Upper fender apron repair 1

While awaiting my new right front fender apron panel, I decided to patch the front right upper shock tower rust hole that was left after I removed the original apron panel. The rust actually attacks both the shock tower area as well as the fender apron where the spot welds attach them together. However, since I was installing an entire front apron panel, I didn't have to patch it and thus got to kill 2 birds with one stone (the upper apron rust spot and the battery tray rust spot). For this hole, I only had to patch the upper front right shock tower sheet metal.

First I marked out around the deteriorated area making sure the cutout was as perfectly square as I could get ensuring the least pain for cutting a patch.


I cut on the dotted line with my air cutter.


I then measured the hole exactly with calipers and cut out a patch a few hundredths smaller from 14 gauge sheet metal I had from a torque box section I bought and wasn't going to use.

My first weld with my new Millermatic 140 welder. It penetrated just about perfectly using the AutoSet function. I just wish my hand wasn't so shaky making the bead.

I ground the area down smooth with my handy-dandy angle grinder.


Finally, I hit the area with some weld-through primer for assembly.