To fix or not to fix ??

I think they do have the reinforcement panel, at least on the early editions.
http://m38a1.com/images/models/D_Model/38a1d_21.jpg
http://s836.photobucket.com/user/crossbow2/media/M38A1Pictures005.jpg.html

 

Always a font of information. I stand corrected.
Thank you, Howard.

 

Three out of three M38A1s I've had over the past 30 years have all had no reinforcement outer plate. I don't think I've ever seen one with the plates.
- Donny

 

Three out of three M38A1s I've had over the past 30 years have all had no reinforcement out plate. I don't think I've ever seen one with the plates.
The fender pictured looks like a good candidate for 3M Panel Bond after a bit of sandblasting. It will never rust again after that stuff.
- Donny

 

Looks like you need some practice with the spot weld cutter.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the point of the round cutter is to separate the two panels without drilling a hole through the panel that you want to save. Instead, you seem to have drilled a big hole completely through both panels in many places.

You should drill just enough so that the panel on the cutter side is released from the panel beneath. This will leave a little round button on the panel you want to save, and a big hole in the panel you will discard, or the panel that is normally hidden. Once the panels are separated, you take your grinder and grind off the button from the saved panel.

If I had to work from the side of the good panel, I would use a regular drill bit and make a much smaller hole. Or, you could still use the spot weld cutter, because the material surrounding the weld is a lot softer than the welded metal. But you'd only drill enough to release the panels, not all the way through.

 

I think its main purpose was to trap water and start rusting!

 

I cut quite a few spot welds on the DJ build. As I recall, one panel or the other ends up with a hole- no way around it. If the panel is replaced with a new piece, the holes aren't an issue anymore as the new piece is undrilled.

I'm pretty sure my '54 A1 fenders have the reinforcement panel. I have an early fender too and will look at it today.

 

"Three out of three M38A1s I've had over the past 30 years have all had no reinforcement outer plate. I don't think I've ever seen one with the plates."

My M38A1-C has the reinforcement panels, with a "delivery date" of 9/1952. That's why i was guessing (wrongly it seems) that they were an 'early' feature.

 

I drilled thru few by mistake but one side of a spot weld will be a hole when removing

 

Anyone have any thoughts about using that 3M panel bond on this instead of welding? I used some on my pickup restore and it worked pretty well

 

Fwiw the pair of M-38a1 fenders I have here have the fender to frame support brackets and the reinforcement panels.

 

Well I got the support bracket off today, as suspected a bunch of rust behind it but just surface rust.



This is pretty much all the pc's of the fender, now I need the motivation to get everything blasted and see what I can cut off a donor fender I have to weld onto this one

 

The area where the hood latch is located is full of pin holes from rust on the original. The donor fender had one that while not perfect it was a lot better so that is the first step.




I'll get this blasted then try to repair the couple of holes before welding to the original

 

Sand blasting, an grinding. takes off good steal, an lots of time does not "KILL" the rust, I just did mine an for fenders like yours an any other parts that can fit it a tub. dround with water an molasses for a few weeks. this will remove "ALL"!!! Rust then wire brush an use fiber glass cloth an epoxie to fill your holes then use bondo to fill an fare.Cloth goes on back an prevents water from hitting the thin steal...I an sure i missed a few things, but this will give you some idea of what I did.. an lots of others...

 

I started to work on the fender this afternoon and just couldn't get motivated, or maybe I am a bit overwhelmed

I cut this pc off another fender


Too replace this pc on the original


But while I have a cutoff wheel, mig welder and the basics I am not really set up to fabricate bends like this. So my question is how to I go about fixing this rust damage on the donor pc to get it good enough to get it welded on the fender. I am not open to bondo or fiberglass to fix holes.