I smashed the drivers side wheelwell near the gas tank door pretty bad on my 76 f-150. I ordered the paint, the trim and a patch pannel that will fix the entire area and then some but my question is..... Will it be easier to minimize my welding by cutting the wheelwell in half (the front is in good shape just the back is messed up). Or should I save myself the agrevation of a bunch of body work in complex area's and just cut out he entire wheel well and mig weld in the new one.

I do plan on cutting the patch pannel down to the center of the body line (cause it is covered by trim when finished)

 

I personaly would take it as far out as possible so that you can get to the backside to protect your unseen weld seams. I usually do not go into the body line at the top, becuase it is a pain to do body work in that area (I realize that you have trim, but you still have some exposed body line). I stop just short of that body line. Seal the seam on the inside the best you can, and you will be fine. I have done many of these.

Steve S.
To many to mention

 

You would be better off cutting out the the worst of the damage and only replacing what you need to.
Lay your repop panel over the repair area, mark out the shape of the panel on some tape. This is the maximum ara you can cut out. Now evaluate the damage, remove the worst of it, reshape the remaining with hammer and dolly. Clean the paint from the edges, about 1" around, and prepare the patch.
Make a cardboard/ posterboard template of the opening you already have. Transfer that to the the patch panel using a sharpie. Now trim out the panel to the outside of your lines. This leaves the panel a little big for the next step.
Slip your patch into the opening and pull it tight to the backside. Use a large magnet if you have one. If not, drill a 1/4" inch hole in the cemter and install a 1/4" bolt and nut to use as a handle.
I like to use a couple of magnets to help hold the panel in position. Now take a sharp scribe and outline the opening. Trim this right up to the line and test fit repeatedly until the panel is able to slip into place without binding or overlapping. I like to leave a small gap all around the patch so the weld will penetrate and not be grinded off.

With the patch ready and in place, tack the panel in several places, let cool, tack in several more places making sure to move around the panel and keeping heat to a minimum. Let it cool. Once everything is welded in, grind the top 3rd of the welds off with a grinder then smooth it out with a sanding disc on the drill/grinder, but keep the grinder/drill moving as heat can warp the panels.

You can protect the backside of the panel with weldthrough primer before tacking in place.

 

Well I agree that it is good to be able to get to the back side to be able to seal it so I am definatly going to go ahead and cut out the entire wheelwell (plus I will have piece of mind that it won't rust out for a while)

but I can't make up my mind on the upper body groove..... cut it in the middle or just below it..... in the middle or just below it.......



also Rosati, thanks for all of the tips!!!

 

Not a problem. Take a look at my post stickied up at the top and you will see how easy it can be. I formed that piece by hand with just a hammer and dolly, used a generic welder, a grinder, and some sandpaper. Other than my floor boards, this was the first time I had ever done any bodywork!

 

I recently replaced the inner wheehouse and also welded in a quarter panel patch on an '89 (by no means a show truck). As soon as I cut out the remainder of the rotted inner wheelhouse, the outer quarter bowed out of shape and I had no frame of reference where the lip of the fender was to project out to. If i had to do it again, I'd only replace the part that was necessay and leave any good original metal alone.

 

How do you deal with that double layer of metal where the arch is...???? I to have ordered a replacement panel and am planning to try some body work too.. Knowing that Rosati, just tried it and it came out that good is giving me a bit more courage to try it...

Does anyone have any photo's of such a repair?????

Body shops by me want around $1200.00 to fix the rust and re-paint just the fenders and the tailgate. I have Line-X in the bed and over the rails...

Thanks,
..FalconYT

 

I popped 1/4" holes in the lip of the outer fender panel and after the patch was welded in place, I plug welded the inner wheelhouse to the outer fender using the holes. Note, I used weld through primer and body sealer before intalling the outer patch. I made the plug welds with quick zaps to keep the heat down so to not cook away the body sealer.
Sorry but I dont have any before or after photos, but I'll tell you this, it was easier to cut out and weld in the repair parts than it has been working the body filler to a smooth finish. Good luck

 

Thanks for the info, What exactly are quick zaps?? This is the first time I'd be trying this and don't know what they are.. Do you mean like a spot weld after say your drilled one out, you just do a quick spot weld to hold it together???

..FalconYT

 

Imagine using your cordless drill. Squeeze the trigger and the very split second the drill chuck starts to spin, release the trigger, so quicly in fact that the chuck doesn't even make 1/4 revolution. The trigger on a MIG welder is similar but requires a lot less force than a cordless drill. That combined with having gloves on, you will have to practice and learn how to "feel" the trigger. I've started wearing a much lighter glove on my torch hand (or no glove at all for small welds). I still use two hands. Being a lefty, I hold the torch in my left hand and use my right hand (with a heavy glove) to keep my left hand still and adjust the distance from tip to work. When I welded the outer lip to the inner wheelhouse through the holes, it took about 5 or 6 quick zaps to weld each location. I used a higher voltage than the chart specified, but a slower wire speed. If the metal in either surface was thicker, I probably could have reduced the voltage, held the trigger longer and made a swirl motion, thus filling the weld in one or two passes. Like I wrote before, get some scrap steel and practice. Experiment with different voltage setting and wire speeds. Believe me, there were a few days when I wanted to toss my welder out into traffic because I was unable to lay down a decent weld. Rather than give up, I asked around and a friend of a friend, who was a pro welder stopped by (for a 12 pack of Bud) and pointed out exactly what I was doing wrong. With that small bit of instruction, I feel confident that I can assess each project and make the necessary adjustments (or at least be able to fill the occasional burn through). Another bit of advice is to buy or borrow an automatic helmet (battery powered not solar). Being able to see exactly where the wire tip is before pulling the trigger made all the difference for me.

 

Thanks Weymouth for the explanation, I'm as green as green gets with this for sure... I am going to practice quite a bit before I hack the truck up..

In your post you explained a little about increasing the voltage, what does the voltage increase or decrease have to to with the thinkness of the metal???

..FalconYT

 

Please keep in mind I've had limited instruction.
The way it was explained to me was that the voltage setting determines maximum heat and the wire speed determines current and actual heat. Imagine touching wires attached to a AA (1.5V) battery. You would se a tiny spark. Now do the same with a 9V battery. The spark would be bigger, meaning that there was more heat from the 9V battery. Regarding the wire, imagine if you were to wire a 1 hp motor using 20 gauge phone wire. The moment you flipped the switch, the wire would burn up and the circuit would be opened. Now wire the same motor with 12 gauge wire. The heavier wire can withstand the current being drawn by the motor and the circuit will remain closed. The welding wire acts as a conduit for the arc that transfers heat and melts the metal. Limiting the the wire speed, you can control how much current (not voltage) gets to your work, thus limiting the actual heat. The guy that came was showing me how to fix a rot hole through the wheel hump inside the bed buy tacking a small patch fron the underside. The original remaining metal was so thin that it was burning away each time I welded on it. He turned the voltage up beyond the recommended setting for the metal thickness, but he also turned down the wire speed to a very slow setting. His explaination was that he wanted to quickly melt the metals without using a lot of filler wire. The length of time the arc would be able to be sustained would be limited by the wire melting away. Again, he used quick zaps and in a minute or two, repaired a problem that I had wrestled with for days.
The rules of thumb he suggested was:
#1 - practice on a scrap piece first, always
#2 - use the next higher voltage setting than recommended
#3 - use a slower wire speed than recommended, (for body work only)
One last bit of advice, don't wear shorts or any clothing with frayed ends when welding. I managed to set myself on fire last night. No real damage, except for the stern looks from the wife.

 

Thank you Weymouth for the information, believe me it helps out quite a bit..
I was at The Eastwood Company's site last night and found a couple instructional video's. One was for the use of a MIG welder and the other was applying the MIG welder to body repairs... So I broke down and ordered them...

So we'll see how it goes, and yes catching fire wouldn't make the other half happy either, I'll make sure not to mention that to her.....

Have you found a place that sells metal stock, say if I wanted just some panels or sqaure tubing or the like.. ????

..FalconYT

 

Check your yellow pages for steel suppliers or check out Lowes, but be prepared to pay through the nose. You might also check www.raybuck.com ir www.millsupply.com. They both offer 'generic' repair parts.

I'm not so proud to scrounge about the recycle salvage yard and pick up whatever steel or aluminum I would need. I also have established a dialog with a local steel fabricator and got his blessing to scavange bits of steel from his scrap hopper. A suggestion I saw in a thread somewhere, for sheet stock, was to go to a body shop and offer a few bucks for an old hood, roof or trunk lid.

 

There are a few more pictures in my gallery on the repair panel if you need them.
Ther is also another tool I used to cut out the old spot welds. I only cuts trought the outer panel and leaves the original metal ther. you can grind down the old spot after drilling to make a clean surface to start with. Try this gallery: https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...0&albumid=2952