Things went so well with the fender lips, I got crazy and decided to fix the swiss cheese on the bottom of the fender under the bumperette as shown above. The completed repair is shown on the right. After this was done the car was put back in the storage side of the shop and the next PAYING job brought in the working bay. First chance I get I'll do the other fender lip and get it ready for priming.

Today was fix the fender lip day. I finally got to use the amazing magical shrinker-stretcher machine. The job I've been dreading took about 5 minutes to form the new lip and about 3 hours to cut, install, weld and grind. You can see the shape the fender was in after cutting off the rust and ragged edges left by a previous owner. The second picture shows the completed installation ready for epoxy primer and then a thin coat of body filler. After a second coat of Primer, a coat of sealer, a coat or two of sanding primer and it's ready for finish painting. Sounds a lot simpler than it's going to be but I'm making headway.

It's a day late but I got the tires mounted. I think one of the used tubes may have developed a leak at the valve stem. I checked them all thoroughly before using them. If you recall only two of the five I removed were the correct size, the others are new. Shoulda bought all new. Oh well send in another order. If any one is interested (assuming any one but me is reading this) the colors used on the wheels are Sunburst Orange metallic (2009 Dodge Caliber) and Creme Brulee (2008 Ford Edge)

I got the wheels back from the paint shop. They are sitting on the floor of the car for now. I'm hoping to mount the new tires tomorrow, if so I'll get new pictures.

This is the machine I've been working for. I have the pieces of sheet metal cut to size and bent into angle but haven't yet had the chance to try forming them into wheel well arches.

This obviously shows the side view of the hinges and the other shows the polished stainless "sex screws" that I used for the hinge pins. Upon final installation, I will use permanent grade Loctite on the threads. They have a T-20 security head on them which looks way cooler than a phillips head.

I know it's been a while since I've reported anything but I had to finish up a big Corvair job that will help pay for the shrinker-stretcher machine. More later on that. My machinist cousin finished the engine lid hinges and they look (and work) great as can be seen in the installed picture above. The other picture shows the contouring needed to seat on the curvature of the lid. If I remember it is an angle of 105 degrees off of square. See next post for more pictures.

The working bay opened up for one day so I decided to take care of a problem I had previously noticed. The area under the back "seat" had several pinholes in it. Rather than trying to weld all these closed, I decided to use POR-15 and fiberglass cloth. It dries into a hard, rust resistant finish very much like real fiberglass as you can see above. I will move the car back tomorrow to make room for a job that will allow me to purchase a shrinker-stretcher machine so I can get the rear wheel well edges done.Then it is time for primer!

As stated yesterday(9/13) I removed the cross bracing from the door openings and finished painting the bottom. I moved the car over to its parking area, freeing up the working bay for a paying job, yay!

Although it didn't go on as easily as the first one, I got the other fender fitted and welded on. It took a lot more coaxing and massaging to get it to fit and I'm still going to have to do a little lead work but I'm okay with it. Some how my cut line on the fender was not straight and I didn't notice it until I cut it which left a gap on the flange that I'll have to fill. No biggie but it irritates me. I think the next step is going to be cutting and removing the temporary braces I welded in before cutting off the old rocker panels. Should be a snap, then it's back to Corvair power train swapping. Oh yeah, I bought a new wiring harness at a good price yesterday. I'm not ready for it yet but couldn't pass it up.

The wheel well was painted inside and out and I just kept painting until the can was empty. Got a good bit of the bottom done. I also got the inside of the fender painted after adjusting the fit. I'm hoping to get the fender welded on to the car tomorrow.

This is the hole after all the rot was cut out. It is the bottom rear of the front left wheel well. Clear?
After welding in a patch it was painted with the good old POR-15 as shown in the next post.

I got the rear fender panel finished today, turned out pretty good. I also started working on the front wheel well preparatory to fitting and installing the front fender.

This just shows the extant of the POR-15 I did today, don't know why I always get a yellow reflection on POR-15 pictures .It really isn't there.

Finally got a chance to finish the patch for the rear fender front edge. While I was at it I made and welded in a patch for a rust hole in the fender well. I POR-15'd the back of the patch and set it aside to dry. I used up the rest of the can painting the fender well and as much of the bottom as I could. I will weld in the patch tomorrow and start working on the front fender and fender well.

I got the rocker panel welded on and metal prepped it today. I also started fabricating the fender patch panel. The little comma shaped things are very strong magnets out of a dead hard drive, very handy for holding things in place.

I got a chance to weld in the patches on the inner rocker. A coat of POR-15 was next. I also fit the outer rocker skin. This one is also a quarter inch too long necessitating cutting in half, shortening and welding back together. It too got a coat of POR-15 on the back side. I had to quit to babysit my grand daughter. Much more fun.

Today I started fabricating the patch panel(s) on the rear fender interior section. It (they came out pretty well. I'm getting a little bit smarter, I'm flanging all the joints that I can instead of butt welding. The little bit of extra metal backing is a lot easier to weld without burning holes in it. I think next will be the repair of a few holes in the interior of the rocker panel area and then a good coat of POR-15 before fitting the rocker itself.

I figured as long as I was cutting, I might as well go all the way so I cut the rusted out section of the rear fender leading edge, you know, the front part of the rear fender. It's going to take some major repair and fabrication to fix but it will be good practice for the fender lip itself. Any tips are always welcome assuming anyone but me reads this.

Today was cut day, I cut off the old fender bottom, the old rocker bottom and the old rear fender bottom. I also melted off all the brazing that was done by a PO and removed the "patch" panels held on by the brazing. I don't think I mentioned previously that I scraped all the old undercoating off the entire car this week. I found a few surprises but they were not completely unexpected. You can see in the wheel well picture the entire rear bottom has rotted out and will need to be replaced with something more substantial than brazing tissue paper patches on and covering with spray can undercoat. The rocker area also has some areas of rust out but will not be a major problem to fix.

Didn't get too much done today but I did get the patch metal prepped and I melted the brazing off of the rear fender lip so I could see what was under there .Not much better. I also rolled the whole rotisserie out of the shop and turned it around to make it easier to work on the drivers side front fender and rocker panel.

While waiting for the paint to dry, I heated and scraped off about three pounds of undercoating from the wheel well. Also removed and cleaned up the rubber snubber from the spring mount.

I found two pinholes in the backing metal so I put a heavy coat of POR-15 on and put a strip of fiberglass cloth in place. I then put another coat of POR-15 over that allowing it to completely wet out the cloth. When dry it is as strong as the tissue paper sheet metal the car is made of and it was easier than welding in little patches. I did fabricate a metal patch and welded it in. Didn't turn out too bad, couple low spots but that is what skim coats of body filler are for. I haven't metal prepped it yet, too hot out in the shop. I'll get it tomorrow.

This is the area I'm going to make a patch for. After cutting out the corroded metal this is what I found. I chiseled off the blobs of bondo and vacuumed out the pile of dirt at the bottom to see what repairs are needed before the patch goes on.

After a lot of trimming, fitting, trimming some more I finally got the fender welded on. Again I removed the red primer, cleaned and metal prepped the surface to prevent rusting. I think I'm going to attempt to make a patch for the rear fender next. Wish me luck!

I got all the wheels sand blasted. They are all ready to send off to the paint shop. When they return, I'll mount the new tires on them and they will be all ready to go.

I got the rocker welded in today. Ground it smooth, stripped off the red primer, metal prepped it and quit. Had friends coming up from Baltimore and Florida to visit.

The POR-15 is on but I haven't had a chance to weld anything yet, I've been working on a new roof. What else are supposed to do when it's in the high nineties??

I cut and welded the last pieces into the sub structure behind the rocker panel. The POR-15 is supposed to arrive tomorrow so possibly I can weld the rocker panel in on Friday, maybe even the fender.

After cutting out the rot, I started making patches and welding them in place in the wheel well. I also welded the rocker panel back together after shortening it to fit. Tomorrow I'll repair the rear part of the rocker area and it will all be ready for the POR-15 when it arrives.

You can see the mess left after the brass and patches were removed. I cut away all the rotted metal back to good metal ready to weld in new patch material. I started fitting the rocker panel and discovered that it is 1/4" too long. I cut it and removed the extra length, it fit perfect but I didn't weld it together nor install it until the base is repaired. I'll also wait until I get some POR-15 to paint the inside before welding on any exterior skin.

I marked the cut line for the rocker panel using tape and cut the bottom rotted piece off. Surprise! More rot. I got out the torch and melted all the brazing off, removed the bad patches and started to clean up the area preparatory for new patches.