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)

[dbgriffith75]

I see what you're getting at in your sketch Richard- I wasn't aware that it was double walled. I may just do it that way now.

As for making the replacements too big to work with... well, I understand what you're saying, but metal work is something of a specialty for me. I spent a couple years of my life as a welder/fabricator, so forming the steel and welding it aren't so much the issue as I'm just trying to figure out what the best way to do the repair is.

At the same time, I don't expect to cover it all in one big piece. I probably could fabricate it, but I'm not foolish enough to believe that one big chunk is the only way to save time; and it will be easier to form sections. I just meant one chunk of steel for the actual "hole" of the hellhole. Here's a little better breakdown of my plan:



The red denotes the entire section I plan on replacing. The blue is the breakdown of the sections I plan to make. It's just the way Towle made it sound like I should use lots of smaller pieces, which would have taken more time and work.

I suppose I should actually be working on the hellhole when discussing this, but my shoulder's not quite up for it yet so I'm just trying to plan ahead.