So, since I couldn't find any suitable replacements for my rusted out rear valance corners I decided to go ahead and try to fab my own. It's amazing what you can acomplish with a hammer and dolly and various hard things around the garage. Below are the results on the passenger side. The welds still need to be ground down, but otherwise, they came out pretty well.

 

Now see... that's a lot easier than replacing the whole panel.

 

Good work! Lots of curves and angles- bet you spent a lot of time on that

 

looks good keep us updated.

 

looks good, did you use metal from your dryer? hahahah ive seen ppl do that btw.

 

the dash in my freinds 65 buick sportwagon was partly made of genuine STOP sign . still had the red reflective coating on the back side.

 

o yea i forgot to ask or u going to use a sealer or something to make sure those welds wont rust?

 

Thanks for the comments.

It took about three hours to make the templates, cut, and weld all the pieces. I somehow lost my template that I made before I cut everything off, so I had to make one from the driver's side. I made the section in three pieces in order to get all of the proper curves.

I didn't use a dryer, but thats pretty close. I get large sections of sheet metal from my lab at CU. They are always throwing out old shelving units etc. I believe this particular section came from the extra panels of a brand new fume hood. I really like using this metal beause it is fairly thick and is painted, so I can store it outside, plus its FREE. The only downside is having to remove all the paint before welding.

BTW, does anybody know how to get those bumper mounts/ tow hooks off? I have removed all of the bolts and they still are attached somehow. You can't get to them from behind the valance. I am out of ideas.

Justin

 

The bumper brackets have one bolt each that goes down into it from inside the hatch. Pull back the carpet in the back and you'll see two bolts there.

 

260z - After I grind down the welds, I etch the area with phosporic acid metal prep and then coat with rustoleum black. When I get ready to paint the whole car I will take evrything down to metal and then coat with epoxy primer.

Bleach - thanks for that lil tidbit. I saw those bolts but didnt think that they had anything to do with the brackets since they are so far back.

I got to work for a few minutes today and took the wire wheel to the driver's side. It's amazing how much bondo the PO used and how good it actually looked.

Here's what I uncovered: