The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Fixing holes in the fenders

Hello!

Whoever had my '59 Apache before me saw fit to drill several holes in the lower lip of the rear wheel well. I have the bed off for new wood, de-rusting, painting, etc, and I'd like to patch these holes. I've successfully made and installed my own patch pieces, but these holes are pretty small, about 3/8", and they're in the lip area.

How should I fix them? The holes are pretty small, so holding a patch piece in place would be near impossible. I could hold a piece of metal behind the hole, weld it in, and fill the divot with bondo, or should I just patch it with bondo? I can get behind it, so I can keep the bondo to a minimum and seal it from behind.

Thoughts on this repair?

Thanks...

Chris

If the hole is only 3/8" and the surrounding metal is good and can be accessed for cleaning to bare metal, I wood clamp a piece of copper behind it and plug weld it up gust like a fake spot weld. grind smooth no filler required, prime and paint.

i second that, it works well

You can mig weld copper to steel?

haha no that's the point. the copper is a removable back board for which to build the weld on till it fills the hole

Ahhhh...I understand now!

You'll have to forgive a stupid question or two...I'm new at the whole bodywork thing, learning as I go.

Chris

no stupid questions...i only learned that brass trick thing 2 weeks ago!

One last question regarding the copper trick...how thick does the copper have to be? I have some sheet copper, but it's pretty thin stuff, maybe 18ga. Could I layer it by folding it over onto itself, or does the piece of copper have to be significantly thicker, i.e. 1/8" or more?

Thanks...

Chris

that I am not sure I have only seen it done with thick stuff.

Depends a bit on the holes but the low buck solution I used was pounding copper pipe flat on the end for a couple inches it comes out about 3/16" thick makes a great spoon/w handle and only costs a couple bucks.

I haven't used them yet but I picked up some copper backing plates from Eastwood that are made for this purpose. They even have built in magnets to hold them to the inside of whatever you're patching. They also have some curved spoons that they sell for surfaces that aren't flat. They are nice and thick. I don't think the thin sheets will work too well.

Steve

I use plumbing parts too. Every so often they will clear some copper/plastic transition parts for larger pipes. I cut off the plastic and flatten the tube. They work out really well.

Brad -

Great suggestion. I will give it a try.

Thanks...

Chris

I used this method to patch at least 20 holes im my firewall. I just used copper pipe flattened out and held it in place with a long set of needle nose pliers. I held the copper, my son welded, worked really well!

how big of a hole can you fill with this method?

Well if you are trying to fill a large hole, a patch would be better. Welding is really creating a puddle and thus it doesn't produce a well controlled thickness like sheet steel. I had holes in the top of my cab from where lights had been mounted. This method allowed me to fill those holes.

Update -

I took a 1/2" piece of copper pipe about a foot long, flattened 4 1/2" of it in a vice, then folded it over on itself 3 times in an "S" pattern so I had a piece of copper about 1 1/2" x 1" x 1/2" thick with a ready-made handle. Worked like a charm, all holes in the bed side are now filled and ground smoothe. cost for tool = $0. (ok, $.50 if you consider the scrap cost of the copper).

Chris

The sheet copper you have will work you can just fold it up. No bigger than your holes are. As long as you don't burn through the copper if that happens just fold more layers.