I'm about to replace cockers and parts of front and rear fenders. Before I cut out the old metal, I'd appreciate some advice.

1) Should I just cut out the bad sections and attempt to cut the edges of the replacement panels to perfectly match the sut on the car (which seems hard to get right), or,

2) Should I try to clamp the replacement panel to the car and cut through it and the car at the same time. This seems like it would result in a perfect match.

Is there a coimmonly accepted "best"way?

Many thanks!

Oooops. I meant rockers

The absolute best way is to cut the replacement section a little longer than the original, while putting a "kink" along the overlap section. So that when you lay the repair panel under the orig. panel, the two pieces lay flat creating a nice level seam. Stitch weld it then use filler to smooth and you'll have a nice blended repair patch. Eastwood's has a tool for making that "kink", some sort of crimping tool.

My Dad used to use your 2nd method when replacing rear qtr panels on cars. Use the thinnest cutting disc you can find to minimize the gap that is left after the cut. And make sure you do small stitch welds to keep from warping the metal. I would slowly weld the entire cut, then grind down smooth and fill where necessary.

KMack,

Many thanks for the advice. I think, since I have at least four patches to make, that I might use this as an opportunity to try several methods to see which one works best for me.

If you have any scrap pieces of metal laying around. Try a few samples off the car to see how hard it is to do or how good it turns out. Always best to practice off the car first.

http://www.eastwoodcompany.com/itemdy00.asp?T1=31015&Dep_Key1= that's the flanger you need. The tool that "restored" my car before me just welded pieces of sheetmetal over the rusted parts and put 1in of bondo on top. :stupid: I thought my car looked a little big compaired to other Zs.

http://www.eastwoodcompany.com/itemdy01.asp?T1=31021&Dep_Key1=BodFen

Actually this is what I was talking about. It creates a flange that can be overlapped with the existing metal. Mox-nix