Potato chip fender flange fixed!

[DarrylD]

The problem with an early "4-hole horn grill" fender is there aren't any replacements readily available so your only choice is work with what you've got. The left side fender flange had some extreme rot issues that needed to be addressed:



So I fabricated a stamp to reproduce the unique pressing pattern and "mass produced" a few patches in my shop press:



Align the patches with the existing bolt holes and hand fit them:



Then cut out the rotten ones and welded in the new ones:



Here's the "autopsy photo" of the old ones:



Now I have a nice solid fender flange that utilizes the original mounting hardware.

The fender flange was just the beginning of the 2 weeks of rust repair this old fender required. If you're interested in reading about it, please check out my ongoing project blog at: http://members.aol.com/darryld/912.htm

[Paulporsche]

Nice!

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally posted by DarrylD
....So I fabricated a stamp to reproduce the unique pressing pattern and "mass produced" a few patches in my shop press

First, get a million dollars, then.....

Hi Daryl. Man, you've got some fabrication skills on you, huh? Very impressive. Not only this work but your overall dedication to correctly restore this 912. It will be a beauty I'm sure. What is the original color, I don't recall? I assume you are going back to it. WIll you paint it yourself? Full repaint in and out, right?

[PorscheGuy79]

Very cool Daryl!

[Jadams1]

Nice work as always!

[cali74]

Very nice work!

I'm curious whenyou notched the other end of the stamped pieces? In the second and third photos only one end is notched, leaving not quite enough room for the metal clip to slide in. Once they are mounted though I see the full notch size?

BTW - you should sell these!!

[DarrylD]

Hey Dan! The color is Bahama yellow (a.k.a. road stripe yellow, school bus yellow, etc.) and I'm planning on having it professionally repainted after I get done with the sheetmetal repair. I've painted one car myself using Dupont Centari acrylic enamel and figured out how much it's worth to me to pay somebody else to deal with all the mess! I'll admit that working with tin is something I enjoy and try to constantly challenge myself to try more difficult stuff and see how it goes. There's a big pile of scrap pieces in the corner of my shop for all the failed attempts and like welding, I can only get better at it with practice.

The fabrication process for this piece was all centered around making a reasonable copy of the "pill" shaped stiffening rib. I used my $100 Harbor Freight bottle jack powered 12-ton shop press and a primitive stamp made out of 3/4" wide strap metal ("female" half) and a 1/4" diameter rod ("male" half). The "stamping" process is simply positioning the "female" and "male" pieces of the stamp above and below the sheet metal and pressing the "male" half down into the "female" half in the shop press. I made a bar out of 3/4" x 3/4" bar stock with a groove across it to sit perpendicular to the "male" portion of the stamp to help distribute the pressure and keep the sheetmetal from buckling during the pressing. Here's a photo of the stamping tool and the resulting piece:



Everything else is just tin-snips and bench vise bending around the pieces of 3/4" strap metal.

Hey Cali74! The "notch" for the 'U' fold extruded nut is cut in the patch first since the distance between it and the bolt hole must be the same for all the holes. Since these patches are placed end-to-end, there is a slight amount of hand trimming required to make it fit the curve of the fender flange. Once that angle is established, I can tin-snip out the other half of the "notch" in the other end of the patch panel and file it to perfect shape once all the welding is completed.

It took me about 2 hours to fabricate the stamp and make the 5 patches, or actually 7 patches, a couple of them didn't turn out good enough to use.

[Bobboloo]

Once again, amazing talent Darryl.

[lateapex911]

Very impressive. Methinks you can paint the thing too, LOL

[DW SD]

Truly excellent!
You are an inspiration!

Doug

[BernieP]

Excellent work. I wish I had half your skills!

[kycarguy 935]

Good job Darryl. I think you could sell alot of those.