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Decided as the access was there, to have a go at a bit of panel beating to see if I could improve the fit of the new lower quarter. So youtube videos watched, scant knowledge gained, and off I went with my new shrinking disk, slapping file, sanding block and permanent marker. Low and high spots found and marked, slapped, coloured in, shrunk. Repeat until it feels flat. Leave what remains for filler. Prep and clean with deoxidine - bit of a horror movie moment as the remaining marker weeps out of the fine scratches and pin holes.

Start final fit of inner quarter Got some fitting issues where the rectangles meet. Think I had this panel off and on at least 30 times, tweaking the original and the replacement to get everything to line up. 2 sessions later, primed and ready to weld. Tacking and tweaking the fit

Dress the tacks down and did the plug welds onto the outer panel Some time, and a lot of wire later. As you can see I got a little trigger happy and seam welded the inner to the outer. Also found some more pin holes in the butt join of the outer to the original. Walked away, job done (apart from the hours of grinding).
Come back and realise I missed this join between the inner wheel arch repair, and the inner/outer rear quarter. Walk away again.
A week later, much mucking around to fill in something less than the size of a 20 piece. No pics of the finished weld here, but there were lots of grinds back through to nothing and weld landing in the wrong spot. Got there in the end.

After a few sessions of grinding. Had all the tools out - 36 grit powerfile, 40 grit flap disc, die grinder, dremel, DA sander on the outer panel (80/120/180/240/320) and roloc disk in air die grinder on the inner. Then a bit of wire brush on the inner for shine! Left side done

great persistence for an outstanding result

Onya Scott!!

Fabulous work mate, you can be proud of that job. No doubt you have gains some great skills there for the next job.

Regards
Stephen

Scott,

Fantastic results. Could you perhaps link to the YouTube videos? I have exactly the same inner and outer rear quarter panel repair to do on my project.

Thanks,

Rob

Very nicely done Scott

Outstanding work Scotty

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

Thats some nice work right there - you guys have SO much more patience than I do ......

Thanks all for the support.
Rob, the videos I have been watching included this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGuc06GMwG4
There are some great tips in his videos, lots of fabrication info etc. although they do ramble at times and he is trying to sell his stuff/classes. I watch them at 1.5 speed! There are 2 regarding shrinking disks- worth watching both.
The three part on using an English wheel is really interesting. I want an english wheel now.
After Blacky's link a few pages back regarding mig/tig, I am also following this guy
https://www.youtube.com/c/MakeItKustom
He is doing a lot of the same things, but in a slightly more low fi way.

funkyscooter wrote: Mon Sep 19, 2022 9:38 am Decided as the access was there, to have a go at a bit of panel beating to see if I could improve the fit of the new lower quarter. So youtube videos watched, scant knowledge gained, and off I went with my new shrinking disk, slapping file, sanding block and permanent marker.

Great work seeing your progress. Thanks for taking the time to show us all the work. How did you find the shrinking disk? Looks like it did a pretty good job in the photo.

Cheers, Andrew

Fex wrote: Fri Sep 23, 2022 8:10 pm How did you find the shrinking disk?

Hey Andrew, shrinking disk isn't magic - but pretty close if you are patient. Don't think I could get things back to original metal, but will definitely get me, at worst, to a skim coat of filler.
I did the above repair using a 5" disk which is good for small areas. You have to work an area fast enough to have it hot so it quenches. Trying to use the 5" over a bigger area and the panel starts to cool before you get any water on it.
For bigger areas I have a 7" disk, but it is in a variable speed polisher which only spins up to 4000rpm unloaded. Not sure I'm getting the metal hot enough, despite the disk literature saying it will work at 3500rpm.

Decided to have a go at a previous owners repair to the drivers side rear quarter. The two rusty areas had a bit of bog in them - one closest to the wheel arch still had a bit of a gouge in it, the other was just slightly low. Forgot to take a good picture before I started. Stripped it back - all those deep lines are from the previous repair - went pretty hard with a wire wheel in the angle grinder me thinks.
Tapped out the crease with a dolly and hammer, coloured it all in and this is what it looked like after a pass with the 7" shrinking disk in a polisher/sander. Low spots are the darker areas. Don't feel like the metal is heating as quickly as the 5" disk in the grinder, but can get a broader area hot. It works - just. More tapping, more shrinking. Then has the panel 'oil canning' - think that's what it's called. It's when the panel pops in and out when you press it. Overall needed more shrinking. Couple of passes and it went away as the metal tighted up. Quick run over with 3 polyflap disks (course/medium/fine), and this was the result.
Can't work out how to get that little one on the arch. Access is a bugger, so figured I just fill it. But now I look back, I'm tempted to have a crack. Just worried that I'll end up doing more harm than good to the area around it.

Great work Scott,

It becomes an obsession !

That little spot could be filled with LEAD if you cant get at it with your tools, Or if its small you could weld it up and grind it back to shape.

Anyway your progress is great.

Greg