Don's 69 Charger Rust Belt restoration

[mopar4don]

more pics

[Baldwinvette77]

Holy shit 

[mopar4don]

Now getting the metal ready for hammering

pic1 I selected some metal from an old quarter panel and used the FSP to get a rough size

pic2 I layed out a grid or sections onto the metal I am trying to duplicate.  

pic3 Then I transferred the intersections to the FSP (flexible shape pattern).

pic4 Then I transferred those intersection cross hairs to the new metal patch

[mopar4don]

Then I transferred the outer shape to the patch.
Here is a good picture of how well the FSP holds its shape.

[mopar4don]

So know that I have the rough outer shape and each section line transferred to the metal I have to create section templates along each section line.

pic1 shows an inner and outer template (I made the outer from the orig fender, and figured I might need the inner)

pic2-3 These pics show checking my progress with the templates

pic4 shows a template comparing back to the original fender

[alfaitalia]

Nice...not seen that tape used before. I tend to do that stuff by eye...just copying the other side of the vehicle. Usually works well enough. I also rely on the fact that no-one can see both sides of the vehicle at the same time! Good work as always.

[mopar4don]

In this pic you can see how I went back and body worked the patch with hammer and dolly
Looks pretty smooth!

[mopar4don]

Not sure how interested everyone is on how I made this patch. But I am quite proud of it. Especially for my 1st try. I give all the credit to MP&C over at garagejournal.com. This guy is an absolute magician. I learned a LOT just reading through his different threads! I cannot thank him enough! THANKS ROBERT! Please everyone check out his thread and be AMAZED!
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=182565

And here is the thread were I asked for help on making this patch.
It has much more detail, and the advise MP&C gives is worth sharing!:thankyou:
I don't come in until page 24 post #436
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53534

[Charger-Bodie]

Very cool stuff!

[Troy]

That's pretty awesome! And I can try it too - since I'm so slow and still need more patches...

Troy

[mopar4don]

That's pretty awesome! And I can try it too - since I'm so slow and still need more patches...

Troy

I thought I was the slow one!

[mopar4don]

For those who are interested I will go ahead and finish how I made the patch here. But for a more detailed version go to the link above.

So now that the patch has been formed, it is time to start tipping the edges.
notice the anvil I used to form the 1st tip.

[mopar4don]

The next tip is where things started to go bad!
You can see it extending from the bottom of the bag, parallel to the bottom edge of the patch.
What I noticed from this tip is it straightened out the curve that runs parallel to the tipped edge.
So not sure what to do I cut the 1st tip off with the idea that I would weld it back on later.

I must admit that after trying this first two tips and it not working. I was so disgusted and not sure what to do that I was ready to quit!

That is until I got a little encouragement from MP&C and I continued on...

[Charger_Fan]

You've already gotten that panel shaped a ton better than I think I ever could. Robert (MP&C) and others who post on the metal shaping forums make it look SO easy. I tried my hand at some simple forming a while back & just made a total mess of it. So kudos to you for getting it this far!

Looking forward to seeing your continued success!

[orange383]

You are doing a fantastic job on this car. Amazing skill and determination.
I've also been reading Roberts thread over the last few months. It's really inspiring and I've learned a lot from his thread. It's better than watching TV.

Your thread is also very inspiring especially as my Charger likely needs as much work as yours did.

Keep up the good work.

Matt.

[mopar4don]

Ok I need to get this thread caught up......

Here I started tipping 2 sides and the corner

2nd pic you can see the anvil I used to shape the corner

[mopar4don]

This corner was a bear! I had to put heat to it and working it over and over until it moved to where I wanted it.

[mopar4don]

checked the profile, and you can see how far off I am.

[mopar4don]

So I made up some shrinking pliers

[mopar4don]

Here you can see I heated the folds up cherry red and I clamped the metal down (this helped hold the tucks when hammering)

[mopar4don]

Now the profile looks good

[mopar4don]

here is the other end after a little shrinking as well

[mopar4don]

The panel is getting close!

[mopar4don]

So next I want to tip this edge in to be like the original

[mopar4don]

This is what I used and it worked pretty well. I would clamp at the line and slightly bend it. I didn't know how it was going to work because there is a crown in the panel. I assume it worked because I was only bending a little bit at a time moving back and forth.