Last night was welding night and up until midnight a few things were accomplished: 1) cutting out some rot on the rear valence, 2) building and filling one of the bumper mounting locations; 3) second pass on the side markers delete (who knew that the little bolt holes would be such as pain!); 4) the replacement of last years' rear wheel well area. Here are some further pics of the carnage.
Photo showing the cut out. I could have gone further but at this time it was best to get the rot out and POR 15 the rest.
I took 22 gauge mild steel, a ball-peen hammer and a section of berber carpet to pound and shape the corner piece you see. Could have been prettier but it does the job and will be finished off with some filler.
Close up of the passenger side rear bumper mount location. Years of moisture rotted the outer layer and instead of cutting another piece I decided to try the weld bead fill method of building up the area. Wow, lots of wire went in there!
This one was started at about 11pm last night. I hemmed and hawed about doing this and in the end decided that more bondo was just not the right thing to do. It did hurt a bit doing the cutting....
Shot of the section pulled off the car. That panel sealer was really holding on. Didn't stop the rust though. I'll have to cut some more, weld on some patch to attach the new panel.
Looks like the new Walouth and Netsch panel will fit pretty close. Nice to have new metal!
UPdate: I spent last night welding in the panel. First was the rebuilding of the interior trunk panel and wheel well. I was surprised at the solidity of the weld panel, even without the attachments of the trunk panel! I did finally remove the rear wheel and weld up the interior seams to keep everything tight. Now for a small amount of filler instead of a big can of it.
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