how do I fix the grey fender, how do I fix the red one. question 2 I want to buy a welder to do body work with. I want it to be a mig with gas. what is a good welder to buy for this? please, I know to buy the biggest I can afford, but I actually want to do my research. what would you buy as a hotrod beginner. thanks in advance.
The beat up fender you have If you cant section the headlight section in (Like Dave boyer did on his 73 project) Cut off yhr bent up stuff and the bucket...Use the skin and bucket from the bent fender on the car. (Best bet) Or if you feel adventurous...Cut the spot welds to remove the bucket from the beat up fender and then work the dents out of it. Cut the bucket out of the bent fender on the car (by drilling the spot welds) This will give you a straight bucket to use as reference while straightening the beat up fender. As for the rocker...Drilling it and pulling with a slide hammer is an option but...The rocker is fairly thin and you can pull through the holes you drill in it (this just makes it worse) So be careful going this route. I personally would use a stud welder for this repair...It welds long studs to the damaged area, with a special slide hammer that attaches to em...You can pull the dent out without making holes in perfectly good sheet metal... The fender on the car now...pull it off...See if you have any distortion damage to the apron and the rocker where the fender attaches to it...If it checks good (use your beat up fender to guage if the apron is distorted by putting it on the car) If it sits properly...Use it and toss the fender you ran over...They can be next to impossible to straighten once distorted like yourse is (Think about an old oil can... You push on the bottom of it to make it dispense oil out the top to lube hinges or screen doors or what ever. You can pop it in but it allways pops back out. This fender will be like that oil can...It wont hold its proper shape any more...If the apron is distorted...You have some serious work to man...Hope its just the fender. Eastwood makes a pretty good entry level 220 volt mig welder...I have one...It workes very well and is priced well for a weekend warrior fabricator/ body guy...Good luck!!!
As far as a welder goes you really can't go wrong with a Miller or Lincoln of about 130 amps......The fenders, did you get the blue one to replace the red one?....I think the red one would be easier to fix than the blue one.....The blue one would have to be mounted to the car to hold it and studs would have welded to the front of it and that really bent up area would have to be heated cherry red before putting the stud puller on it and working it out but i'm assuming you don't have a stud puller which would mean the car would have to go to a body shop which you don't want to do because you're asking us here how to do it....If it were me, i'd cut the front of the blue one off and weld on the same piece from the red one, which i think you might be thinking since you asked about welders......
I would cut the bottom off the grey fender and use it to fix the red fender, where the dent is on the front, you'd have to removed the headlight bucket support, since it supports the surrounding metal, and it's probably bent, holding the fender in a weird position.. As for a welder, take your time, and try to stay away from store bought machines, buying a good welder is an investment. I bought a Lincoln 140C, from the welding suppliers, it's fully variable with the heat, and wire feed. I compared it to the Lincoln at Home Depot and Loews with use a lot more plastic in the drive section. Sometime TSC had good deals on Hobart, and I found Millers to be overpriced.
I think the problem with doing that is the top bracket on the red fender is probably tweaked also....Oh well, there's more than one way to skin a cat Oh, and Hobart is now owned and built by Miller
I would fix the red one and work out the sprung rear section before I would be monkeying around with the bucket on the grey one. I did nearly the same thing on a 69 mach 1 when I had a front tire detread at 95 mph on the freeway. Which was actually good.. since I was going about 125 just a few minutes earlier. After pulling the tire and closer inspection.. the fender was not sprung as bad as I first thought and it moved/slid on the aprons mounting bolts more than anything. The hardest part is maintaining the fenders position(without further damaging it) while you work out the sprung section. Sometimes wood clamps, 2x4's wrapped with cardboard for cushioning, and extra gloved hands are needed. I've also seen some fairly moderate sprung sections removed with just welding clamps used for leverage and elbow grease alone. Trick is to go slowly while going further than you think you need to in the opposite direction since the fender will spring back some. Did you inspect the fender bolts to see how much it moved/slid under the top rear mounting bolts? Becuase if it slid a lot?.. you may just need some lighter than anticipated tweaking and a remount to set you straight again. Good luck with it. oh.. unless you really want to be getting a crash course in welding.. while shelling out to add a welder to your tool collection?.. sectioning and merging body panels is not considered to be a first step learning project, IMHO. Pretty advanced stuff there in the scheme of things.
