How Would You Fix This

Machspeed

Machspeed

Member
Hey friends, I've got a trunk lid and a roof that I need to do some metal work to and I'm just not sure how to approach it. The trunk lid had a rear spoiler and the roof had rear window louvers. At the attachment points (see photos) you can see where the metal is pulled up and the surrounding base of the mounting points where the louver hinges and spoiler bracket were is sunken in. I cannot get behind it, as there is supporting panel there with about 1/4" of space between the two panels. Suggestions on addressing these areas?
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Thanks Dean, but the holes stay, as the spoiler and window louvers are going back on the car. I just need to straighten the surrounding metal and can't get under it with anything.
 
Those types of things are tricky. I’ll be curious to see what others suggest. But me, I’d use a stud welder to pull up the low area around the louver holes.

For the wing, try tapping it to see how much the metal bounces around. If it doesn’t, you may be able to tap it down as it. If it’s bouncing around, then weld a stud to the bounce and hold the stud while you’re tapping the high spot. You’re not trying to pull up on the stud per se, just use it as a reverse dolly.
 
I once repaired a similar problem with limited access by tapping some correctly spaced holes in a small piece of plate steel, sliding it under and used all thread to hold this “dolly” of sorts through the existing holes to tap out the damage.
 
Stud gun slowly working around that crease. Alternate pulling the stud with the slide hammer and then holding upward pressure on the stud with a pair of vise grips and tapping around the crease (each side) and in the middle. Holding upward pressure while tapping around the crease will allow the crease to continue to work out and the areas around the crease will keep from going high, or rather you will knock down the highs around the crease and holes and in doing so, by holding upward pressure on the stud that will pull the crease up as well. Same principle as using a hammer and off dolly only you are doing everything on one side. I'm sure someone else can explain it better. :)
 
If you can slide a piece of metal between the outer skin and the inner frame, here's a possible similar situation we had with modifying a Plymouth hood, adding a through hole for the breather. This also included removing bracing in certain areas and adding in others. In order to remove the bracing a piece of 16 ga steel was used as both a heat shield and a "dolly". The high spots were heated with a torch and LIGHTLY hammered with the appropriate shaped hammer until the heat wore off. Then reheat and repeat. Throughout the process the outside skin was monitored to make sure it didn’t get too hot.

We have four places where these areas of the old structure was cut out that need to go. Opening the hood to see these remnants would just kill the look, so let's see if we can mimic a factory look here.


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A piece of 16 gauge was used as a heat shield and using the Meco torch and the barrel end hammer, reshaped the offset back to match the adjacent contour...


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thread for reference:


Plymouth Arrow hood

One of my former classmates from high school caught up with me a few months back, and had some work he wanted done on a hood for his Tubbed V8 Plymouth Arrow. Still has the same car from HS almost 4 decades later.. He said he wanted a more professional job over what was done back then.. He...
www.spiuserforum.com
 
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