This is going to be the most challenging area. Sometime in the past, some 'idiot' body person, incorrectly repaired the fender mounting panel, and the result was improper drainage.
Here you can see the resulting hole from the poor drainage. That rusted panel is the patch that the previous body person stuffed in...
The first step I took was use my new 'spot weld' drill, and carefully remove the fender mounting panel. (Here you can see I've almost got the piece removed.)
Here's the fender mounting panel removed. (before removing all the paint, I needed to mark the exact location of the original part.)
Once the paint has been removed, I have a nice piece of clean sheet metal to use to shape and fabricate a new piece to patch the resulting gaps.
(I'll also need to purchase a new fender mounting panel, as the original is too far gone...)
Here a couple of shots after I cut and shaped a new patch panel for the inner fender "bulk head". This was an incredible amount of work. I had to put two patch panels in to accomodate the "convex/compound" curves. It took me about two weeks and about one square yard of sheet metal before I got the right shape...
Here is another hole that needs to be fixed...
(This hole is apparently the reult of the 'dealer' installed air conditioning system. I'm also missing the cover panel that's supposed to cover this area. another dealer option???)
