[fbrown]

I finished the basic work on the driver fender today.

Sanded the backside and cleaned with a degreaser.


Spot welded the brace at the front which had broken free when the fender got banged up.


Spot welded the patch to the brace.


The spot welder I use is sold by HTP. This welder is able to weld through primer and is automatic. Set it for the panel thickness and pull the trigger. The machine does the rest and stops when the weld is complete.



I painted the backside with an epoxy paint.


This puts me one fender away from being able to test fit the front end. Next the passenger fender.

[fbrown]

Mostly finished with the rust repair on passenger fender. I ender cutting out most of the section from the top of the fender where it bends to form a channel for the hood to sit in.

Before cutting out so much of the fender it is important to put some temporary bracing to keep the fender from sagging. Any scrap will do, this was some pieces I had collected by my cut off saw (OK I was lazy and didn't throw this junk out right away) but it was perfect for the temporary bracing.



I started cutting and for the first cut I cut out about 14 inches.



How bad was the metal? You can tell how deep the pits are in the photo, but this whole piece was about to become swiss cheese.




I didn't take many pictures of the resulting repair but you can see the completed portion here. And you can see where I had started tacking the next portion.



The next cut removed all of the channel all the way to the front of the fender. I failed to photograph the removed metal but here is the next piece tacked in and then welded.





And the final result



I have a little cleaning up to do, but hope to install the fenders tomorrow for a test fitting.

[fbrown]

It's been a while since I could work on the LeMans, I got covered up with computers to repair, recover data etc. After the storms hit I had 14 computers which took first priority for my time. (I'm self employed and own 2 companies)

I have spent about a day attempting the align the doors and fenders. Part of my problem is I don't know what the gaps were since the fenders and hood had been removed and when reinstalled no shims were replaced and the bolts were finger tight. I can't find any gap information in the service manual, maybe it's there and I missed it. I also suck when it comes to panel alignment and it probably doesn't help that I have to work alone. It looks like panel alignment is really a 2 person job. I will post some pictures in the 68-69 section asking for opinions a little later when I can get some time.

I went to install the hood on and found the hood hinges I have are wrong. The hood sits up about 2 inches in the back with the hinge at the lowest position in the slot. I ended up reinstalling the old factory hinges so I can check hood gaps, right now it looks like I would end up with about 1/8" gap. I don't know it this is enough.

It's starting to look more like a car again.


I don't know how normal this is but when everything else looks like its aligned good, the gap grows from 3/16" to 1/4" at the top of the fender where it meets the door. Assuming that this is not a screw up on my part, I guess the door or fender would need the be welded to fill this gap.


So far I have identified about a dozen items that need attention a partial list includes

1. Rework the top corner of the rear quarter panel where it meets the door
2. There is still some straighting to do on the driver fender inner bracing.
3. Passenger fender at the very bottom does not match very well to the rocker panel. This was caused by the patch panel not being formed correctly.
4. Driver fender patch panel does not match the contour of the door near the bottom. It did however match the rocker panel.

5 to ? other minor items to deal with not worth listing here.

[PontGuy]

Looks like you are making good progress!

I never measured the gaps at the top of my doors but they do seem to grow a bit where they meet the top of the fender, and no major repairs were done to the original sheet metal in this area. Visually it depends on the angle that you are looking at (see pic).

[Greg Reid]

I've spent the last two days placing the front clip on my '68 and this is the 3rd or 4th time I've done it.
The gaps were simply never as good as we're used to seeing on 21st century cars.
My car also shows a bit more gap at the tops of the doors. I also have a little inconsistency with the shape of the bottom, front edge of the door and the bottom rear edge of the dogleg of the fender. The body line of the fender and the body line of the door has a slightly different profile when viewed from the front. That's on my car at least.
You can tweak everything pretty close if you spend a lot of time and think about how moving one thing affects everything else.
Sometimes you may have to take the entire fender off because you know you need to move that door, just a weeeee bit. You just have to be willing to do it.
By the way, I think you're doing a great job. The car looks very good to me.

[fbrown]

Another day of panel fitting. I addressed the ill fitting passenger patch today. Though I might help with the alignment.

This is what I started with.


First cut a slot in the metal so you can push it in to create the proper angle.


Tack weld the bottom and then test fit the fender, nothing elaborate, just set the fender in place. This looks pretty good. The fit doesn't have to be perfect anyway since it will be covered by the rocker trim.


Removed the fender and tack welded the cut.


I spent extra time to make sure that this weld would not need to be covered with any filler.



I spent some time to square the core support with the body. I ended up sliding the core support as far as it could be solved to the left. With the core support centered between the frame x-dimension checks were off by nearly an inch. After shoving the core support as far as it would go I am only off by 1/16". This should be close enough. There should be enough adjustment in the fender mounting holes to take care of this small error.

How did all of this work out? The panels look better, still not good enough. Gaps are OK but door to rear quarter contour does not match is a couple of places. I think the only solution is to apply filler across the door and quarter panel to make the panels even. The door to fender alignment is getting better but still not what I want. I don't mind if the gaps vary slightly but want the panel to panel alignment to be perfect. I may require filler to be applied across the door the fender gap to get perfect alignment. I'm not ready to do this yet. Tomorrow I will try again to get a better fender to door alignment.

[Greg Reid]

That's a big improvement. FWIW, you probably know this, but I'd spend as much time as needed to get the door to quarter right before I did anything else with the front clip.
Everything up front is built on the door to quarter/rocker fit and alignment.
Note: Novice Disclaimer