How would you fix this fender?

A while back, someone in a pickup truck kindly rearranged my rear passenger side fender, like so. 

That rust was pre-existing and is kind of odd - it's the only rust on the car and goes through the back side, but there's nothing back there. Anyway, it's beside the point. 

I've hammered it out well enough to drive the car, but it has been driving me crazy. I found someone local who is scrapping a shell and will let me cut out whatever I want - and it's even the right color, oddly enough.  How much should I try to graft in? I do worry about making a clean repair without it being obvious where it was patched, but this will never be a show car so I don't need concours-level work here. WWGRMD?

BTW cut it out and add flares would be an acceptable solution, except that this is a stock 1.6 and 205 width tires are already plenty for it. 

I am thinking something like this only maybe not so much under the door.

Can you weld or are we gluing this in? Both can work.

I can sort of weld - I have a welder, and the will to learn, and I've read your treatise on welding for bodywork quite a few times. Assume it will be welded. My big concern is finding a natural place to cut so that the patch isn't super obvious if I don't do a perfect job. 

In reply to cmcgregor :

Do you have a link to his treatise?  If not I assume it's in the build thread?

In reply to Stampie :

Most of the way down page 1 of this thread

Welding for dummies (like me).

You won't like this answer.

I'd replace the entire panel. The labor you will invest in trying to hide a patch and all the welding will almost certainly be as much as drilling out the spot welds and replacing the entire panel. Plus it really is the only way to properly eradicate all the rust as your inner wheelhouse will also need addressed.

If you have a donor car available, the whole fender is likely the way to do.  You will probably need to repaint most of the fender anyway.  

I don't know how easy those are to take off though.

ddavidv said:

You won't like this answer.

I'd replace the entire panel. The labor you will invest in trying to hide a patch and all the welding will almost certainly be as much as drilling out the spot welds and replacing the entire panel. Plus it really is the only way to properly eradicate all the rust as your inner wheelhouse will also need addressed.

This is the answer.

Either that car has lived in the rust belt or that's a previous repair?  If that's a previous repair and really the only rust on the car, I'd say fix it right.   Cut spot welds, weld in a new patch panel, repaint.  Probably worth time saved just buying a clean new patch panel vs hacking up a donor.

aircooled said:

If you have a donor car available, the whole fender is likely the way to do.  You will probably need to repaint most of the fender anyway.  

I don't know how easy those are to take off though.

I know how easy they are to take off!  

Not difficult really but it took a while. I harvested this quarter panel for a friend who needed one for his rust-bucket. I would check to see what a new panel cost before I did it again!

These pics should show you pretty much all of the spot-welds you need to get at.

Pete

In reply to cmcgregor :

Thanks.

I've used these guys' panels for an NB repair:

https://raybuck.com/product/1989-98-mazda-miata-upper-rear-wheel-arch-passenger-side/

I was quite happy with it.

I cut out the bad bits and then did a pencil rubbing.

Cut out what I wanted to use (a bit oversized)

​​​​​Then I just welded it in after treating the inside with Eastwood chassis rust preventor.  Here it is before any putty with some spray on primer.

And I should have spent about twice as long block sanding and such, but with some store mixed rattle cans, it looked pretty good after a Polish.  Unfortunately I can't find the good pictures with it outside.

In reply to cmcgregor :

Just do a lot of spot welds,sort of like this top middle  rear then front, then just fill.in the spot welds Iike tq ing down a head . Move from ome side to another, till filled,this way little  heat stresdThen grind off the welds smoothly 

Jeez, some of you would have me just scrap the thing and start over.

That picture of the internal structure is helpful, thanks. I don't think I'll be doing a full replacement in my driveway, but I'll keep that in mind as a "someday, when I have time and money to actually restore this thing" solution.

It's looking more and more likely that I'll just treat the rust and ignore it for now - to the extent that that's possible, at least.

This car is a constant source of frustration for me - I love the thing and it has a lot of sentimental value for me, so it's not going anywhere, but I just wish it were a little nicer.

I hope my post wasn't overwhelming, I was intending the opposite.  

My post could be done in a weekend if you didn't have a herd of young kids like I do :)   I was hoping to show how easy it was to do a significantly worse repair with about $150 in panels, some paper & pencil, a welder, and about $40 worth of part-store mixed rattle can paint.  I did the same thing for the various rusty spots along the fender (cut out a part of the panel that matched those).

In reply to WonkoTheSane :

Not at all! Yours was one of the more reasonable methods. Unfortunately I also have a herd of young kids(well, a small one, but a herd nonetheless). 

I'm trying to schedule some time to do just that - I think I can make it look reasonably good for a pretty minimal investment, then really go all out on bodywork at some undecided future point. 

ddavidv said:

You won't like this answer.

I'd replace the entire panel. The labor you will invest in trying to hide a patch and all the welding will almost certainly be as much as drilling out the spot welds and replacing the entire panel. Plus it really is the only way to properly eradicate all the rust as your inner wheelhouse will also need addressed.

This, do it right or don't do it at all.

I’d shake my head and sigh every time i see it, but leave it alone

In reply to cmcgregor :

You now live in a generally rust free area with no snow tires needed.   

How about fix it with some really fat tires?

Hide those tires under some fender flares (that hide the current sins.)

Amazon $136

I would love to flare it but it just feels too permanent somehow. I suppose if I want to go back to stock later its more or less the same place I'm in now in terms of work to fix it.

Of course, I really don't want to just add more tire without adding more power, and then the floodgates really open...

In reply to cmcgregor :

So, the answer to a bad fender then is really a turbo and intercooler?  Gotcha!  

I know that welding is the best way to attach a panel, but you might consider panel bonding glue given your situation. 

Cut the panels off of both cars as detailed above, clean up and paint any crud on your shell, fit the new panel (might use some small sheet metal screws to locate initially),  pull the screws, apply the panel bonding glue, and attach the new panel with pop rivets.

If you were careful, you might not even damage the paint on the new panel.

Glue

John Welsh said:

In reply to cmcgregor :

So, the answer to a bad fender then is really a turbo and intercooler?  Gotcha!  

Precisely!

Regardless, pick up the new panel. Save it for future reference.  You might try a hack method for now, until you are ready to tackle it  big time.   Pull the dent, clean it up, fiberglass and bondo, rattle can.   Hack, I know, but it will doll it up some.