[64catdroptop]

As stated in Patricks earlier post, I did some sheet metal patch work on the '64 the past couple of days. I had to repair some of the inner fender on both front and rear.

If you look at my sig. pic. you'll see the huge rat hole I had there. I used fairly rust free 4 dr pieces I acquired from Snyder at Indiana Pontiacs a couple of years ago in anticipation of what lay ahead. After a conversation with Mike Nixon last week, I decided to take the bull by the horns and have a stab at it.

Never be afraid to show what's UNDER the paint!!

It was nice to work on my own stuff for a change. Back to working on Mike's car later this week.

Speaking of which, the last pic is the ink stamping on the top of Mike's gas tank.... United States Steel, USS, dated 10 of 1964....kind of cool,... eh?

-r-

[65WJ]

your car thanks you.
The contour lines look dead on.

Amazing that the stencil is still on mikes gas tank. that is really cool.
Will you make a template of that for future use.

patrick

[BigCat4spd]

Very nice work. MIG or TIG? Looks TIGish to me.

[64catdroptop]

Rock,

I use a MIG. I really wish I had a TIG or could use one.

-r-

[8LUG]

INLINE TUBE HAS THE SAME STENCIL FOR THE GAS TANK, NEAT ITEM, MOST PEOPLE PUT THE STENCIL ON THE BOTTOM OF THE TANK TO SHOW IT OFF. NICE METAL WORK RON

[BigCat4spd]

That's very nice MiG work. Can you get to the backside of those panels with a dolly to hammer the welds flat? It doesn't appear that you got very much draw up. How'd you do that?

[64catdroptop]

AHHH! Ancient Chinese secret!

No, acutally Rock, I use a panel flanger. It's pneumatic and it puts about a 1/2 crip, or flange the thickness of about 18 gauge on the panel. That way, when you place the panels against each other, the top surface is flat.

Those welds are flush, and by "stitching" the welds, you get very little if any warpage from welding. The flange also allows you to (and this is what I do) drill a small hole and use a self-tapping sheet metal screw to draw the joint together and hold the panel in place (exactly where you want it) before you even start to weld. I probably had a dozen screws in there before I welded. It's also very strong. Additionally, it also has a hole punch so that you can punch holes on the edge of a panel and then plug weld it to the other piece. That works very well on, say, the edge of a quarter and were it meet the trunk floor drop down. It eliminates those darn "bird ****" welds that I alway see at car shows where the quarter has been welded down below.

Those panel flangers aren't cheap. Mine ran about $75 about 10 years back, and you can't get them through Harbour Freight.

If any of you are interested in more detailed pictures and process, I can post what I do on my next piece,

-r-

[mike nixon]

I told you that patch wouldn't take long once you got on it. It looks a lot better now than it did before.

If you keep screwing around with yours you'll have two to paint shortly.


Mike

[64catdroptop]

...three. If I don't paint Miranda's MGB this year, I may not be around to paint either yours or mine!!!

[BigCat4spd]

No, acutally Rock, I use a panel flanger.

Ah, you cheat!

I have a flanger and have used it but I'm trying to butt weld everything on this car. Like you said screws work well for pulling it up. What I don't like about the flanger is that it leaves a place for moisture to collect between two surfaces, IF it ever gets back there. Given that, it will still likely last a heck of a long time.

On working some of those areas, however. I'm beginning to believe the purism isn't worth the pain. I've got an area that I'm working where I can't reach with a dolly and still hammer the welds. I need to be Inspector Gadget!

[performerrpm]

thats what i did on my car, i used the flange tool, im hoping at the end i can go to the inside of the trunk area and grind the inside flanged piece out to where theres no noticeable seam in the trunk.

you can get those flange tools with the punch at harbour freight nowadays, where i got mine at

[64catdroptop]

What I don't like about the flanger is that it leaves a place for moisture to collect between two surfaces, IF it ever gets back there.

Weldable primer!! I would also invest in a good under coat gun and buy the wand. You can really reach into places and coat them very well with rust proofing or under coat. But you're right. The metal we're replacing will probably out last us both, but I wanna make sure that my boys don't have to redo it.

Liberal use of body caulk is helpful also. Make sure you seal all the seams you can get your fingers to.

Butt welding is a good way to go, but it takes a lot of patience and exact cutting. I prefer the strenght that I get from using the flanger and feathering out inside is always a simple task. I'll have to butt weld the holes I'll fix on my front fender by the brace.

One thing I'll say Rock, is the more you work with the sheet metal, the easier and nicer you work will be. There is a lot to be said for experience. You'll never get it factory perfect (but I sure a heck try all the time). You can drive yourself nuts, or you can get 'er done and drive your car. That said, I alway take my time and do the best job that I can.

performerrpm,

Be careful about how much you grind on those welds (grinding welds weakens them) you don't want to make the metal too thin. Second, your first coat of fill/feathering should be something like Duraglass - it's water proof and if you wait too long to get onto it for sanding (a couple of days), it's like sanding rocks . Once you get it feathered out, your spatter paint will cover your inperfections and you'll never see it.

Great, Now you can get the flangers at Harbour Freight (sigh). I'll have to say,.. mine has paid for itself many times over.

How about posting some pics of your handy sheet metal work... I'd love to check it out!!

-r-

[BigCat4spd]

I've gotten to the point that I can do butt welding pretty well and I can make it look good...............as long as I can hammer and dolly it myself. When I get to places where it's physically impossible to hold a dolly and I have to get someone else to do it for me, then it becomes difficult. It usually becomes difficult because I'm not that proficient at it and the helping partner quickly loses patience.

I've finally decided that I like the welding, grinding and fabrication part best of all the restoration facets. I hate painting and am glad there are those like you that like to do it.

Whenever I get finished with my Cat, I'm going to buy a 40's coupe and chop the top myself. Then I'm going to do some other custom body work to it and make it my own.

[performerrpm]

well id like to show off my handy work but i had to leave outta state for awhile, far as i got was getting it all tacked on accorse my cars a 66 lemans the works the same i suppose. i cut the whole bottom half of quarter out and patched it in. since imma be gone for 6-8 more months instead of the car just sittin and waiting i decided to just have my frien go pick it up and tow to another friend bodyshop where they are gonna finish the quarter panels, trunk and floor pans and tailight panel, then when i get home i can just do the body work and paint which is more in my line of work anyway.


really hated to have someone else do it for me but to tell the truth, ive done everything on it myself from lifting off and putting back on frame and all the tideous stuff in between so its kind of a break.

that work you did on your car tho, thats excellent lookin and far exceeds my handywork

[poison heart]

Damn, that's looking good

[Stuart]

The latest issue of Car Craft magazine had an article about patching a trunk floor. They used an interesting method: the patch panel was cut larger than the hole, and then tacked down just to hold it in place. Then, they went around the perimeter with a thin cutoff wheel and cut through both layers to get an exact fit, minus the width of the cutoff wheel, which provided just the right gap for a butt weld. http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles...ent/index.html

[64catdroptop]

Hummm?,... that's interesting Stuart becuase that's exactly what I do when I butt weld. (Dang it... I thought that was my little trick!!)

-r-

[Engine-Ear]

Interesting technique!