Body / Glass: rust behind vent, front fender, bulletnose

[Stude Ranch]

We are wondering if any has pictured, or instructions to repair rust behind the vent on the front fender of a bullet nose, or any Stude for that matter. We want to do it by welding a patch and no body putty if possible. thanks, David
and Shane

[sweetolbob]

Does this help?

http://www.raylinrestoration.com/Tec...nder/index.htm

Bob

[52 Ragtop]

Depends how far you want to go, but, I would suggest pull the fender, Do all your welding, then take it to your local metal laundry and let them chemically strip the paint and rust. Once that is done, blast the inner brace area with a good etch primer. Then a good coloer coat and then undercoat it, you'll never have the bubbles come back!

Jim

[Stude Ranch]

This looks pretty good, but they still used the infamous body putty. Our rust is not nearly as bad a theirs.

[rockne10]

Is your repair required vertically along the rear edge of the fender or around the vent door itself?

[jclary]

I have done it. What I did looks great (not bragging 'cause lots of other folks have commented on it). However, there is some thin body filler smoothing out my lousy welding. You really need to remove the fender and work the repair from both sides. Depending on how much rust you have, you may have to cut out a good amount of metal to eliminate the rust. This could involve having to fabricate a new flange for the vent tube that conducts air from the fender to the vent flange on the body. Once you have the fender off, you can make cardboard templates to assist in making your new pieces of sheet metal.

Even the best factory cars usually have some high build primer and filler in places. Getting butt welded patches in place without some distortion is nearly impossible due to the expansion and contraction caused by the heat of welding. Also, the variation of metallurgical content of the patch panel to the original metal makes the reaction to heat and impact working of body tools nearly impossible to work to perfection without a good quality filler.

The key is to work the metal good enough so that your filler is not too thick. You can't sculpture parts from bondo. Nothing wrong with using smoothing primers and fillers as long as proper preparation is employed.

[sweetolbob]

This looks pretty good, but they still used the infamous body putty. Our rust is not nearly as bad a theirs.

I guess I'm the one confused here, but the repair with or without filler is just how much finish work you want to put into it and your skill level.

To not use filler, gas or TIG weld in metal then dolly/hammer, shrink or sunchaser to get the curves et al correct, do it again until it's one piece of metal then body file until relatively smooth, sand, prep and paint.

Ron Covell can tell you how it's done http://www.autobody101.com/content/r...ng-dvd-videos/

Bob

[Stude Ranch]

dear rokne10 From the outside it is just to the rear of the vent, about 1 inch wide and the height of the vent. I think good advice will be remove the fender, and make sure of the rust damage. I thought that the welding should be on the car, so to help minimize distortion, but maybe it would be better off. Thanks

[rockne10]

Open this link and scroll down about two-thirds. You will see the repair panels Classic Enterprises offers for this repair. You may still make your own patches but, can see why this area encourages the rust out.

http://www.classicent.com/sedans.php

[warrlaw1]

I used the CE panels and vent surrounds and even their plastic vent shrouds AND the aluminum inner fender kits front and rear for my 55K. I want to drive it and keep some of my investment, too. Very little to no fill used. Just enugh to make it straight. It's a black car, straight, and now protected. Worth it IMHO.