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When I cut this side away the rust was a little worse than the other side. It had spread further up the panel and had taken out the trunk extension.
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You can see the extent of the rust here in the extension. I ordered a new one from Sherman & Associates and instead of seaming it into the main trunk panel which would have involved drilling many spot welds, I just seamed it at the round-over of the panel. By lining up the new panel over the rusted one I was able to slice them together and get an accurate seam to weld to.
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Tis is the replacement panel lined up and trimmed to fit. Again I can't stress about how you need to take your time and make sure the panel fits good before you attach it. An extra hour spent here will save many more on the other end of the project and give you much better results to boot!
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This is the panel ready to weld on. Be sure to remember to trim the wheel well lip as the repop one is much wider than stock and it will look very dorky is not trimmed. I made a tool out of a piece of oak that spaces a sharpie marker the correct distance away so alll you have to do it trace it and cut the lip to the mark.
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All welded on, ground down and the first skim coat is applied. Total time so far, 9 hours.
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The final coat going on and then on to blocking out the car. If you need to build up and area with filler, use it in thin layers and sand them between applications. Try to keep the filler no maore than 1/16" thick as it will reduce the chance of cracking and make sanding a much shorter task.
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