Repair of Rust Areas Around Rear Window

June 8, 2012 – put a couple hours in after work today while everyone was at the pool… Cleaned up the other carb, which definitely needs throttle shafts, and played around with making a piece for the rusted out areas of the rear window. We used a sheet metal break and a shrinker and stretcher to make the part.

So we measure and bend up a piece of sheet metal taking care to make sure the radius of the bend is nice and tight. The piece of steel you clamp the sheet metal down with dictates how the radius looks. If you use square tubing you will get a bigger radius – the small angle iron gives a nice tight radius like the window. I was not able to use the piece I made first with the square tubing. After bending it in the break with the angle iron I used a sheet metal shrinker to get the first bend in the metal. Then we used a stretcher on the side that the cardboard template measure. This gives a bow to the already bent piece. Then I cut out the rusty area with a grinder and tomorrow we will figure out exactly how we are going to weld it into place.

I used the best ground ever trick for the MIG. I use this grounding strap for all my welding and plasma cutting. The idea is that the many copper strands are always in contact with the ground and the area you are welding – better than just the clamp.

Here’s a backing strip so the insert piece doesn’t fall through.

And voila, some MIG welding and grinding and here it is. This will be the rough cut and when the sanding for the body gets done, the final sanding will be done