Wood, oak or hard maple is amazing stuff, and can take a lot of abuse. Forming sheet metal against it is a piece of cake. Here is another option, for forming short pieces, that I have on file, it could be from this site. You could also do it your vise with some similar dies mounted on angles.....something along this line. [These were made up for R+R drive shaft "U" joints.] There does not need to be a bottom to the female section, you can just beat into a crack. A rounded bottom on the male section forms the bead.
While making all the hand made tools as shown above you could have the job done as I suggested. Yes corrosion can happen between two sheets. Remember your part looks like it has compound curvature and once you have the beads made forming it to contour will be next to impossible. The original skin was mostly formed from matched draw dies. What you will mostly have to do is use a torch or/lbs of bondo to make the contour again.
Ok have it your way. All I offered was an alternate method. However, all I see above are three comments without any other ideas. Just remember not all of us can be like people like Jesse J. ,Chip F., Troy T.. With 10's of thousands of dollars of equipment and for what to impress people like yourselves or just a guy with a few bucks and a little time.
Hey, Several of the above mentioned methods didn't involve the use of '' 10's of thousands of dollars of equipment " , and trust me, I don't impress no one, not even my wife's cat!
Don't feel bad.....cat's are hard to impress And sorry if I hurt your feelings Tony, but that's not a hard piece to make with a hammer and a few pieces of steel as suggested several times & ways. There is really no reason to cobble it. You don't need thousands of dollars worth of tools or a TV show to do basic repairs of steel. The COE in question is certainly worth at least trying to do a quality repair.
nobody's mentioned this yet, and the holes are a bit big, but POR 15 makes a repair mesh, like fiberglass. when used with por 15 the stuff is rock hard. it's made for filling pin holes in floors. might be worth a try if you're not comfortable with your ability to do the metal work.
Nonsense my feelings are NOT hurt. This place I find at times it's my way or the highway attitude that gets under my skin. After looking at the last idea, then just use a pint of kitty and resin. I guess this s/b a forum of ideas and not do it my way.
If you know how... There's the rub. With my skills (and probably those of the OP), I'd be looking for a door. It seems to have rusted in a very odd spot and it may be that a door with the bottom 12" rusted away and so worthless to anyone else may be just what he needs. Maybe a wanted add for a 41 pick up door while he is considering his options is the way forward. I wonder, also, did Ford use that moulding detail on anything else?
Jack if you read the thread you will see that I already said that the easiest way to fix this was with a section cut from a spare door. Others said it too. The thing about skills is if you want to do these things you have to learn the skills. I went to college for three years (two years full time) to learn my skills. I taught people in evening classes for around twenty years on and off. I taught them techniques using hand tools and simple techniques that anyone can do with a little practice. If the OP wants to do the job himself and do a good job of it he will need to learn a few skills. If you don't try you will never learn. Either that or pay someone else to do it. David
Just in case you need other patch panels, these guys also have COE parts http://www.northernclassictrucks.com/index.htm
I truly appreciate all the insight, guys.. and as a few have assumed correctly, my current skills are very limited.. I am willing to learn, but need to balance the amount of time I spend learning with the amount of time actually completing the project. It's a complete build and I'd like my first drive to be outside an urn. I like the donor door idea, but I see two issues... 1) finding one and 2) The curve mentioned by several of you is far more pronounced here than on the door so I'd have to deal with that anyway. I think some sort of form may be the answer.. Maybe use the "hammering in the pipe" to form it idea along with the form.... Hmmmm.... curve the pipe a bit before hammering?
Id keep an eye out for a rusty pickup door . I have the same year pickup and that looks like the exact same profile. Far less time and PITA than trying to make it id press on with other stuff tell one turns up
Your on the right track. Experiment, ruin a few pieces of steel. That's how most of us learned. Better to weld in a less than perfect steel patch than give up and hack it with some bubble gum repair.
Just remember you will still need bondo on the outside there will be distortion, no matter how good your home piece is. Been there done that. The donor is your bets bet. Or................ My .02 again
I think one other point that I've been struggling with is a patch panel that connects in the "valley"... And wondering how I'd do that and get a nice groove to match after welding... However, If I leave the short, top "bump" alone and half of the middle one also in place, I can avoid that and weld on the top of the bump rather than the valley... The bottom of the lower bump is actually a seam to another panel.
Judging from the picture, I'd seam the patch on the top of the crown of the upper(or middle) "bump" On the lower seam. I'd go to the factory seam, and copy that if possible. I would also poke any pits that wont be patched with a tapered pick tool to make sure there is enough metal left. If you can push through, you'll need to weld that hole. By pushing the tool through the hole, you'll enlarge the hole back to solid thicker metal. Now when you weld up the holes you'll have much less blow out. This is simple with the torch, and still very doable with a MIG.
$.02: First strip the panel inside and out, and find out exactly how far the rust extends. You don't want to make a nice repair panel then find the area around it is too thin to weld to. Better to make the patch bigger than needed, then trim it. I share the opinion that fiberglass/ kitty hair/ POR15 etc. is not the way to go. A metal patch, very close in shape, can be made much more easily than you think now. You can make the necessary forms and calking tools out of scrap steel you have kicking around. If you plan on being involved with old vehicles that require such repair till you're ready for the urn, buy Mindover's DVD. It's worth its weight in gold, you'll learn a lot. He's a pro, you'd be amazed at the things he does with very simple, shop- made tools. I'll probably take a couple tries, don't be afraid to bail, throw that crumpled scrap of sheet metal in the scrap pile and start again. The learning curve will be steep at first, but the satisfaction of fixing it properly will be huge. Time well spent, valuable skills learned.
No not really. Your looking for thin/weak areas. Blasting removes the rust, and can remove healthy metal if over done. The last thing you want is to patch an area, only to have near by pinholes come back to haunt you after paint. I think that might be what some of the guys are missing here. A build on an old car is very time consuming and expensive. When your done, your going to put several thousands of dollars worth of paint materials on your project. Now is not the time to skimp on materials or repair procedures. Good on you to understand that and seek out and learn what it takes to do a quality job.
Someone mentioned the TV show guys... It seems like they use a ton of filler on cars.. What's the HAMB feeling on slathering the whole car as seen on TV? Replacement for taking time? Just a necessary evil?
Like Tman said, it's usually a skim coat that's mostly sanded off. Sometimes it's necessary, most of the time it's over done IMO. I can't count how many times I've removed filler only to find the actual damage is way smaller than the filled area. It's called "beach balling". It's essentially blending in a area large enough so it appears straight. Keep in mind the TV guys are under deadlines. It's defiantly the fastest way to get something straight. There is a art to taking just the right amount of filler off without having low edges, AKA undercut. Carefully and accurately cut filler blends into the metal with no sharp or hard edges. Most of the time at school when a student asks me to look at his filler work, if it's undercut, (and it usually is at first) I tell them it is from 20 feet away.
If you want to try the patch the right way, learn with some scrap sheet metal. Once you find a process that works for you I will send you a scrap of that 19 guage AKDQ to do the final piece...........which at that point you may not need anyway!
Ok! The solution to your problem is... take piese of steel and bend it till it fits. then weld it in!!! Por 15? Wath!!! The Wheels on the other hand....
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