The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Upper cowl and window sill repair

Howdy,
Any ideas how i could possibly fix the window sill here?

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb422/gumbi18/1957%20GMC%20half%20ton/002-1.jpg
http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb422/gumbi18/1957%20GMC%20half%20ton/001.jpg

This is pretty much the only bad spot on the whole upper cowl panel so im not going to replace the whole panel, but I have no idea how to go about repairing this. My uncle mentioned using fiberglass over it all to build up the lip for the windshield and/or use bondo. I know most of yall are against using bondo for repairs but i think that this would be a challenge for even someone with years of experience, (something I dont have, first restoration for me). Im decent with doing metal work but I feel this is out of my scope to refab all this in metal.
Any ideas?

Looks like an opportunity to expand your scope of metal working to me. If there is enough good metal to work with that is...
Is that SPI epoxy your using? It has that look

Its an epoxy primer but I cant remember what brand, I think Nason 2k or something

Given access to the correct tools,that is do-able in metal.
I'm not too familiar with this year/model,but is this a common rust area?
I think trying to find a scrap cab and cut your replacement metal from that,might be an option.

The multiple bends along with a curve make this repair diffilcult. One way to make it easier is to weld in several short sections resulting in a segmented curve (or several straight pieces resembling a curve. The final curved shape can then be achieved with plastic filler.

IIRC when I was forming the patch for the bottom of my doors which had a similar bend to them the metal naturally wanted to form some curve to it as well. I was just using my bench vice and a short piece of angle iron with a MFH (a smaller BFH). I had to straighten them out but you may be able to go the other way with it. Maybe start with a longer than needed section and then cut out what you need?
Maybe a real metal guy like MPC will step in and tell us how its really done.

The best "tutorial" I have to show the process for forming multiple bends like that is this thread on a tailgate repair.... Where this is primarily flat and yours shows a bit of crown throughout the area, you could still make a hammerform that matches your cowl for a fairly accurate replacement.

Here's about 8 pages worth of reading....
http://www.trifive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53428


Gumbi, Tell your uncle this isn't a T-bucket, repairing with steel is your best option. In all seriousness, fiberglass and steel have different expansion rates, so after a year or so of varying temperature changes, these forces will wreak havoc on the bond between the resins and the steel until such a repair delaminates.

If fabricating a repair panel using steel is indeed out of your scope, then I'd suggest finding someone else to do the fabrication/repair for you, or find a donor piece from a solid truck. IMO this would still be much cheaper than having to come back a couple/few years later and needing to fix it all over again due to delamination.

I have seen the reference post before and I can tell you that guy is an over the top good metal worker. I had forgotten about hammerforming which certainly would be an appropriate approach in this situation.

Thanks for the feedback guys. MPC that's some amazing work you did there. I'll give it a shot. I think i can redo most of it with metal, at least get the shape of everything right. I just might have to use some filler to get the curves smooth.

A small amount of filler won't hurt.

I've said this before....If the bodyshop guys back in the day had Bondo,you could be dang sure they would've used it!
Like most things, use it in moderation though.

Wow, MP&C that is pretty cool metal work. Don't you love the stuff though. I am just a shade tree mechanic, but welding is a lot of fun. The more I try the more I learn. I appreciate your skills! You must have a PHD in metal fabrication.

Thanks, that was my first attempt at hammer forming, so I was a bit apprehensive. I do rather enjoy Sheet metal repair work, hopefully one day it will be a full time venture.. Hindsight, there are some minor things I would have done differently on the tailgate, but overall it worked well given the multiple bends going around corners.. Should work well for the windshield repair...

Laroke has a post where he did a repair on his, I think 54 to a very similar shape. He did the bends on a straight piece with a small cheap brake and then used a shrinker/stretcher to make the curve. He did a remarkable job and it is all on his website. I found the post BillyBob Repair