More on the hellhole Options

[dbgriffith75]

Okay, this time I'm not trying to argue as to what gauge sheetmetal should be used for the repair, I promise (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

But I've been mulling it over the last few days as to how I should go about installing the replacement panel once it's fabricated and ready for installation. If you check out my porsche pics (link in my sig) and look at pic#5, you can see where I'm going to need to do a little repair on the firewall as well, so I'm considering this in these drawings. I've come up with a couple of different options, see below:



For some reason paint is being gay and not letting me add text into the pic, but here's a "key" for them:

The dotted black lines is the chunk to be replaced. The blue lines denote replacement panel and where they cross at the ends is what will be plug welds. I'd be drilling through both the replacement panel and the part of the engine shelf/firewall to accomplish this. And just to be clear, I will be cutting out the old sheet metal to be replaced, not just leaving it there.

Option 1: Plug weld support shims to the engine shelf and firewall, then do the same for the replacement panel. I'd also weld the seam where the new and old sheet metal meet. Afterwards, I'd grind down the welds for a virtually seamless repair. The advantage to this option is that when it's all said and done and the painting is finished, it would be difficult to tell that any repair work has been done; but it would be more time consuming.

Option 2: Instead of support shims, I'd simply overlap the replacement panel on top of the old sheet metal, then drill and plug weld the overlap. But I'd still also weld the seams on top; and again grind for as seamless a look as I can get. However, with this option, it would be easier to tell that repair work had been done; and would save some time in doing the repair.

So which option do you guys think would be the best? Or is there a better way to do it? Thanks! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[r_towle]

I looked at your pics.

Clean it first.
Cut out the top piece from the firewall all the way up till you get good clean metal...solid thick weldable metal up towards the trunk lid spring mounts..

Cut the firewall out, the piece that is bad...
Its two pieces with a flange, so if the bottom piece is junk and above the flange is ok...just take out the bottom piece.
If you can, cut out a big piece so you can get into the hello hole easier.
You can butt weld all that back in later...

Steps I would take.
1) cut out firewall to get in there and work.
2) cut out top of long...go slow so you retain the flange on the inner long at the top.
3) cut/fix inner fender
4) cut/ fix engine shelf with small patch pieces.
5) Treat inner long with metal magic no rust snake oil.
6) cut/fit top piece on long
7) grind all welds down
8) weld in firewall piece
9) grind welds more...
10) sandblast entire area
11) primer/paint

Rich