1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[roy mawbey]

Justin that is some great work there, I was wondering how you would attempt that flange. It proves to me though you have to be very experienced to attempt this level of working. Thank you for your explanation as to why you used the table for the welding ! I forgot of course my welding job on the 356 door did not allow me hardly any room to inside the door frame to correct the error ! Of course you have all the room to correct errors if the parts are free to work around with hammer and dolly.

Anyway well done its so interesting to see you do this step by step.

Roy

[JTR70]

New flange:
Bend line etched from the leading edge of the splash pan. Checking it against the original edge for shape and placement.
New bend will be about 5mm inboard of the original but it will work out fine as this foward gap was almost zero with the doors edge before this fender was dismounted.
Finally ready to trim off the excess. Leaving about a 5mm lead from the bend line.
Then it was onto putting in an initial 90 degree flange. Starting with the flatter area first. Would become much more involved as I made my way upward into the turn.
Remounted for the first time with its new flange. Very rough preliminary bend up into the compound curve portion. I'll use the leading edge of the splash now as a hammer form to both shoulder and shape against to take this area further into a 90 degree+ bend. The new bend seats so far, tight up against the edge of the splash pan. All the while allowing the fender to remount and seat whare I had it before. This was such a critical bend to get right as it dictates the fenders mounting attitude and the eventual door gap. If I had gone off course, it all would have all been thrown off. So far so good though.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Finished up the weld seams that can be fully stitched off the car. Now onto heat shrinking whare needed and beginning to planish the weld seam. Remounted for its first test fit here.
Ready to begin trimming off the excess so I can flange a new leading edge next.
Fender was fully screwed down and mounted in its best adjust position one more time...
Now I could take my scriber to the edge of the splash pans mating flange and etch my final bend line.
Going to take a little more than a simple relief cut to get the new corner and the old fender to flow out smoothly. Will cross this bridge soon enough.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[JTR70]

Hi Roy, I used to really fear the inevitable heat distortion but now I've just accepted that no matter what you do the panels will change; grow and shrink in places along the weld joint. As long as I have clear access to work the back side of the panel I'm pretty confident I'll be able to get most if not all of it out. This is the reason I'm doing most of the weld runs (whare possible) with the fender off the car and using the table as heat sink to reduce the distortion.
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin, its a really good process of working and it all makes sense to me but I have a question. I can remember cutting about 6 inches off the bottom of my drivers door skin and fabricating a complete new section to weld in. It was perfect till I welded it ( and I was really careful ) but with my gas welding I got distortion. My question is you have taken that fender off and clamped it to your table to run a complete weld bead to finish it. I presume its Mig you are using but how do you know its all staying in place and not doing what that door skin did to me?

Do you have datums to know its not distorted? Is there a trick to know you are safe to continue the weld? Do you move positions rather than do long weld runs? Was my old but perfect operational oxy/ acetylene welding really far harder than Mig to get good results. My experience some years of mig welding was not enough to really find that out!

After your attempts on all this work which is so good I really need to know how you overcome distortion when repair panels are off the car.

Roy

[JTR70]

Right fender prep Continued.
Back to fitting and repairing the right fender. I've gone about as far as I can with tacking in that replacement section I want to leave the tail of it loose for now for potential adjustment purposes to make sure it transitions into the eventual fenders edge cleanly.
With the fender in its best adjusted position I can refit this cowl section. Its fresh out of the acid bath to remove a thick layer of rust on its underside.
After some slight readjustment this original section and the new repair strip were tacked together with the fender.
Section was moved back slightly to create the needed gap at the edge of the hood. The fender and the cowl on either side close down at the hoods edge. This will all be corrected towards the end.
Fender dismounted once again and clamped to my table a section at a time to lay in a thorough bead of weld.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[JTR70]

Thanks Roy. The Repro shape was too accentuated and deep. The original is a little shallower and in so doing matches to the fenders shape at the joint. Yes, its pretty involved area and this was the simplest and quickest way to get past this issue. Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin well done indeed on this latest bit of work. As usual so good you had a doner to cut that piece from it looks really good and as you say its a really complex form .

Roy

[JTR70]

Final pieces of the puzzle.
After a bit more preparation and fine trimming this original section was ready for its first tack weld. Had to add in another relief cut below it to allow that area to gather for a softer shape to match the profile of the original section.
Its a complex shape and area so it had to be tacked in very cautiously as it went.
Steadily fitting in there and making sure the transition into the fender stayed close.
Most of this donor section now tacked into the needed position.
Gone about as far as I can for the moment. Back to the right side fender itself.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

The original profile shape in through here was much shallower than Trevor's interpretation. That new section was too deep and stretched and not to mention hardened. Couldn't spend too much time on it so harvesting this section was looking like the better option.
I had cut the center section out of this donor nose for my buddy Dean a while back so harvesting this needed section was no sacrifice at this point. After some study I committed to a final cut line.
It ended up being short in two spots but I had the belly of it and adding on a couple of small backfill sections was much faster and simpler than trying to reshape what was there or making another section from scratch. Its complicated transitional shape through here.
Backfill section added and am now getting a close continuation profile off of the fender. This is what all the fuss was about.
One more piece to add but its a promising fit. One more view of that much softer spill way shape carrying on the fenders profile.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[JTR70]

This right side upper corner shape has been problematic from the initial fitment. Its been low and tight from the start. I made some correction as it went to get it to line up with the edge of the hood...
But now that I'm finally fitting it against the shape of the fender I'm finding this area once again too low and too tight. Original fender profile shape is sweeping down hill into the hood and by the contrast the noses' profile shape is sweeping up hill into the hoods edge. The valley is too deep and too pronounced so its running upward to meet back up with the hood. The original part is always the rule so this area of the nose has to be reshaped to match the fender.
This valley needs to soften and come up. Started out with a relief cut to allow this area to gather. You can see all the hammer marks in the surface through here so this feature is very hardened.
After a few round of hammering the valley was coming up and transitioning from the fender a little closer but a long ways to go. The valley shape below my cut was still too tight. Again, this area is very hardened and doesn't want to change shape very readily.
I began referring back to this original donor nose to find the correct contoured shape in through there.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

New section tacked in and just about ready to begin heeling the flanged edge over the wire.
Double checking the new edges contour and its continuation of the fenders profile shape.
Edge heeled over. Continues the opening profile close enough but there will be some slight adjustments as it goes. Leading edge stitched and continuing on up the rest of the way.
Stitching complete. Gone as far as I can here for now. I'll deal with the bottom loose end as the he new nose and this old fender are joined together for the final time.
Back over to the top side to address this contour transition issue I am seeing between these two panels.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

Thanks again Roy, Below is the conclusion to this patch repair.

[roy mawbey]

Oh well done Justin that was a great to look at !

Roy

[JTR70]

Lower wired edge repair:
Marked out the graceful edge contour that is needed onto this new section of 20 gauge. The only clamp I have small enough to fit inside the needed radius has a straight edge so I had to hammer in the new flange in small sections at a time.
A pain but I had curved edge that I could work with.
Damaged skin section peeled leaving the original wire intact.
It will need little straightening but fine otherwise.
New section trimmed back to final need shape and ready to install.

Thanks for looking!

Justin