Reply to "Pantera 04042 restoration"

UFO, keep in mind if heat is used the metal oxidizes very easily after and must be coated. The air hammer works, but I find it a bit uncontrollable, so usually do it by hand. Takes longer, but I personally get a smoother result with less stretched metal.

So... I managed a couple hrs this past Saturday and had an empty house for about 5 hrs on Sunday. Being the procrastinator that I am...I tackled the easy one first.

Cardboard template


Final fitment of patch


Tack welded, then I work around from each tack weld and add one more with each pass. I do this to try and avoid getting too much heat in the panel.


With all the gaps between the initial tack welds filled, I grind it clean.




Here is what it looks like from the inside of the rocker


Then the front piece....
same process...










Then...the hard one...
I decided the best approach would be to make a form, so I screwed a couple of 4x4s together and hogged out a form to hammer the metal into to try and get a near net piece to work with. It took the better part of Sunday...with OK/acceptable result for a sub structure.