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| Lots of Bondo and dents in the front apron |
I worked for 5 to 8 hours with hammers and chisels to
straighten out my bent and rusty front apron. My plan was to have a new one
welded in, but I thought I might be able to fix it the old fashioned way.
However, once complete, it looked like Swiss cheese as
fatigued metal snapped, rust broke through and Bondo popped out.
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| Torn metal found under old bondo and fiberglass. |
I had the same experience with the rear apron. I was able
to pound out a lot of damage and make it look halfway descent, but the amount
of work yet to do was daunting.
Hours of relentless banging and pounding produced nothing
but headaches. Time for a change in plan.
I decided to buy a welder and attempt to make the repairs
myself. My next logical step is to review welders on line, determine what I
needed, take some lessons and make it happen.
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| Still have about an inch more to remove before I weld. |
Removing the front and rear apron required drilling out the old spot welds. Some are harder to see than others, so you might not know that old welds remain until you try to remove the skin. I used a hammer and chisel to remove the skin and chiseled out the remaining welds. Be very careful to not damage the skin on the main car. It's easy to gouge the metal, so if you err, make sure you damage the sheet metal that you are removing.
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| Just dreaming of what it will look like once I get it welded on. |
For the front apron I used an electric saw with a blade meant to cut sheet metal. It went fast. There's a danger to fast as mistakes can happen faster than you can react.
