I am starting a complete restoration of my 1959 Chevy apache fleetside short bed. I am removing the 235 engine and 3 speed transmission to rebuild and am planning on doing alot of the body work myself. I have some rust in all the common areas lower rear front fender corners, inside bed panels etc... There are a lot of vendors including the host of this site that sell the preformed patch panels. I was looking for feedback on the quality of these panels from the different vendors from people who have used the panels before and which ones are the best and which ones to avoid. I have looked at the ones that brothers sells and they seem to have the biggest selection. Is it best to butt or lap the panels when welding into place? What is the preferred (easiest) type of welder for welding the panels into place mig, tig or stick? Any replies appreciated!! Thanks
Patch panels... Almost all patch panels for vehicles in this age-group are made in China. Key Parts and Tri-Plus are sold by our host, and I think they are the same parts, made in China. I used a mixture of brands on my AD truck. The cab corners, lower door pillars, inner cowl, or "kick" panels, inner to outer cowl panels, lower door panels, inner and outer are all parts sold here. All made in China. They ALL required considerable work to fit properly. I also purchased the complete floor pan, manufactured by Dynacorn, for my truck from a local source, but, it is also available here. My outer cowl panels are also Dynacorn parts from the same local source. They are made in Taiwan, also, but, seem to fit a little better. Dynacorn builds, or supplies all the parts for the complete cabs on the market today. That means they would have to address poor-fitting parts in the manufacturing process. I think it makes them better. I don't know your bodywork experience, but, the best jobs are always butt-welded. TIG or old-timey gas is best, MIG will work just fine, but generally the spot-spot-spot method. Never stick. Your dealing with 16 to 19 ga., HEAT IS THE ENEMY. One other thing, when you get your parts, cut them down to the size needed to replace the rust spot. Don't just hold the whole thing up and mark your cab and cut out lots of good metal. Also, avoid cutting out original areas with compound curves, if the original metal can be saved. A quick interweb search for American Made, patch panels found only "Tabco" as producing panels here. I have no knowledge about them. Hope this helps. Steve.
I have used our host and brothers and and a couple others on my 58 & 59 and had no issues, be prepared tho to do a little trim to fit. the first patch panel i ever got were from Golden State P/U parts when they were located in Calif, and the quality from then to now is WAY better. Allen
More on this subject.... When you set-up for butt welding, you need a gap about the size of the welding wire your using. I really like panel clamps, also, available cheap, at your local Harbor Freight store. Buy several. Steve.
FWIW: About the only thing I'd like to add to the above is using original sheet metal is always your best bet, if it is available. Even if you use, for example, a wrecked fender and then cut out the pieces you need you will almost always end up with a better product. Plus you're using American made steel on your American made project. _____ John
If properly fitted with the correct gap we use a mig that has had the heat and feed set CORRECTLY. When done so it will give a "row of tipped over dimes" bead that most people can't tell from a tig bead. We have mig, tig, gas, and stick but use this for one main reason---heat. The mig gun is held in one hand and an air blow gun in the other so it it spot, blow, spot, blow until bead is complete. Ends with near zero warping. If time is not a factor and you are a glutton for work then gas "hammer welding" will give a nearly invisible joint with little warp IF your good with a hammer and dolly. It also is necessary to have access to both sides.
And this too... I also like to keep several "bits" and pieces of sheet and tube copper in my toolbox, welding drawer. You can clamp it behind your work to help suck out the heat. You can also weld up small holes, like firewall holes with only the copper backing, your CORRECTLY set MIG gun, and blow gun. With gas welding, we used to use a bucket of water and a rag to cool the metal. When I was a teenager, I was always the bucket/rag boy. Steve.
I had forgotten about that. After some long beads your were standing in a puddle of water or in our case, mud.
