AKDQ is more commonly known as deep draw(ing) steel. It's softer than cold rolled, but as Kevin says just standard cold rolled is serviceable for the relatively simple shapes we need, and is probably a bit more forgiving for the novice. Altho expensive my local Lowes and Home Depot carries 20 ga cold rolled with the lengths of structural metals (angle, rod, tubing, steel and aluminum) labeled "weld steel". It may not be obvious, since it sometimes is stuck in a slot next to the structural rack.

 

I have seen the "weld steel" and that's what I have generically used, just simply because it says "weld steel" and that's what I am going to do with it.
I went to 3 different stores and they all had those sheetmetal pieces, but the selection went from 16g and the next thinnest was 22g
We have a rental store that also sells steel with a much better selection and price. normally I would go there, and I did afterwards.

 

Almost done! I finished up the front patch today and started on the rear patch tonight. On the front patch I had to re-form the mounting lip as it did not line up right when I was making sure the fender opening was correct during tacking stages. You can fix this 1 of 2 ways, first you can cut the lip off and shorten it up requiring more welding and grinding. Or the easy way is to just hammer it into place! I went for the hammer shot and this is how I do it. Take a large square dolly or chunk of steel with a crisp square edge and hold it in place were you want the new corner to be. Then gently start tapping with your hammer right at the new edge and what this will do is give you a faint out line of the new corner. If this looks good then put the steel back in the same place and keep tapping until you have the corner worked over then you can put the steel or dolly under the flange and tap from the top to flatten everything out.
This is a good skill to learn as most patch panels are always off just a touch because non of these old trucks were built the same so some tuning up is normally required.

Kevin
LFD Inc.

 

After the flange was adjusted I started on the running board plate by priming both pieces with an etching weld thru primmer and then I spot welded the brace into place. I then set the fender on the truck with out any nuts and checked the fit and I was very happy with the results.

Kevin
LFD Inc.

 

Now for the last patch for this fender
I started by making an angle gauge to check the shape during the process and a flange pattern for trimming later. Then I started cutting out the rusted area.

Kevin
LFD Inc.

 

I did not show some of the forming of the part because it is the same steps as the other patches and I knew I would have tons of pics to resize and load as it was. But the flange that is on the top of the fender is not flat and required a small amount of wheeling and shrinking to get it to lay correctly. Then I bolted the fender back on the board to make sure it was in the correct location before I started trimming the patch and boy was I glad I did because the fender sprung a good amount when I cut the fender brace out. I am glad I had marked the bolt hole locations on the wood as well as on the fender because I used these marks as well as the trimmed edge of the board to line it all back up.

Kevin
LFD Inc.

 

So you can see by pushing the bottom of the fender up so the marks align the shape changes completely and with out having this board I would have not caught it until I was finished if even then. I wonder what my drivers side fender looks like as I did that one years ago with out a fender buck
I then scribed the patch and cut it out. It took several times of bolting it in and removing it to trim just a small amount of here and there to get it to fit just right. I then tacked it in place and started to complete the welding.

Kevin
LFD Inc.

 

After it was welded and the proud welds were ground I started to hammer and dolly the heat affected zone ( I added an access hole to make holding the dolly easier ) before using my body file to smooth it all out. I will have a small amount of finish work to do in the morning before starting on all the other dings and dents. I hope to get far enough along tomorrow to get it in paint and may even have it back on the truck for Tuesdays car show.

Kevin
LFD Inc.

 

Kevin Thank You so very much for your help..... Thanks Isaiah...

 

Amazing work as always!

 

Getting ready to do the same on my 52 this forum helped a lot thank you! Amazing sheet metal work by the way!