More Driver Front Fender - May 10, 2020

The weather was gorgeous yesterday.  I continued to work on the driver fender this weekend - mostly just doing the metalwork.

1) I mostly repaired the minor collision damage and moved the metal back into better position with some hammer and dolly work.  After I get the fender installed, I'll have to do some more work to make sure everything lines up well with the body.  I had to cutout a small damaged section - it was deeply creased and had a flange behind it.  I messed with it for a while, and then decided it would be faster and easier just to replace that small piece of sheet metal.  I used a 3" pneumatic cutoff wheel to cut the hole.  Then, I used tape and a sharpie to make a template.  My Swag\Milwaukee vertical bandsaw made it easy to cutout the piece.  I need to do some more metal cleaning and weld-thru primer before I weld in the patch.

This picture inspired by Mark:







The patch fits pretty good, but needs a little final fitting with a 3" pneumatic sander.



2) Fix the rust through areas - this was pretty easy.  Drill out spot welds, then mostly body saw and a little bit of 3" cutoff tool.  I need to do some more metal cleaning and weld-thru primer before I weld in the patches. 



The tape template method works pretty well:




The Swag\Milwaukee bandsaw really is a great tool.  The long exposed blade isn't great, and I am extra careful around it:





3) Weld a patch on the wheel well lip - This is surprisingly easy with the right tools (shear, brake and stretcher).  Shear a strip of 20 gauge, bend it, and stretch it to fit the curve.  

I'm not done yet, but you can see the progress


The strip picks up a little curve from the shearing action, but this is 20 gauge, and it straightens easily:



Showing off my Harbor Freight bender:




Original after bending:


1" marks are made as reference lines for even stretching:




Did very little stretching, but you can see the good progress.  More stretching needed to match the curve. 


After final fitting, I'll trim the flange back to match the factory width:


Still to come:
4) Weld up all the patches and repairs, and the random holes.  No hurry on this - I will do it all at the same time. 

5) Finish cleaning up the seams and inside corners (this will be no fun)

6) Get some epoxy primer on it