[fbrown]

Anyway, your front fender patches look great. How did you measure/cut and align the patch. I'm trying to patch both my fronts and have the materials, but not sure how to make sure the alignment is right. Any tips appreciated, since I've seen the work on yours and they look super.

The best way to make sure you preserve the contour is to use a tool called a Profile Gauge.

I found a picture of someone using a profile gauge. If you had a couple of these units you could take shapes at both ends of the panel and be certain to preserve the contour. By the way this panel is being TIG welded. Although it takes longer to weld, you don't have much of a bead to grind down and the weld bead is not as brittle. It is much quicker to dress a TIG welded bead compared to a MIG.


However I don't have a profile gauge. What I did was make a straight cut above the rusted out area and then use the cut out piece as a pattern to mark the patch panel. Then cut the patch panel to size.(CHECK THIS MANY TIMES BEFORE CUTTING) I took measurements of the fender before I cut rusted area off. Measure several times to be sure you maintain right dimensions. To maintain the contour I tack welded the patch panel to the fender in 3 places then mounted the fender and adjusted the patch with the door as my guide. Then I could make the final cut where the metal bends around the wheel well. (IMPORTANT TIP - make sure you cut the wheel well area too large at first) I also had to install the fender a couple of more times to check the fit of the inner brace where I butt welded the brace to the existing brace. This took a little effort since the reproduction brace does not quite match the shape of the factory brace. The reproduction patch already had the brace spot welded to the bottom, I cut I off since it gets in the way when you are butt welding the panels together. You should also be doing a little hammer a dolly work when you put tack welds across the panel to make sure the edges are level. I doesn't take much of a tap with the hammer to make sure the panels are aligned. If the panels are not aligned when you complete the weld, you will not be able to grind the weld bead flat without having real thin metal along one edge. If fact you may grind thought the panel it the alignment is bad enough.

TIP - To get an edge to cut by use masking tape. You can stretch the tape straight, if you don't like it pull it off and try again. I use my painters masking tape frequently to mark lines.

TIP - You can make minor changes in the fender edge contour by changing the point you spot weld it to the brace. I clamped mine with vise grips and adjusted many times before welding to the brace.

There probably was more to it than this but this is all I can think of right now.

If I remember right it took me about a day to complete one fender.