joint clamps, to hold the panel in place, as well as, keep a consitant gap.

I recommend an auto-darkening helmut because you can keep focused on the area without having to lift your shield repeatedly, in order to do the small arc strikes every 1/2" or so, to avoid overheating and warping the sheet metal. By repeating this process, the entire length of the welded area is filled in. If possible, I also weld the back of the joint, in the same fashion, so when top dressing the front of the panel, the joint maintains its structural integrity, regardless of how much material you remove when cleaning up the weld.

I top dress my weld with a flap disk in a 4" angle grinder, followed by a zip wheel and a burnishing disk.

Butt joints are the method I prefer, but I have also back-flanged panels before and punched holes with my flanging tool and puddle welded the two panels together. Both methods work well and it is sometimes dictated which method you use by the type and location of the repair you are doing.

I hope this information is helpful and I will be developing a play-by-play pictorial of a fender tail repair and a door skin repair in the near future and thanks again for the suggestion.

[CSoliz]

Tony, that is good info. Thanks for that.