Shaving the 55 fender seams

[MP&C]

Here's the seam on the lower fender of a 55. Always thought this would look cleaner without, and so did the owner, so here's the process:



The bolting plates are cut out of the way, and the folded flange is trimmed, leaving a bit of extra to allow for fine tuning the weld joint.







Bottom of the fender is cut loose from the bolting plate using the cutoff wheel. Then sanding the face of the fender leaves a contrast at the bend of the flange for a good guide for trimming with snips....







Planishing out the fold to fill the gap....





Clamps used to test fit. ONLY... Will be removed during welding for a tight fit. Still needs a bit more fine tuning for zero gaps....








Got to trimming, little to no gaps....




Used the new ER70S-7 wire. Looks to me like it lays out a bit flatter than the ER70S-6 that I replaced...





Used the crowned hammer to planish the welds. This stuff planishes out a bit easier as well, the weld is noticeably softer.



After planishing, 1/16" wide cutoff wheel used perpendicular to the weld for grinding the welds with minimal contact patch and less heat buildup. Ground welds just proud of the metal surface, front and back, to make room for planishing the next set of weld dots. Then rather than weld the next dots in the middle, I overlapped each of the previous welds to help eliminate missed spots and pinholes. Weld, planish, grind, repeat.







Then I got on a roll and missed some in process pics, but here is the result after dressing out all the welds...



Back side....





Yeah, I like this much better....

[MP&C]

I hung the fender on the car to have a better look-see...









One more piece to finish up the shave, the inner flange for the grille opening needed connecting together after trimming the bolting flanges.



Trimmed and holes drilled for plug welds....







All welded and dressed out....







Here's the factory seam to compare to the shaved version...





Bumper filler panel had been tweaked at some point in the past 50 years, so let's see what we can do to straighten it out some....





Used a combination of the flat and crowned body hammers, the donut dolly, the 5" dia shot bag, and a round hunk of steel.



Much better...



Next on the list before the next shave, a bit more rust to attend to...



Used a wide sweeping radius on the cut to minimize any extra shrinking that occurs inside tight corners.



To get a good, consistent profile on the patch, I used the go kart wheel...









Laying out the pattern..







One last test fit before tipping the flange...



Dumb mistake number one....don't cut the patch so small you can't get leverage to force the flange to tip...



Well, we do have a good crease to work from now. Some hammering on the 2" round anvil will work



Trimmed to fit...



Welded and dressed...



Hey...the light even fits

[MP&C]

Starting the prep for shaving fender number two.....












the top of the seam was trimmed....







When trimming along through the center, I noticed a weak spot....





This is where some dirt had been trapped behind the bolting plate on top of the flange, and looks like it wouldn't have been long in coming through paint. To be able to trim the pitted area out, the lower section was trimmed with about 3/16 extra... see the scribe mark...



Planished flat..



Clamped over fender and scribed....



Trimmed for tight fit. Note that butt weld clamps are used to hold for fitment only, joint will be butted tight when welding...

[MP&C]

The two pieces have been trimmed for a tight butt joint, shown here clamped together...



It was then I noticed the crease just above the seam..



Ahhh, the dreaded fender bump. I believe this is caused by someone bumping into something with the corner of the bumper, which in turn forces the lower portion of the fender backward, thus forming the inward crease (red line) and outward crease (yellow line). Always better to fix the body damage before attempting to weld panels together.



Another view of the outward crease....



A 3" roloc disc scuffed across the lower crease on the inside of the panel quickly shows the area that needs to be bumped outward...



The tools used will be the donut dolly, a small shot bag, and body hammer.



The area was worked using the hammer and dolly, with progress checked by scuffing with the roloc disc.



Needs just a bit more bumping, but shows a much more respectable crown, as shown by the #32 sweep




Back to welding... All clamped up, again...



First set of tacks...





Weld penetration, the back side....





I had someone asking about the process I used with the mig, so I took the close ups to show it a little better... Weld, planish, grind, overlap, repeat...





Planishing as you go helps to keep the panel's shape in check...



Still needs a bit of bumping but not too bad overall..






the inner seam to finish up...





Bridging the gap where the flanges were cut out...











Installed....





A look from the front...

[JT56]

Robert I sure hope you have some apprentice working with you. This craftsmanship needs to continue. Great Post. Joey

[carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)]

nice!!!!!!!!! thanks for sharing Robert.