Patches

I took a small amount of time this weekend and worked on some patches.  One is the critical patch to the inside left wheel house/rocker, and I cut two more very small patches for the dash panel.

The hole I have to plug in the wheel well is ugly:

But once the patch is in place, all will be well with the world:

The holes are for plug welds, much like those I did for the floor.  I did have a chance to try out my new punch/flange tool, and punched the holes on the top of the patch, and even put in a light flange in the backing (you can see it in the top photo).  It works well, but the reach for the punch tool is limited.  The holes, as before, are for plug welds, except for a coupe of holes where I have some sheet metal screws for positioning the patch.  That trick works pretty darn well.

I could go ahead and weld in the patch now, but I need to do some rust treatment inside the rocker.  Once that's done, I should have the trunk drop, and I can seriously tackle getting this side of the car finished up.

On the dash panel, there are a couple more small areas of concern.  At this point, it might be better to replace the whole dash panel, but I'd hate to have to do that.  This should work out OK.

The gray is the weld-through primer.  A few weeks earlier, I had done some rust treatment up in here.  Let's hope it will be enough.

I am going to have to order the trunk drop for the left hand side.  Probably for the right, too.  Unless some kind of miracle happens, and I figure out a way to get the quarter panel and wheelhouse fixed without moving it.  Not likely!