Regarding the inner fender outer panel. Until relatively recently (about the past 8 months to a year) I don't think the full inner wheel well inner panel (it's the outer inner that rusts) was available. So this was all people had - if doing it again...the full panel is $87 USD from the tip to the flange - the repair partial (what we were working with) is about the same cost. Now most people probably don't change out the entire part (used for the patch shape only). And on a 4-door changing that panel as a complete part is a major job. On a 2-door is is not nearly as difficult to get to all parts of that panel.

What is shown in the above post (aside from the one monster gap) is NOT possible with the original part. It was stretched, shaped, bent and occasionally cut to get it into a reasonable facsimile of what it should look like. We don't currently own the tools to make it perfect. With a day worth of beating it on the sandbag and over various other tools, we got it to fit. Welding, grinding and cutting upside down in a wheel well reminds you that this isn't quite the fun it looks like. It is a demonstration that it is possible, but I was as surprised as anyone when the last mallet blow saw that panel snap up into place and the weld line was pretty much perfectly butted. Luck played a role here for sure.

That was a FANTASTIC series of posts guys - thanks so much for taking the time to document and explain it!

Now about that mig sheet metal weld technique - Any chance you could video what that looks like if you guys ever find the time? I'd even drive down to learn anything I could with respect to welding and shaping sheet metal. Loved the thin strips of metal idea, and the tape grid made so much sense when I saw it.

So if you ever have the time to offer a "class" as it were - Count me in! In the meantime I'll learn cool tips vicariously via your guys' build threads.

Rabin

What Rabin said. Way over my head but it is really appreciated that you took the time to document all of that.

Thanks for the complements. At this point, I'm still learning so don't think that I should be teaching shaping to anyone. I would like to take one of the big classes as my skills develop. As for the welding - this is something that I've developed over the past several years and I could for sure crack out a video that demonstrates the technique. In the past, I have offered to do a welding skills day for the club. It would take some work to put it together, but I'd be willing to do a day/weekend seminar - instructional on basic or more advanced welding skills.

This thread is inspiring. For someone who has taken basic classes in oxyfuel, GMAW/GTAW/SMAW, I have the utmost respect for people that can do this type of work. It's no wonder I check the thread on a daily basis to see what new progress has been made! I would definitely be interested in a class setting if the planets align.

Tons of overtime at work expected this month, so progress will be delayed for a little while, or at least slowed right up. It will continue, though: the goal is still to get the car on the road this summer, just maybe not June 1 like I'd hoped.

Great progress guys!!!

love the technical details on the process involved...

I'm testing Amazon Web Hosting and hosting my own photos. I settled on them for now since I can create and control my own folder structure for easy copy-paste find-replace copy-paste action. I open my thread, edit my post, copy all. Paste all into word, find the old photobucket folder structure, replace it with new Amazon structure, then copy all. Paste all back into my thread, submit changes, all done. The whole 9 page thread here was done in about 15 minutes.

It's been a while that I've had this set up, I just haven't uploaded anything yet so I don't know what it's gonna cost me. I'm only doing this thread today to see how it works, and the proof of concept is good. I'm going to do the 123 GT thread and 780 thread next, but probably no more than that.

Thanks for putting in the effort to update your pix Matt, I've decide on postimage to re-do mine but have no idea about the addressing.

Dang, it's been over a year since I've posted any updates to this car. I've had some obstacles between me and progress - all summer last year I worked on the Saab, first for some general maintenance and then for the GBC, and I had a few light machining jobs in the meantime, but little chunks have been done to the car every now and then. Nothing that seemed big enough to post, but I have a new goal and a determination to at least get SOMEWHERE on the car before summer, so it's time for an update.

First things first, I inexpertly finished the front of the arch, and roughly shaped & shrunk the damaged areas of the RR fender until there was no oilcanning and it felt vaguley like a Volvo.



I've decided to smooth all the seams in the rear half of this car: from the front to the rear arch, from the fenders to the trunk slam panel, and from the fenders to the scuttle panel. Most of them have been welded but there was a substance that looked mysteriously like lead that I scraped from the scuttle seams, so I will just duraglass over those.

Movin' on to the trunk. I made a big mistake here but I needed to make some progress, and I chose the trunk. I don't even remember why - I just needed to get paint on something. Here's what the inside looked like before paint:





After taking care of the last of the rust holes in the trunk, acid washing and rinsing everything, scuffing it all down over and over again, I epoxy primed the whole trunk and the back of the slam panel reinforcement brace.





I seam sealed the gaps (another mistake), and welded the brace back into the trunk. Grinding all the spot welds made a mess and sent crap into the seam sealer, which got scraped out, washed down with solvent, re-sealed, and then the trunk got another coat of epoxy before paint and clear. Priming went well, painting went well, but somehow when I cleared it I blew a TON of crap out of somewhere, and ruined the job. Obviously I have no photos of this, but in my disgust I installed the trunk lid and will deal with it later. I was originally thinking about gravel guarding inside the trunk to seal and dampen the panels a little, now I may add "covering paint junk" to that list of benefits. Or I may scuff the trunk again and paint it properly, later.

Movin' on!

The crappy weather, a wicked chest cold that lasted from Xmas to Valentine's day, and a huge pile of work at my job kept me out of the garage for half of January and all of February, but in that time I managed to pull both front and rear windshields, the headliner, scraped the sound deadening from the roof, pulled the doors and trim, and basically stripped down the car to the minimum. The dash and steering wheel are still there, but not much more.

Thankfully, the window frames have zero rust in them. They did have a ton of sealant, but one of those rough fiber stripping discs (two of them, actually) buffed them clean.









And I finally sanded off the many layers of paint & primer from the rear fenders & stuff. It was really nice to see how little damage is in that LR fender - one little dent you can see now that paint's been buffed off, but I didn't know it was there before and you still can't feel it. There are a few patches I made on this fender - one on top of the arch and one at the rear of the arch. They look good but a little filler will be required at the rear arch one.











And a couple days ago, when it finally warmed up enough that I felt having enough heat in the metal for bondo was possible, I got started on duraglassing the RR fender. I'm working slowly, preferring to build many thin layers. I have a lot of low spots still, hopefully the high spots aren't too bad but once I get the shape a little better I'll consider how they look. They may need tapping down.



I'm back in the garage this Saturday and I'll probably swipe another couple layers on this fender, and will start roughing in the rest of the bodywork before switching to lightweight filler. Getting this much done was a bit of a breakthrough for me - Craig will tell you for how long I've been avoiding this step, but now that I'm rolling I figure I'll be okay.

With the crappy winter I've had though, I don't hold much hope for driving this car this summer. I'll be happy if it's in paint, with all the glass and door hardware in place so I can park it on the driveway and use the garage for other things this summer. If I find the time between household chores I've been avoiding for a couple of years I'll try and get it a little further, but if I don't drive it further than around the block this summer I'll spend the winter fussing with the trim and all the other details to make it perfect.

Looks fantastic Matt - great job documenting the struggles. Things to keep in mind include the curve on the fenders - check them against the rear trim to make sure you have the right curve.

Yeah, for sure, though the time to be checking this is long past. I'll be happy when the fender doesn't look like Lawrence Fishburne.

I got some more time with it on Saturday, but not a lot. Some progress was made - I tapped down some high spots and filled in some low spots, and moved onto what'll probably be the hardest area to get shaped right - between the taillight and fuel filler and trunk and bumper. There's no good way to spread filler in there, or to sand it, but I'll keep plowing away at it. No photos at this point because it's massively ugly.

This week and weekend are looking like I can make a little progress though, so with any luck I'll be working with the lightweight filler by Sunday, and driving myself crazy chasing after tiny ripples and lumps.

Slowly and surely the progress comes, but nothing photogenic enough to document. Just more mixing and filling and sanding and sanding and sanding, rinse and repeat. It all looks like ass in photos so I won't bother until I get the car in primer.

I'm no bodyman. That being said, I'm pretty happy with how this is turning out. I'm learning a whole lot.

This weekend I got about as far as I could with my hands, and I needed to verify things with my eyes. I knew I'd find the odd ripple or pinhole when I primed it, and luckily this epoxy primer has a bit of gloss to it so it plays the light fairly effectively. With it being white it really shows up pinholes too - there are hundreds that I hadn't seen, and never would have seen, without some form of visual confirmation. But the majority of the bodywork looks good, and that was the big concern.

For the next week the primer will chemically bond to other paints or fillers, so I'll be able to attack all of the imperfections in one go before moving onto the next task. I have a few flaws in the primer that'll need sanding out, but that's part of the plan. My next target is to strip the roof, weld up the antenna holes in the A pillar, and deal with a couple of odd dents before epoxying it, and then jacking the whole car up as high as I can get it to strip the rockers & sand the door jambs before epoxying them, sealing them, and painting the jambs in preparation for the doors. I have some work to do under the trunk floor as well as in the rear wheel wells as well, so they'll get sanded, sprayed with a really durable epoxy primer, sealed, and undercoated while the car's way in the air.

One small milestone achieved.

That's got to feel fantastic. By the way - leave sanding of that primer for a good long time...it's not really designed to be sanded so unless it's fully cured and has sat for a month, it sands like a$$.