Chris

Heat distortion can be controlled by using some of that putty like substance to draw the heat out of the panel, evidently it works really well. Issue with welding is to make sure that you seal it well, good primer followed by black tar like stuff for inner surfaces is REAL important.

Chris

heinrich

Brendan has a cool way of doing it.

BC

We'll see how cool it is in 10 years. I hope it holds, as Fiberglass holds well in other situations. And it has had plenty of time in the sun to heat the panels up before I ever put more then a few coats of primer on. Like 9 months worth of SoCal Sun, right on the car. And then cooler at night.

It was holding so I finally pulled the trigger and had the car painted, and there it sits in the garage waiting for interior, wiring, and an engine.

The backing area is important and before the car is driven I will coat that heavily with something to protect the back of the work.

I machine-sanded the area to 80 grit, then dented in the holes on all panels ( I bought used doors with no holes thinking that the constant slamming of the door would work something lose - and they were cheap) Then long strand fiberglass was used. Not actual fiber and resin, as that has a tendancy to shrink and crack - and it did on a rear fender repair on this car. I will have to keep an eye on that. That was separate though - anyway I put that fiberglass in and sanded it down and then filled it in lightly with lightweight body filler. This got it back to the correct shape.

I really hate rubstrips and this was my option.