Sheet Metal Work
I found my Comet on a used car lot in
As I got into stripping the paint, I found way more rust
and bondo that I had expected! Yes
.I
bought a RUST BUCKET!!! Below Ill show
you the before and after shots of many of the areas I repaired. I received all my inspiration and advice for
welding and metal working from the guys at www.metalmeet.com
and http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard. These
guys are amazing and what they can do and the experiences they possess. These folks strive for little to no filler
and while ALL my repairs will need some filler, with each repair, I try to get
better by following the techniques and recommendations they provide.
Front Left Pan
Before
After
Front Right Pan
Before
Left Rear Quarter Panel Pan
Under the bondo, I found my Right Rear Quarter Panel Pan was patched together with parts and pieces of sheet metal. The welds were not even ground down. The Bondo was just laid on THICK!
So I cut out the pan completely .
Another view without the pan looking aft from inside the wheel well.
Heres the replacement pan I made ready for final welding. I cleaned up the surface rust and treated with Picklex-20.
Heres the pan welded in and ready for
primer
seam sealer
and more primer before I spray the rubberized undercoating.
Ive been using the edge on my cutting wheel to grind
down the welds.
Right Rear Quarter Panel Pan
My Right Rear Quarter Panel Pan was totally rusted
through and caked with Bondo. There was
more bondo than metal so I completely cut out the lower pans behind the wheel
well.
So to start fabricating the new pan, I used PVC pipe
to bend the curve
Once I got the curve, I hammer-formed the front lip
that became part of the wheel well. I shaped
the wood to match the curvature of my
wheel well.
So heres the outside piece of my new pan
I held my outside piece in place with some sheet metal screws and turned my attention to the aft Cup (kind of making up names for the various body parts until I learn what theyre really called). You can also see the inner sheet metal in this picture.
After making my aft cup template with a piece of paper, I copied it to some sheet metal and welded it in little by little with a little on body hammer persuasion as I went.
Heres the pan from the outside all welded
in
Heres the pan from the inside ready to be cleaned up, sealed and primered
Left Rear Pillar
Not sure how a gash like this was made, but
as you can see, somebody gobbed filler into the hole.
Before
Left Rear Wheel Well
My Left Rear Wheel Well was caked with
Bondo hiding the many pieces of sheet metal used
to create a wheel well lip.
I cut out the old fabricated lip so I could create a
better one.
I created a template using a scrape piece of
plywood.
I held the template in place to take measurements to build a 3-D template of the wheel well.
I transferred the measurements and plotted them on the beginnings of my 3-D template.
I connected the dots
Once I had the 3-D template, I cut a sheet metal blank.
and now time to hammer-form away
Ready to cut, trim and weld
Left Rear Truck Channel
Before
During
with new piece cut, formed, and clamped into
place
After
Front Right Pillar
Heres the front right pillar. Is rusted through and the previous owner
filled the hole with bondo
I cut back the bad metal
I created a template
I needed to make a lip on the sheet metal for the
windshield
so I carved out the shape of the lip on a piece of
pine
I clamped the sheet metal to my template and hammer
formed it with my body hammer
and here it is welded into place
hee hee, believe
me
this and all the repairs did NOT happen on the first pass. Im just editing all the mistakes and
showing the attempts that did work.
.