Last night, I collected opinions on the situation with the nose of my 356. Aside from one individual who right or wrong believes that originality is the most important thing in restoration at all costs, most people suggested I get a replacement panel and not try to save the nose clip I already have. The consensus was that the nose panels available from Stoddard aren't very good, but the one from Trevor's Hammerworks, though more expensive, was top quality. The cost for the nose will be $1000, so I'm in no hurry to order it...ouch. If other people have a more economical solution, please e-mail me.
I got a few hours out at the garage today, and I used it to work on the repair I need to make on top of the right front fender. Here, after media blasting, I discovered existing damage that had been poorly repaired at some point in the past with a piece of fiberglass matting and then body filler. However, the job was done incorrectly, and not because of the fiberglass-- that was just using the tools available. No, the real problem was that the closing panel underneath the panel was left untouched.
From the accompanying picture, it should be clear that there is a panel underneath the fender panel. This is the top of the front longitudinal panel/inner wheel well. This panel goes vertically up behind the front wheels, and arcs back into the front fender, forming a perfect mud trap for anything thrown up by the tires to just sit and corrode metal. Unfortunately, after years of rust, on my car this panel got perforated at some point, and water got between the closing panel and the fender. This then started rusting out the right front fender from underneath, eventually requiring a repair, which was made as previously described.
The problem was, they didn't patch the closing panel, only the fender. Water/mud/crap was free to spray up through the closing panel damage even after the repair, where it sat and caused further damage. I have to fix this the right way. Not to mention that this is one of the first body repairs I've done on the car that will be easily visible when the work is complete! I haven't done an extensive, step-by-step review of how I do these more complicated patches in awhile, so if you are just picking up reading now, I suppose this is as good a chance as any. I've included critical pictures here, but more are available in the gallery.
First of all, I had to enlarge the hole in the front fender to be large enough to work on the panel underneath and completely remove the rusty metal that surrounded the previous patch. Then I had to grind and cut out all the bad metal at the top of the closing panel, and make the hole a shape that was easier to form a patch for. Straight lines are much easier to fabricate that curves! Keep that in mind for your own work.
After cleaning up and prepping for the closing panel patch, a cardboard template was formed out of a piece of a manila file folder. I got this suggestion from Jim Kellog, and I have found that the folders make much easier patches than using the much thicker cardboard from a box. Try it. Whenever I'm doing an even moderately complicated patch, I make a template, rather than taking a piece of metal and trimming it repeatedly to fit. The results have always been better in the end. Trust me, don't try to save time, you will not gain anything, and may end up having to re-do things.
I transferred the template onto a piece of 20 gauge steel, and cut it out, punching holes in the trailing edge to simulate the areas of the panel that originally were spot-welded.
The top surface of the remaining closing panel, as well as the back side of the patch were sprayed with weld-through primer and allowed to dry. Then the patch was then tack welded in place, using rather low heat-settings on the welder. I employed stitch welding for the butt welds, and plug welded through the holes I drilled to simulate the spot welds at the overlap. I then lightly ground down the welds. This patch piece is more or less invisible, so there is no sense in grinding the welds excessively; this will only weaken the weld.
After finish work, the entire patch area was sprayed with a self-etching primer, available in rattle cans. It will later be finished off with some epoxy spray paint for protection.
After finishing the closing panel repair, I moved on to fixing the edge of the hood seal area. The rust had extended into this area and made the metal unsound, so all of the area adjacent to the closing panel/fender damage was removed.
My bodyman friend/advisor Dee Lashley advised me that it would probably be easiest to weld in a new piece of metal that was taller than it needed to be, and then cut it down/shape it to fit when the actual fender patch panel was being welded in place. My last bit of time today I spent cutting a piece of rectangular metal to fit the removed hood perimeter section, and tack-welding it in place. It looks like crap now but I'm confident that I can get it put in place and looking good with very little body filler when all is said and done.
I should have a few hours tomorrow afternoon to continue working on this area. As I've said before, time is precious right now. Not a good point in the project to screw around!
