some cars they just don't make patch panels for! techy

This 54 merc has been quite the project lots of rust and bondo. I think they works on it before at coblle son lucaz auto body. well a few months ago I bought a 250.00 shrinker stretcher off of the ebay I never really used on before but I had the extra dough so I decided to give it a try so here are my first peices. rotten lower fender

 

first pic is of shrinking a peice of 16 gauge sheet metal that previously broke. the bottom curves pretty good so I had to slice it with a cutoff wheel and reweld it. then I t6acked the fender to the door to get a body line and started the install

 

so that peice is in I have to make the main peice. I made a poster board template of the patch I needed and cut it out. then I rolled it on my handy dandy roller over my leg and then beat the rolled edge on the beater bag

 

here she is kinda tacked into place

 

again I used the shrinker stretcher for the leading edge of the fender as well a lil more tricky it has the lil flat spot on the roll of the fender but it worked out slick.

 

now I just gotta take it off and make an inner brace

 

next the quarter very scary

 

then I made another posterboard template of the cutaway quarter. a lil overlap on the metal still on the car that I will cut away later..

 

then I laid out the pattern on some 18 gauge this trip a lil more ease in shaping

 

this time i needed a tight roll on the bottom edge so I used the lil roller

 

then I tack welded the quarter into place and cut through both panels so I could***** weld it together

 

well with the quarter in place I whipped out this lil snake with again the shrinker stretcher combo. it's the new wheel well lip pretty nifty I love this new tool

 

here it is getting tacked into place

 

I kind of based my quarter off of the original skirt the last chump who worked on this forgot the skirts were in the trunk and did not bother to try and fit em. but they will work now after a lil trimmin

 

here she is all done and readdy for a lil mud work. hope this helps some of you guys out that have those hard to patch up cars. it's very doable just start cutting...later drew

 

Outstanding Drew! Youse guys got some cool stuff going on there.

Thanks for sharing.

Joel

 

somebody say TECH-O-MATIC!!!??


great post. thanks.

 

Nice work!

 

You da man. You are my shining star.

Maybe someday I'll get a phone that doesn't cut out.

I found this and several others about 10 minutes after the phone quit.

 

Wow Drew that is excelllent work! You have a great talent!

Justin

 

Nice job Drew. I'm sure that will inspire others to tackle a job they might have thought wasn't do-able.

 

5 Stars! We dont need to buy any steenkin patch panels.

 

Drew: GREAT JOB. Thanx for posting that info. What brand shrinker is that?

 

aaron you are to late on that pickup I alreaddy put money down on it. hahaha

The brand of the shrinker stretcher it just says made in usa. I think the guy on ebay was out of ohio. it was a buy it now for 250 well worth it.

Just remember to mark your peice of metal every inch or so it give you a guide when using the machine. then you won't find yourself going back and fourth shrinking then stretching. and don't be affraid to bare down on the tool to make it work on 16b gauge but the 18 gauge steel bends pretty easily. later and go make some quarters

 

Nice work Drew.
I was looking for a shrinker/stretcher but ended up with a
sheet metal brake instead. Couldn't afford both.

TZ

 

You know, for******s like me that is pure magic. Thanks for the post abomber, keep 'em coming.

 

*clap-clap-clap*
*whistle-whistle*
*clap-clap*
Bravo!!!

JOE