Help wanted for rear fender repair, - Getting closer. Need welding advice on reattaching Options

[seanpaulmc]

Greetings 914World !

I am seeking advice / guidance / instruction from you metal masters on how to approach and tackle this rear corner repair.

Panels involved include:
• Left rear quarter
• Taillight panel
• Trunk floor & cross brace
• Left side inner trunk fender

Some initial questions:
• Does the whole quarter panel need to be replaced, or just part?
• Does the whole tail panel need to be replaced, or just part?
• Can this repair be done well with partial panels spliced in? (Like what was done to the fender in the past but better executed with butt joints and less, a lot less, filler.)
• Should I start with cutting off what I think is bad or begin by striping the whole quarter panel of paint and bondo? Exposed metal rusts quickly in Florida.
• How and where to cut? What tools and wire size to use? How to finish, prep, and paint? -This is where I need your expertise to lead me.





This is my first go around at this.
Everything I do is a first-time attempt, and thinking about fixing this fender and taillight area while making it look presentable gives me a lot of apprehension.
So far, I have learned to MIG weld and do simple panel forming by working on this project – jack points, floor, hell hole, longs, firewall, and some tools and fixtures.
I can make solid welds in structural areas that are strong but don’t necessarily have to be pretty.
I do not (yet) have the metal finishing skills for this fender and am hoping I can get your guidance along the way to help me get through what I see to be a complicated, multi panel repair.

By making this fender repair its own topic thread, hopefully it encourages greater feedback from the community rather than if it stays buried in my long, slow build thread.
If interested in how it got here and the work done to the car thus far, then the thread is this one: here

I know I need to go take some measurements before cutting it apart just to get the baseline of where things are at. I hope to do that this coming weekend.

Thank you in advance for the feedback and support.

Gratefully,
Sean

[seanpaulmc]

It’s been a bit. Happy holidays folks.

This is where I’m at.



The drivers side rear quarter had a replacement fender very poorly lap welded on in a zigzag pattern sometime in its history.
Did I say poorly? Check out the welds. I’m a novice welder at best but I try to clean up my welds where I think it’s important. Here not so much. It was bondo’d right over.

The current thinking…
(Trying to write this down before I change my mind AGAIN.)



Rear tape line is reference for measurements. It is same on both fenders.
Forward tape line is the expected cut line on each fender allowing for about an inch of overlap for fitting and trimming to butt weld.
I’ve marked a straight cut up the fender unlike what was done before.
Is this an okay idea?
I have not done this before but I can see it was done differently in the past.

My current thinking is to keep the whole corner of the replacement together and have vertical welds in the fender and the tail panel rather than separate the replacement into its piece parts as I started to do. Note the replacement piece came cut up and I’ve started splicing it back together. To do what I’m thinking I’ll have to remove all the inner structure from the replacement leaving only the fender and the tail panel.




The replacement piece does need work.

Let me know your thoughts on this.

Thank you,

Sean

[friethmiller]

Let me know your thoughts on this.

Thank you,

Sean

Yep, I'd fix the inner trunk corner first and then the lower cross area below the tail light next. My aim would be to have good metal in place to then apply the fender at the factory seem at the back [behind the bumper]. This keeps you focused on doing all the small repairs first before welding on the fender. Just my two cents.

Here's a few photos from my restoration of my red '74 (not the LE (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) )