New Sheetmetal For An Old Truck - Classic Trucks Magazine

New Sheetmetal For An Old Truck Wheel Well

This ’60s vintage GMC is the recipient of a bunch of high-quality rust repair panels from our friends at Classic Parts of America. We’ve learned from past experience that the use of quality parts is the only way to go when performing repairs of this nature. So it was with this in mind that my pal Kev Elliott (tech editor of our sister publication ROD & CUSTOM) dialed up Classic to order the few panels needed to bring the GMC up to snuff.

This ’60s vintage GMC is the recipient of a bunch of high-quality rust repair panels from

I’m pretty sure it was Neil Young who years ago recorded an album by the name Rust Never Sleeps. And though I may be mistaken in regard to the album title’s author, I’m more than willing to back up the accuracy of that rust statement. Because unless you’re one of a very select few classic truck restorers who are lucky enough to run across one of those mythical Cream Puff’s we’ve all heard tails of, you can expect most project trucks to be dent and rust riddled gems of one degree or another.

Now, of course we all do our best to get hold of project truck fodder that’s in as good a condition as we can find and/or afford, but it’s almost a given that most of ’em will be afflicted with various degrees of those aforementioned maladies. That said, repairing those dents, rust, and rot can be expensive for those who choose to farm out those repairs or time consuming and labor intensive for those that opt to tackle the repairs themselves. Betting that most of us have more time and energy than extra cash burning holes in our pockets, attempting to make these kinds of repairs on our own makes perfect sense.

The following images show a typical classic pickup and a couple of common repairs that anyone with a welder, some quality rust repair panels, and a bit of motivation can do in a home garage. So take a look, see how it’s done, and consider tackling a repair like this—it’s actually easier than you’d imagine. CT

Though this image shows the GMC from its most presentable angle, its condition is quite typical of most ‘60s vintage classic truck fodder. The rust and rot which plagues the GMC is confined to the most common of areas—the lower front fender sections, and the lower rear bedside panels around the wheel openings. To add insult to injury this particular pickup had a pretty large dent in the right rear bedside as well.

Though this image shows the GMC from its most presentable angle, its condition is quite ty
Here’s a perfect image of the typical rot found in most project trucks as mentioned earlier—lower fenders and in this case lower door bottoms too. At this point, the door bottom and rocker panel don’t look like they’re bad enough to require complete replacement but the fender bottom will be replaced rather than repaired.

Here’s a perfect image of the typical rot found in most project trucks as mentioned earlie
Unlike complete replacement fender assemblies that incorporate inner support structures, patch panels are, for the most part, made up of the outer skin only. That said, Kev began the fender repair by locating and drilling out the spot welds securing the outer fender skin to the inner support structure.

Unlike complete replacement fender assemblies that incorporate inner support structures, p

Once the spot welds had been drilled and the lower fender panel detached from the inner support, Kev placed the new patch panel over the fender and traced the panel outline onto the fender as a cutting guide. Trimming the original fender in this manner allows the patch to fit flush rather than letting it overlap the original metal.

Once the spot welds had been drilled and the lower fender panel detached from the inner su
To allow easier access to the fender rear inner edge Kev unbolted the cowl panel to reveal and remove the upper fender attaching bolts. Removing these fender bolts allowed him to pull (and prop) the fender away from the body rather than completely removing it for the repair.

To allow easier access to the fender rear inner edge Kev unbolted the cowl panel to reveal
With the rear of the fender unbolted from the cab and the damaged area removed, the next step was to grind the paint off of the repair area to expose any additional rust or rot that had been hidden under the painted surface. That bubble we saw in the previous image of the door bottom has been ground off exposing the metal in that area. Kev cut out the corners of both door skins and butt-welded triangular patches of fresh steel into the corners.

With the rear of the fender unbolted from the cab and the damaged area removed, the next s

With the heaviest of the rust ground away, what couldn’t be hit with the grinding disc was cleaned up as well as it could be by using a scraper. This not only helps remove loose flakes of rusted metal but knocks out a bunch of the moisture trapping dirt and road grime as well. If you look closely you’ll also notice that the inner fender reinforcement (around its mount bolt surface) had rotted away as well. This required Kev to make and install a patch in this area, too.

With the heaviest of the rust ground away, what couldn’t be hit with the grinding disc was
Here you can see the repaired inner reinforcement. It may not be pretty but it’ll do the job, Kev also gave the repaired area a couple of coats of weld-through primer to help prevent future rust.

Here you can see the repaired inner reinforcement. It may not be pretty but it’ll do the j
With the prep work done, the next step was to tack weld the new patch panel into place. As with any sheetmetal repair, welds should be short and sweet—in other words, individual spaced spot welds work best since there’s less likelihood of warpage caused by excessive heat.

With the prep work done, the next step was to tack weld the new patch panel into place. As

New Sheetmetal For An Old Truck - Sheetmetal Shenanigans

New Tin for an Old Truck