[Shiny]

Originally Posted by skunkwerks

I would not weld that seam until you have re-shrunk the stretched metal from that accident.
You need to get a porta power set from Harbor freight and push from the inside of the trunk caddy corner to the other trunk floor deck lid brace and get that rear portion pushed out more. That is causing most of your problems.

Thank you! This is the kind of help I need. I will hold off welding until I finish doing what I'm able with the contours.

I have been working under that same goal of restoring the rigid lip at the bumper cut-out as a first step. Without a port-a-power, I started with a wooden lever as I shared early in the thread. It has more than enough force to deform the lip and QP outward.

I can see it in the shadow of your body line on the Eyebrow detail for the QP. Still pushed in about an inch or so.

That needs to be addressed first.

I will go back and measure, comparing with the other side. I know it was still in too far after my first session but thought I was close yesterday. I will go back and work harder at getting the lip where it belongs before moving on. Thank you for the observation.

Then you need to strip the paint in the damaged area and heat, shrink the stretched area using a propane torch or acetylene torch and cool with wet rags. Then use the hammer and dolly to work that area back into shape. Rear corner first. You may still need to porta power the inside while you heat it up and shrink to hold the shape.
Do little dimed sized heated areas along the worst part of the rear crease. You will instantly see the metal tighten back up and the whiskey can affect
disappear.
Just my 2 cents

Good description, thank you.

I don't have a torch but have a shrinking disc. I could also use the stud welder I bought. It will heat locally in a controlled way. I remember seeing others describe using a graphite tip on their MIG welder for shrinking but mine is too cheap to allow that. I think the stud welder is a good alternative to try.

I did remove a good amount of compression/buckling from the upper QP yesterday. I think this was more from pushing the lip outward and to the rear as you are guiding me and hopefully, I won't need a lot of shrinking..... TBD

Mike

[Shiny]

Spent a little time on it again today. Straight edge comparison between good and bad sides told me I'm getting the lower edge at the bumper cut-out close to where it belongs. Definitely not off by an inch, still too bumpy to put a number on it.

I hit a high ridge near the original vertical crease with the shrinking disc and am starting to try and smooth the damaged area out. So far, the rigidity in the upper panel is holding... the oil-can has not returned. Yay!

Here's where I ended today... gnarly but I'm optimistic:

[theamcguy]

The only way to get both sides dimensionally equal is to first pull the lower edge out then straighten. You will not get the two sides equal by straightening with a hammer dolly. All you are doing is moving the metal within the set dimension flat, but not increasing the dimension. The only to do that is to pull. Back in the 70s when a car came in with the type of damage you had, the first step was to pull until both sides measured equal, then straighten.

[Shiny]

Thanks for the help.

Can you clarify "lower edge"?

I understand your point and will think about "how" and "what" to measure. This by itself is a challenge for me. I am counting on the rigidity of the body line and upper bend along the top edge of the QP to anchor the contours.

I'm going to work on straightening the damaged area next. If, as you say, there is still obvious buckling, compression, or distortion in the panel forward of the damage, I'll keep trying.

Pulling as I did helped and I can do more of that. I can also get a cheap porta-pull for about $100 if I think that will help. Beyond that, I'll probably just continue living with my limitations!

Mike

[Shiny]

Spent another couple hours on it today. I don't think I will have to do any more pulling as the contours are getting close.









Next will be to flatten this ridge, then I will weld the tear inside the bumper cut-out.



Mike

[400 4spd.]

Nicely done!

[Shiny]

I welded the tear and holes today, went good enough.

Need your input on the tricky stuff now... I appreciate all the help so far from people with experience.

Here's about as good as I'm capable on the welding. Yes, that's another tear under the lip on the back edge but I'm not worried about that as it won't mess up the body.



After welding, I used a long steel rule as a straightedge. Keeping it fixed horizontally on the driver side as a reference, I found the panel was nearly straight (very low curvature) until it hit the fender cut-out or radius into the deck lid. It's a compound curve in a vertical section but not much horizontally.

On the damaged side, I then mapped out deviations from these near-straight horizontal paths. Circles are high, dots are low. The high around "4" is not more than 1/16" crowned over a length of about 4". Same with the low over the big dot area ("3"). A lot of what you see at "3" is just texture differences from grinding. Basically, the remaining deformation is like a big shallow wave from 2 to 3 to 4.

The highs at "1" and "2" are much more "local", more like ridges than the overall panel curve issues at 3 and 4.



My thought is I need to reduce the curvature at 4 just a little without messing it up. I can fill some at 3 without injuring my pride but I know the low area may still be pushing the high region at 4 out a little. I'm reluctant to hit area 4 with a shrinking disc. I know I could mis-read the whole thing and make it worse if I over-shrank and there is no localized deformation.. just seems bowed out from a little compression still.

If I have to shrink the low area at 3 I'm not sure how, as I don't have a torch, just a shrinking disc... maybe I can do it from inside the trunk...

My plan for now is to try shrinking the high spots near 1 and 2 with the disc before touching anything with a hammer/slapper/dolly again... maybe a little more work right around the lip, then see if this tightens up 3 and 4.

Advice is welcomed.

Mike

[VCho455]

If it were me at this point I would shoot a guide coat so the areas out of shape would be better defined.

Your doing great work! Better than virtually every collision shop today.

[Cammer-6]

Originally Posted by VCho455

If it were me at this point I would shoot a guide coat so the areas out of shape would be better defined.

Your doing great work! Better than virtually every collision shop today.

Hence why I like using a bumping file
even a light pass will show the defects

[Shiny]

Thank you two.

I bought long rigid sanding boards for the valance last year. I like the scotchbrite discs for cleaning up and the texture change from a quick pass with 100 grit on a long board makes defects obvious. I also have some dyekem spray but the dust is nasty so I don't use it as much. It does make everything jump out though...

I'm still working on the big stuff. My challenge isn't finding the issues, it's guessing what to do about it!

I'm still trying to get the "lip" at the bumper cutout where it belongs (pink dashes). It is very rigid and "anchors" everything. The straightedge told me I had pushed the lip about 1/16" too far "out of plane" where circled in pink. So yesterday I knocked it back in while pushing on the low spot below "3" with a flat dolly from the inside.

I think this helped some but I have to watch how the big waves change and will use the sanding boards as you suggest.

I also ran the shrinking disc over the "local" bumps at "1" and "2". I think this did tighten up the panel and pull the crown at "4" back in but not quite back to "flat" yet.



I'm going to try and improve the body line where it meets the lip before I go after the waves again.... and probably fill the 2 holes I left when I welded the tear

Mike

[Shiny]

Another session today with more progress. I have more dolly work to level out some local ripples but the lip seems to be where it needs to go and the big waves are getting harder to find.

The end of the body line proved difficult to move so I decided to add some weld as a filler. Good idea, but execution was my typical mediocre and needs more work.

The end is near.



Mike

[Shiny]

Looks familiar to me! Not sure I like being in a club, but whatever.

Thanks to post toastie for sharing the video here:

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=885521

[Shiny]

After some time off, I just finished the first pass with epoxy primer and filler.

I have a couple places to tap/slap down, but overall, I'm happy with this. The location of the bumper cutout edge seems good enough. The edge is mostly metal. High spots I will hit are in orange, green needs filler:



I will have to add more weld to bring this lower edge out and it will also need filler, but overall contour seems OK to me so far. Body line is good:



This inside concave area will need filler but I'm fine with that. The metal along the cutout edge makes me happy:



Mike

[Shiny]

I whacked it some more, did another pass of filler, and blocked. Knowing I'm not good at letting the block do its job, I decided to coat the whole thing with a "glaze" and block it again. This worked well and I declared it close enough.

[Shiny]

After smoothing out the inner lip of the bumper cutout, I primed it today. This is probably where I will leave it. Way better than where I started, learned some stuff, and I'm happy enough.

Thanks again for the good advice!

Before:





After:





Mike

[Shiny]

Do you see the "before and after" photos in the previous post? They show up on my PC but not on my phone. This is a weird one...

[Cammer-6]

no,and no

[Shiny]

Tnx for letting me know. Try again...

BEFORE:





AFTER:

['ol Pinion head]

Great results!

[Bruce Meyer]

Nice work Shiny