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.