The Commando herd increases....

To me, this is a perfectly acceptable repair ... cut a little patch to fill the hole, and weld it in. Same with the antenna hole. Grind out the old filler, hammer and dolly as best you can, and skim over it.

Maybe a stud welder and slide hammer would have done better. Either that or weld a bracket to the dent and pull on it. Anything to reverse the forces that made the dent.

 

Boss has a stud welder that works good. BUT the puller tool from the set will not hold the welded studs anymore. At ALL! Can't find a new set of jaws or an end assembly as it's over 30 years old. Haven't spent the time to look for just a welded stud puller. Last puller I just got was the hub puller (OTC7394) for almost a buck forty. That thing works super for sure so to me it's worth it.

 

Well, had a chance to fix the outer part of Fussy's left rocker last night. Hoist was open after replacing a rack and pinion in a Seville STS.
Here's what was under the chrome strip that someone had added....



The front end of the rocker under the chrome....



Cutting away the rot....



These rocker overlays I am using were pulled off the sandblasted-to-its-death '69, since they were just riveted on. Took a lot of cleaning to get both sides decent enough for even the rust treatment coating.



Even though they are intended as overlays, I tried to fit the rocker within the original's end dimensions. Worked out pretty good IMPO.



Overall look with a coat of primer....



Front end looks more solid now.....



Got some more grinding to do, put you can get an idea here of how it should blend into the body.....



Driver's door seems to close and open a tad better now. Glad to see Fussy's becoming a bit more solid, and I'm using up what's laying around in my way anyway.:driving:

 

Had a chance to grind on the rocker welds last night, the setting sun gave me the perfect angle of light and shadow to just hit the high spots and avoid grinding the surface metal.



Didn't get too far before the sunset, but ANY progress is good progress......

 

Keep up the good work! You'll never regret having good metal to work with! Good luck!

 

Thanks Wasillashack. Right now, Fussy's resting in the inside storage (with the 71 Commando, the 62 and 63 wagons, the 61 pickup and my 72 C20). I really feel blessed this winter since ALL of my vehicles are inside, except the CJ5 in my avatar that I bought just for travel during the winter and the rust-test 69 shell. 6 at inside storage, my two Pontiac Lemans in my garage at home and the 67 Commando in Mom's garage. The 62 pickup has been the current focus in the shop, so it's inside too. The head is soaking in a vinegar solution cleaning up the rust, the gasket set for the 226 arrived and most of the plate-steel bed sides are wire-wheeled clean as well as about 1/3 of the roof.

Merry Christmas and a project-progress new year to all in the forum!

 

Nice work and quite an improvement!

 

Glad to see fussy getting nicer.

 

Well, when I was out at the storage the other weekend to fire up Fussy, it turned out the alternator appears to be running at full-field. 17.5 volts. Boy that sure makes the headlamps bright! Had to shut those off before something blew out! Other than that, it did fire up well and idle good.

 

Looking good..