well I finally got some time to work on my car so I fixed the hole in my lower quarter panel. I bought a patch panel but it was the worst fit of any of the patches that I bought. I almost would have been better off making my own (I basically did with all the work I had to do to this one). I also sanded and primed the inner section that I couldn't reach when I sand blasted my car. I Tig welded this panel on. Usually I use the wire feed and tach it. I managed to keep the warp-age down to a minimum.
I also rolled my fender lip using a combination of a dead blow hammer, a body hammer, my slap hammer and my planishing hammer for the final smooth down. I also used a sand bag on the outer wheel well to focus the blows.

 

That repair job looked a lot better than my patch repair

 

That's clean, good job.

 

Very nice job! I will say that even a poorly stamped panel is a lot of help in starting the basic shape. Easier than starting with a flat piece of steel. I always butt weld replacement panels and use a hammer and dolly to keep it straight. I think they always come out better.

 

Very nice repair. Quite a hammer collection you have too. You are right about the patch panel fit. I experienced the same thing on the lower back quarters and lower back fronts. The way I see it is the patch panel is a good starting point, otherwise we would be doing the whole thing from scratch. At least the compound curves are already stamped. Since mine were overlapped and panel bonded in I had to get a couple of inches of overlap fitting flush as well.
Can I ask why you cut out so much for such a small hole? Was it to get to pure metal or was it easier to fit or weld with a bigger section?

 

I felt bad about cutting out the piece that I did and having to waste so much. The hole that was there was pounded in by a body shop for bondo. So I cut out big enough to get to straight metal.

 

Good job, clean looking. That is one thing I would definitely do differently, is to find all original sheet metal (body panels) to fit it together better. Most of the repro metal fit bad and needed massaging to fit. But good decision to use only what you needed, to keep the patch job to a minimum.

On a side note, I actually bought repro doors and had them fitted and painted. When I began assembling the doors, they began to sag a little and the lines were way off, mainly around the bottom of the door around the rocker and pillar. So I went out and found 2 original doors to replace these new repro doors with. They are sitting in my garage waiting patiently.