Welding in a patch panel

[Blazin]

Rear quarter wheel arch repair. Quicky for inspection, but wanted a step above spray foam and filler!
The inside panel I just made three pieces. Plug welded them to the outside panel, and rivited them to what was left of the inner wheel arch. Going to seam seal it up, and rubberized under coat it. Should last for a couple years. They are planning on trading it in two years or less. They just bought a new Camaro two years ago, and he got a new truck last year. They want to get them paid down or off before adding another payment.

Cancer cut out.


Patch panel marked for trimming.


Panel clamped in place to check fit.


All cut to size, and prepped for welding.
Nice tight fit to the old panel. Just have to put a touch of pressure on it when tack welding it in place.



Tacked in place. ( I forgot to take one finish welded and the welds dressed up ).



A coat of short strand fiber glass filler.


First coat of regular body filler.


Sanded ready for a second coat.


This job took a third skim coat of filler to get some 36 grit sand scratches, and pinholes filled in. I mix some fiber glass resin in with my filler before I add the cream hardener to losen it up for my last coat. It spreads like warm butter on toast this way. You can keep it very thin, and it fills small inperfections nicely.

Thats where it is now, I will add some more pics tomorrow when I finish it up.

[Blazin]

Done sanding the filler with 80 grit. All the grind marks and sand scratches are feather edged out of the paint with 80, 180, and 320 paper on the DA at this point.







First, or second coat of high build urethane primer.



Third, or fourth coat of primer.



Entire panel sanded with 320, and around the edges with a maroon scuffy pad.



First coat of single stage urethane paint over primer area only. Useually I just spray the repair area the first few coats to acheive hidding. In this case it was black so it hid well with one coat of paint.


3 coats of paint over the entire panel after I acheived hiding.

[454Man]

Excellent body work man!
what brand of body filler and short stand fiber filler did you use? I've got to do this in the future.

[Blazin]

This was Evercoat fiberglass filler, and Martin Senior body filler.
Thing to remember with fillers is the same with any automotive refinish product. You get what you pay for. I have favorites but its more a personal preference. For example I like Transtars high build urethane primer. Most of the middle of the road priced stuff works well too. The low low price stuff can be problematic. The high dollar stuff tends to have you paying for the name, and its not enough better to justify the cost over the middle of the road priced materials.

[zieg85]

What spray gun do you use?

[Blazin]

For the primer I have a couple guns. This job I grabbed the cheapy charlie siphon feed I picked up at Lowes for $60. I have a couple older Devilbis, and Snap On siphon feed guns that I used to paint with that I use for primer now.
For paint, and clear iIhave two Mac Tools gravity feed guns.

[zieg85]

For the primer I have a couple guns. This job I grabbed the cheapy charlie siphon feed I picked up at Lowes for $60. I have a couple older Devilbis, and Snap On siphon feed guns that I used to paint with that I use for primer now.
For paint, and clear iIhave two Mac Tools gravity feed guns.

I use LVLP technology myself.  DeVilbiss calls it Transtec and Graco calls it compliant.  Very little mess and overspray.  I noticed your masking had very little over spray on it.  Nice work, yearly inspections ought be a nice source of repairs.  Indiana has some rust buckets running around that would have been condemned in your state many years ago...

[Blazin]

My gravity feeds are HVLP. I have read  aliitle about the LVLP equipment. I sprayed it coming into the gun at like 25 PSI.
In all honesty I would have passed this as it was more of a blister before I chopped it out. It had an after market stainless wheel arch trim piece. They hadn't even tried to get it passed, they just assumed it wouldn't. they also like to have nice looking rigs. She has a cleaning business, and didn't want to pull in to a clients home, or business with a ratty looking rig either.

[zieg85]

LVLP is great.  Gives a finer finish because of better atomization but the transfer efficiency of a HVLP but I have found it to be better.  LVLP also uses way lower CFM so the air compressor runs less.   

[454Man]

I never knew the difference between the two types of spray guns. What do you guys recommend for some one who just wants to spray a truck in their garage?

[zieg85]

Know your CFM capabilities of your air supply.  Remember you get what you pay for.  IMO LVLP is the way to go, I prefer DeVilbiss.  In my industry and the variety of coatings I apply this seems to best work for me.  Graco does a nice job however the air cap seems to build up with dried paint and tends to flake off if you don't keep it cleaned. 

[454Man]

Ok so how big of a air compressor does one need to tackle this?

[zieg85]

http://www.devilbisscompact.com/PDFs/20080801-CmPrt_ManAuto%207.pdf  depending on the air cap.  The Trans-tech version I have is the .070 suction.  What the article does not mention is that you set the regulator to 29 psi when triggered.  I still use a cheater valve to lower the pressure even further. 

[zieg85]

http://www.chreed.com/quincy/pdf_files/compact_minionly_sprayguns.pdf  is the complete line up on that series.  I belong to what is called the Product Finishes Division for The Sherwin-Williams Company.  Our division supplies paint to OEM type customers, many include heavy equipment customers like John Deere, Case, New Holland, Caterpillar.  Many of the coatings are superior to automotive coatings but are custom formulated for working on specific spray lines.  I am in Technical Service and I am part of the selling force which also sells spray equipment.  Our main emphasis is to sell the paint which I demo using the best applying spray guns that I can.  We handle the big 3 in our markets Binks, DeVilbiss, and Graco   I have personally compared the different spray guns, how they perform/how they rebuild/how they hold up under high production use.  My $.02

[454Man]

Thanks for the info. You guys are great!