There are times when you just have to make your own part. The are also many places that make it hard to measure or envison how that part will be made. What follows is a quick demonstration of how to make a complete part without even using a tape measure.

I needed to fill in the little corner between the frame rail and the rear arch/bulkhead area. This part is not available.

First thing is to go online and ask someone to show you what the finished job should look like. (Thanks Bill!) Then, start filling in the empty space with pieces of masking tape. You do not have to be exact, just keep adding pieces until you have the piece pretty much the way you want it so look. Mark out the fold lines with a magic marker. The beutiful welds that you see are courtesy of trying to use a TIG welder! This thing can be VERY frustrating compared to the MIG!

Remove your tape, trying not to ball it up too much.

It is a bit floppy at this point, so I stick the whole mess onto a piece of stiff paper.Trim the paper to match the template. Fold and test fit the paper template. It should fit nicely having the same thickness as the metal part will have..

Transfer template to steel. I use a self actuating centre punch to transfer the fold lines.Look carefully and you can see the line of dots that I maked through the paper template.Use a piece of steel ground to match the slight curve on the wheel-arch fold line. This will allow you to fold over the curve.

Fold at all the right places.

Trial fit.

Just to prove that I can weld, Here are some before and after shots of the inner wheel tub repairs!>

Moving right on, I will start work on the inner rear arch. As you can see, once the outer has been cut back, you see where our friend the tinworm has done his work.

Once again, I use the masking tape to create a pattern. Since the tape is thin, it give a truer contour of what you are trying to make. Note how the fold lines are drawn on the template at this point

Remove and flatten your template to get a pattern for the tin. Note that when you flatten the pattern, you will loose some of the arch. I will show you how to deal with this.

Use the centre punch to transfer the fold lines to the tin, and use a vice to fold the lips. Note that I use the corner of the vice to form the fender lip. Because it is a curved bend, you need to hold the bend to a localized area. Bend just a little at a time. I used about six passes to make the 90 degree bend that mathces the fender lip.

The sad reality is that once you get all the folds made in you part, it will not fit exactly. Despair not because, if you stop thinking of tin as a solid material, and look at it as if made of clay, you will find that is is easy to shift around with simple tools like a hammer and vice.

There are three things you can do to steel: Stretch it, shrink it and fold it. The picture shows a radius formed in a piece of tin. The radius may need to be tigheter or larger to fit the matting part.

Lets say I want to flatten the part. I need to make the one lip shorter and the other longer. I use the vice with a small gap. Place the one lip over the gap, and drive a chissel into the tin.

This forms snall ripples in the lip that gather in the metal. The result is to shorten the one lip.

However, the part will also twist, since the other flange is too short once you dimpled (and shortened) the one side. The answer is to stretch the other side. You stretch the metal by making it thinner. You make it thinner by beating it with a hammer against a solid surface. The triangle marked on the tin (kinda hard to see with the flash)is very much like the darts we have all cut in tin to make the part fit. By doing the stretching with a hammer, you save a lot of welding and grinding. By doing the stretching in triangular pattern, you can "aim" where you want the effect to take place; the effect of the stretching will be at the pointy end of your triangle.

Some before and after shots:

Two things to keep in mind, I did not try to make this part in one piece. I am sure that it can be done, but not by me! Also, you need to make sure that the outer fender lines up with the inner. You will NOT be able to make many adjustments once the inner fender is welded in place. That is another reason I chosse to make the repair in four parts.

The rear corner welded in. This side of the car is done. One rear quarter to go!>

mAY 21, 2007 The garage needed to be cleaned, so for the first time in four years. Lil', comes out of the garage!She is starting to look like a car again! Note how nice the door gaps are around the passenger door; I can now spin the car and the gaps do not change!

Keep in mind that ALL the sheetmetal that you see in these pictures is new metal. The only bit left is the top of the rear quarters.

A beer in one hand and a LBC in the other: What more can I ask for? (other than the woman with a sense of humour to tolerate this hobby?!

Rounding the corner and heading for the home stretch! This rear quarter is the last bit of metal work to be finished. There is still lots of work to finish but this should be the end of the hard stuff.

A new development is that there is a new welder in the family. Not quite 13 and she TIG welds!