I have been fabbing up and welding in patches on my '68 front fenders. Before I started, I noticed a pronounced high/low transition on each fender at about 2" up and 1" back from the top rear corner of the marker lamps (see picture). I've gone to a couple of cruise-ins to see if others' fenders looked the same way but I can't really tell by looking. If this is a by-product of the stamping operation, how have you folks dealt with the bodywork in this area?

Do you fill in the low spot and block it flat? If so, doesn't that lessen the transition effect of the wheel opening? How does it look?

If I leave the trasition there, will it look screwed up? I never noticed it while it was on the car but I'll be looking now.

This is my first time at bodyworking so I'm not sure how compound curves should look before they get the bc/cc applied.

Thanks,
Chris

http://bsi-solutions.net/CamaroPics/fender_shaping.jpg

I'm not an expert body man, but I think you should fill the low spot and feather it down before reaching the wheel opening area. Seems like that way you could block sand it and avoid a wavy panel all the way up to the wheel well opening. Make sense?

Makes sense to me.

Thanks

When metal is damaged like a dent, it has to "go" somewhere. If your high area is shaped like you have in your photo with an arch, it is likely that is a high spot created by the area of the fender right where it says "new metal" being bent in.

This high spot may have been created by the welding of the new metal. If the weld was hammered on it may have thinned the metal there stretching it and forcing the metal over to what is now high.

You need to bring down the high spot before you fill any low spots. In all honesty, you can always fill low spots, but high spots need to be dealt with first.

The weird thing about this problem is that it is on both fenders and was there BEFORE I started replacing rusty sheetmetal (no noticeable collision damage that made the highspot). I just thought that was how they were made and I didn't notice it.

By now, I'm guessing that something must have happened when these fenders were made, shipped or assembled that caused this issue.

The only solution I can think of is to shrink the metal. From a recent post, the concensus seems to be that metal shrinking isn't for beginners.

So, how do I shrink metal so that I can practice and advance past the beginner phase? I have another fender to practice on.

Thanks.

look at eastwoods site for shrinking hammers .
dont just beat the panel to death use alot of steady blows using the weight of the hammer in a circular motion. starting from outside the high spot and work inward.

Man Chris, that repair job on that fender looks great! From the pics, I wouldn't even suspect they were repaired. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Thanks Dawg.

I have a shrinking hammer that kind of looks like a meat tenderizer. When using this hammer, I'm assumming that an off-dolly technique with the dolly placed near the strike point but towards the low side is necessary. Is this correct?

Does anyone have experience using a shrinking disc like this? Shrinking disc demo (http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/community/communityalbums.cgi?action=openalbum&albumid=9980121727059)

Thanks for the compliment John. That patch is actually five different pieces formed and welded together (I have spent tons of time on the two fenders but I'm learning alot in the process - like when to go buy reproduction fenders graemlins/clonk.gif ). I'm trying to get this fender to the point that you won't be able to tell it was patched when it is on the car and painted. Not knowing when to quit is tough...

I HAVE that disc, yet to use it but from what I hear its awesome!!!
Not a fan of shrinking :rolleyes: hammers, all they do is beat up the metal.
So many better ways to shrink then those panel beaters.

Those shrinking discs are 50 bucks for the standard(shown in your pics) and 70 for a convex discs. The standard is what you would want. Do a search on ebay for the milwaukee grinder model number 6088 seen several brand new ones sell for 155.

Before you go shrinking metal have you tried to level out the metal using a hammer and dolly? Place the dolly under the low area apply some force and tap down the high area with your hammer.

[ 06-19-2004, 05:40 PM: Message edited by: sevt_chevelle ]