Body Work Help

[MileHi91LX]

Season’s greetings! I’m installing some Scott Rod inner fenders into my ‘91 LX and have a few questions. I am spot welding them in. How far down do I grind the welds in order to make hiding the seam easiest with Bondo? Does anyone have pics of what they did step by step? I’ve found numerous videos but none of them show close ups of the welds before they starting adding the body filler. Also, is Bondo the best filler to use? I’ve attached some pics of where I’m at now. I’ve welded the driver side in place and have began grinding the welds. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

 

[Davedacarpainter]

I haven’t dropped by for a little bit, I’ll have to search a some for relevant posts to show you what I did.

I’ve done two sets of the SR panels.

I can’t tell for sure from your pictures, did you cut out the factory panels first? Or weld these over the old?

Give me a day or so to get you the posts of what I did. By sunday I’ll show what I got to show.

 

[MileHi91LX]

Thanks for replying. I cut out the factory panels and removed the primer in the areas I was welding. I read an article on epoxying the SR panels on so I had primed everything and was going to remove the primer in the epoxy bonding areas, but then I read the epoxy requires 70 degrees. It’s colder than hell in my garage so I had to call an audible and weld, or I wouldn’t have primed everything first!

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Ok, my thread on Booger meanders a bit, so the work on the Scott Rod Panels really begins on post 458.

Build Thread - '83 T-top Coupe - Cliff Notes Edition

Getting an idea how it’ll fit.

www.stangnet.com

I really have the dog/squirrel mentality at times when I’m working on a project. There’s just so many things Booger needed done......

So what I see on your panels, at least across the top is a lap weld as opposed to butt welding it. You’ll want to continue your spot welding around the perimeter or your bonds will crack some day in the future due to flex between the panels. There’s a chance the lap welded area may show itself later after you’ve finished the engine bay.

Don‘t stitch weld it or you’ll warp the hell out of the thin metal.

As for Bondo being the “best“ filler. I guess I would have to say maybe, lol.

All filler gets called bondo as a generic reference to body filler. I don’t know if their product has kept up with technology over the years. I haven’t seen it used in a shop literally for decades. Go to an Oreilly’s (or any other paint supply that supplies body shops) and ask for a good filler.

If you want to see what I did on the ‘86 when I put in the SR panels, let me know. Kind of the same as I did with Booger. Though Doby was my learning vehicle for this one.

You can go back a couple pages on that thread to find the earliest appearances of the new SR panels.