[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.

[fbrown]

And now for Dash restoration.

Since the reproduction dash goes for about $400, I decided to make an attempt to restore my dash. Since I am planning to use a Retro Sound Radio, I will need to cut my dash for the radio. This makes buying a $400 dash to immediate modify it not to appealing. Since this may not work I did the end piece first. If this fails I won't have wasted too much time.


The end piece. The wood grain is just laying on it and is not installed. I think the results are good enough.


I didn't take a picture of the end piece before starting, but this is how all of the chrome looked.



The glove box being prepped. It's primed and ready for blue dash paint. The gloss black is a base for the chrome. The edge that is being chromed was polished with a polishing compound.



Masked and ready for the chrome.


A close up of the chrome.


The product I used for the chrome. I applied the chrome with an air brush.


Now to order the Retro Sound Radio. I'm planning to mold a custom opening in the Pontiac dash for the Retro Sound Radio. Chrome the custom opening with Eastwood Chrome and it should look like the factory made it.

[fbrown]

I put a little CheapMat in today. This stuff was installed over Lizard Skin Ceramic. Banging on the roof just makes a dull thud. I did the dash and the roof, it's hard to take photo's under the dash so sorry about the quality.

[fbrown]

I thought I was about to make some good progress on getting the car back together. I painted and installed the core support and set the fenders in place. I thinking this looks pretty good for only two bolts holding it in place.



I thinking I'm ready to do final prep work, skim filler over the weld and prime. Then disaster struck, when removing what little paint remained I found filler and then swiss cheese big time.






Now I need to decide if I should try and repair this mess or buy one a reproduction fender.

[fbrown]

I decided the repair the passenger side fender after stripping the driver side. There is no doubt that this thing is beyond hope. It even looked smooth on the back side. But had been covered with a very thick under-body coating. You never know what's under the paint till you strip it.



So much for bolting the front end on this weekend

[fbrown]

Not getting much done lately, summer flu kept me in bed several days leading up to and over the memorial day weekend. Here are a few minor things that I was working on before getting sick.

Painted the welded parts of the GTO seat frame.


Here are both seats installed.


I had also stripped the rust and painted the headliner supports.


I had restored the ashtray mount. This piece was bead blasted and then clear coated.


I had started modifying the radio opening. This is the stock opening with the divider bar removed.


The tape marks where I am cutting the bezel. The bezel needs to be 5/32" taller than stock. This will allow the RetroSound Radio to fit. I was tempted to narrow the opening to the exact size of the RetroSound radio but this would create problems with the wood grain being too small to cover the opening.


The piece that I cut out is laying on top on the tape.


This is where the bezel needs to be relocated to. The open spots will be filled with a plastic compound that will be solvent welded.


I have joined the two pieces together with plastic powder and used a solvent to weld the pieces together. I'm not concerned with the textured surface since it will be covered by wood grain. I still need to fill the gaps. Of course this piece still need to be reattached to the rest of the dash but I won't do that until I finish with the radio opening.


That about it for now.