BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Of the rust converting products I've experimented with on my multiple truck projects and now the Skylark, I still like Rust Mort the best. Its the easiest to use and neutralize.
Second (driver’s) side is welded up, trimmed and hand filed. Cleco holes filled, and a skim coat of fibreglass reinforced filler on the backsides to improve strength, fill in the grinder marks, and make it look unmodified.
It’s highly unlikely that the backsides of these areas will be visible once they’re welded in the fenders, but I can’t say with 100% certainty that they won’t be. It might be possible at just the right angle to see these areas through the holes in the inner fenders.
The hallmark of a successful mod is being unable to tell that anything was done, so in this case we want the backsides to look as nice as the outsides. The filler has already been block sanded out, and the thinnest skim coat of polyester glazing putty applied to make it truly invisible. (No pictures yet though)
I actually wasn’t going to bother with this additional step, but since I have to epoxy prime the backsides before seam sealing the inner edge of the round stock pieces, why not take an extra hour or two to make it really nice.
With any luck, tomorrow night will entail sanding the polyester putty and shooting them in epoxy. Again with any luck, Tuesday will be seam sealing the round stock, stripping back the primer on the fenders, and then at that point they’ll be ready to start welding them in.
It’s highly unlikely that the backsides of these areas will be visible once they’re welded in the fenders, but I can’t say with 100% certainty that they won’t be. It might be possible at just the right angle to see these areas through the holes in the inner fenders.
The hallmark of a successful mod is being unable to tell that anything was done, so in this case we want the backsides to look as nice as the outsides. The filler has already been block sanded out, and the thinnest skim coat of polyester glazing putty applied to make it truly invisible. (No pictures yet though)
I actually wasn’t going to bother with this additional step, but since I have to epoxy prime the backsides before seam sealing the inner edge of the round stock pieces, why not take an extra hour or two to make it really nice.
With any luck, tomorrow night will entail sanding the polyester putty and shooting them in epoxy. Again with any luck, Tuesday will be seam sealing the round stock, stripping back the primer on the fenders, and then at that point they’ll be ready to start welding them in.
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That's just the attention to detail I was talking about- putting icing on the backside before shooting it. Most people I've spoken to about this sort of thing wouldn't even work the backside because "nobody will see it" and would stop at squirting it with Rust-Oleum. With my luck that would be immediately visible with the hood up, but I say nobody should be able to find the work even if handling just the fender itself. And that's exactly where you're headed, like we knew you would be.
liquidh8
Comic Book Super Hero
I did the same thing with the round stock on the wagon rear wheel well openings, a bit more work, but works like a charm and looks "finished".
Negative. It’s completely unnecessary, would create more likelihood of warping and isn’t worth the effort. That’s why I said this:
Ahh.... I missed this portion. I considered doing this but the thought was to use 3M Panel Bond to seal & create a smooth finish that would possibly add a little more strength @ the lip.
Just a real brief update for this morning, I got the putty block sanded out last night, gave them both a real good cleaning, and proceeded to mask them up.
I ran a strip of 3/4” masking tape around the perimeter of the areas to be welded, we don’t want any epoxy in these areas. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing the smell of burning epoxy, you’ll know why. It’s a real treat. That, and we don’t want any foreign material contaminating the welding surfaces.
Once the upper perimeter was masked off, I back masked the entire outsides of both pieces, quickly threw together a spray table from my folding stand and a large piece of sheetmetal, then masked them up on the table.
Two medium wet coats of epoxy later, and I was done for the night.
Tonight we seam seal the inner round stock edges, and start stripping back the primer on the edges of the fenders in preparation for welding these in.
Why am I posting the minutia of every little detail on these? Just to illustrate how much “behind the scenes” work goes into even the simplest little modification. This is the kind of stuff nobody sees or talks about, but is so important in pulling off a successful end result.
D.
I ran a strip of 3/4” masking tape around the perimeter of the areas to be welded, we don’t want any epoxy in these areas. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing the smell of burning epoxy, you’ll know why. It’s a real treat. That, and we don’t want any foreign material contaminating the welding surfaces.
Once the upper perimeter was masked off, I back masked the entire outsides of both pieces, quickly threw together a spray table from my folding stand and a large piece of sheetmetal, then masked them up on the table.
Two medium wet coats of epoxy later, and I was done for the night.
Tonight we seam seal the inner round stock edges, and start stripping back the primer on the edges of the fenders in preparation for welding these in.
Why am I posting the minutia of every little detail on these? Just to illustrate how much “behind the scenes” work goes into even the simplest little modification. This is the kind of stuff nobody sees or talks about, but is so important in pulling off a successful end result.
D.
Not just that, but to document the build process for a brag book! Plus, you have all sorts of "before" and "after" comparison shots. Oh, and reference to if/when you ever decide to do just one of the mods again on another car or to help someone else out. You know the ones...if I could just remember what I did last time, I think I would have done it like.....and those who claim they'll always remember, you're not old yet. Trust me, trying to remember sh*t you did 20 years ago seemed like you'd never forget, but as they say, "Time heals all wounds." They never finish that statement by adding "...and puts fuzz on nearly all memories."
I know that many people don't care to pore through someone's brag book at car shows, but I absolutely love them due to the fact that you get to see what the owner started with and sort of re-live their experiences through pictures without the grease, grime, and busted knuckles. ESPECIALLY if you've been there and done something similar that you can relate to. There's something about taking a car that you love all apart and putting it back together again. Yours and the car's souls meld together for that special bond. 🙂
Some very good progress has been made since my last update, starting with laying in the seam sealer once the epoxy had cured and the flares unmasked.
These obviously won’t remain unfinished like this, these will get revisited once they’re fully welded in and the bodywork is done on the outside.
With the seam sealer step done, I could finally start fitting them to the fenders, beginning with the passenger’s side. An assortment of sheetmetal welding clamps held it in place and provided the necessary gaps between the pieces for good penetration.
It was at this point that I decided to use a little garage ingenuity to make an attachment to help with the welding process. I took one of my long reach locking C channel vice grips and an old piece of copper plate I had, and attached the copper to one of the clamps’ pads with some double sided tape.
I attached the plate to the pad purposely offset, so once it was in place, I still had the copper backup where I would be welding to prevent burn-throughs:
Time to start burning some metal. Beginning in the middle, I carefully and meticulously tack welded the flare to the fender in all the critical fitting spots.
Once I had this established, it was just simply a matter of continuing to align the faces perfectly flush and adding tack welds until I had roughly a half inch between them.
Then go back to the middle, and start the process over again until it was fully welded and ground smooth.
I have a personal rule of thumb that dictates no more than 3 tack welds back to back at a time, before I have to stop and quench the area with compressed air. This keeps the distortion down to a minimum and minimizes the amount of warping.
It was at this point that I now had the entire arc completely welded and ground down, the easiest part done:
Now for the trickier parts, the bottom ends where the flare has to transition into the curvature of the fender sides. I began with bending up a 2” wide by 4” long piece of sheetmetal into a 90 degree bend:
Holding it up to the fender/flare unmodified, you can see where it was destined to sit, but needed some manipulation to match properly:
Enter the shrinker/stretcher tool, this type of application is exactly what it was designed for. After a couple of stretches and test fits, it now had the curvature it needed to flow seamlessly between the pieces:
It didn’t need to be as big as it was, so after a little trimming, I had it fitting reasonably well for welding it in.
Continued… >>>
These obviously won’t remain unfinished like this, these will get revisited once they’re fully welded in and the bodywork is done on the outside.
With the seam sealer step done, I could finally start fitting them to the fenders, beginning with the passenger’s side. An assortment of sheetmetal welding clamps held it in place and provided the necessary gaps between the pieces for good penetration.
It was at this point that I decided to use a little garage ingenuity to make an attachment to help with the welding process. I took one of my long reach locking C channel vice grips and an old piece of copper plate I had, and attached the copper to one of the clamps’ pads with some double sided tape.
I attached the plate to the pad purposely offset, so once it was in place, I still had the copper backup where I would be welding to prevent burn-throughs:
Time to start burning some metal. Beginning in the middle, I carefully and meticulously tack welded the flare to the fender in all the critical fitting spots.
Once I had this established, it was just simply a matter of continuing to align the faces perfectly flush and adding tack welds until I had roughly a half inch between them.
Then go back to the middle, and start the process over again until it was fully welded and ground smooth.
I have a personal rule of thumb that dictates no more than 3 tack welds back to back at a time, before I have to stop and quench the area with compressed air. This keeps the distortion down to a minimum and minimizes the amount of warping.
It was at this point that I now had the entire arc completely welded and ground down, the easiest part done:
Now for the trickier parts, the bottom ends where the flare has to transition into the curvature of the fender sides. I began with bending up a 2” wide by 4” long piece of sheetmetal into a 90 degree bend:
Holding it up to the fender/flare unmodified, you can see where it was destined to sit, but needed some manipulation to match properly:
Enter the shrinker/stretcher tool, this type of application is exactly what it was designed for. After a couple of stretches and test fits, it now had the curvature it needed to flow seamlessly between the pieces:
It didn’t need to be as big as it was, so after a little trimming, I had it fitting reasonably well for welding it in.
Continued… >>>
