Making panels.......

ok i've took more pictures but can't find camera cable but i'll up load later tonight

I would be sorely tempted to see if I could find a replacement inner wing or repair panel, the Billing Aquadrome Show in July nearly always has parts like this

Failing that then as Droopsnoot says, make smaller sections and weld them together, use paper or thin card to make suitably sized templates, anywhere that the card needs to be folded, or wont follow the shape then cut a section out or start another template, it will soon fall into place

Then transfer to the steel, use a section of tube or round bar to form the sheet around to create the curved sections, again making into separate smaller sections where needed

It wont be an easy job, but if you break it into smaller sections it will certainly be achievable

Good Luck

Tony



Tony

epic mental work in here. thought I would show mine

I am rubbish at welding thin sheet I just blow holes in it or get bird poo lol so I looked at other methods to get nice flush welds

the buttom of the piller on my beetle was toast so I bought the repair panel and went a head and tried to butt weld it. did all the spots to hold it and was fine then I went to fill in the gaps and I blew massive holes in the metal . I am a perfectionist so this was no good and I wasnt going to cover it in filler. so I invest in some tools and set to work
first tool

air joggler and hole punch

air shears

air nibbler
hammer and dollys

I made a paper template

I then drew this on to my sheet metal measure the flange my joggler gave me. and added quarter of an inch all the way to my template on the sheet metal.

I used the air sheers to cut the rough template out and the nibbler to trim it to size then carefully went all the way round with my joggler. to give me

I mocked this into place

and used the dollys and hammer to put some shape into it

then I used the punch on the joggler to put loads holes in the flange
this can then be spot welded in from behind (this I can do with my welder)
finnished

not perfect but tommorow i will do a very light skim of fillers and it ll looks like new

Matt

A great thread and once uni is finished i would love to start to learn how to do this kind of stuff. I have been looking for a panel beating kit, and have found that there are wooden handles and fibre glass handles to the hammers, from experience, would you recommend a certain type?

I bought a cheap set of panel beating hammers and dollies from one of the shows, and it wasn't bad at under a tenner. But... one of the hammer heads has snapped off (the round end of the cross pein hammer) and you can see the castings on the dollies are rough. But to get practice and on basic jobs they're plenty good enough. I bought a "decent" replacement for the broken one from a show, and that was £20 just for the one hammer.

I made this repair plate after reading up on your stretching metal posts, tonybmw.
I had to make a repair plate for the floor-to-inner-sill area right hand side in the footwell.
Where the inner sill is spot-welded to the floor, as it were before.
It will be explained better in the piccies.











Thanks for a brilliant thread, and keep the welding/panel beating tips coming

Here's the project thread if you fancy a read:
retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=readersrides&action=display&thread=96974

First post here after finding a link to this thread via another forum. I wish I had found this thread earlier it would have helped greatly with my own project, there's nothing but really helpful advice in here and it's defo a source of inspiration to work on the car (and just proof that everything can be made).

I was hoping I might get some advice/help replicating part of my cill.

Here's the hole I have cut because of rot.


And what it should look like once I figure out how to remake this section.



The bit where there's a step in the seam is throwing me of, how do I go about making it up? Am I best of making up the cill as a straight piece with the seam and then making a separate piece for the bent seam and welding it on to the cill and the seam, cutting away the excess straight part?

And just to add to the thread, no before pics unfortunately, this is one of the two boot pockets on my E30 which had a small enough hole in it. That was until I started cutting and poking at it, here's the first part of patching it up


Same again only tidied up a little with the angle grinder


And the other patch making up the rear valance after a bit of a tidying.


It's not quite 100% how it was but it's many times better than having a rotten hole thats getting bigger.

More cill surgery, doesn't look to bad in the picture


Hole cut, couple of different pieces of metal all coming together here or inside the car


My first attempt at it wasn't so good so I cut it all out again, 2nd time was a little better. First piece


And 2nd piece which was plug welded inside the car to the 1st piece


The drain was a rectangular piece with a diagonal slit cut at the two top corners and the whole lot beaten down on a piece of bar, welded and cleaned up a bit before welding it on to the seam.

I re-used the outer part of the cill, it was clean enough to be re-used and welded back in place


Thats about the height of it, the rest was mostly welding in plates, some careful card template making, fitting and tweaking and not rushing it, nothing to the same extent as shown in the earlier pages of this thread.

Hi Tony, thanks for the reply and compliment. I think some times it easier to cut a massive big hole and have a little more welding to do than to have a small awkward to work on patch to make up.

I have the back part of the sill made as a straight piece, only took 2 attempts, and the stepped seam I have to make a 2nd time as well. I've decided to cut the front section of the cill (with the holes in it) out as well just for piece of mind. I'll get back to it once it stops raining long enough to get something done and will post an update.

Nice job Jozi, and 10 out of 10 for persistence, the extra effort will be worth it in the end

Keep practicing the ribbing, your on the right track

Tony