Bodymans tape?

-
duster 344

duster 344

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2022
Messages
169
Reaction score
205
Location
mn
I was talking to a guy about sand blasting the body of my duster told him I have to get a quarter panel replaced, he described how he does patching. He uses body man's tape, he cuts the patch a little larger then what he cut out and secures it with a two sided tape then welds them together as a lap joint. I'm not a body guy but this is new to me, may take a lot of filler to smooth out. Has any body done this?
 
duster 344 said:
I was talking to a guy about sand blasting the body of my duster told him I have to get a quarter panel replaced, he described how he does patching. He uses body man's tape, he cuts the patch a little larger then what he cut out and secures it with a two sided tape then welds them together as a lap joint. I'm not a body guy but this is new to me, may take a lot of filler to smooth out. Has any body done this?
Click to expand...
Im nota body guy but that sounds terrible. Why not butt weld it. If you can get to the inside of something like a quarter just do a "cut and butt a s made famous on you tube by "fitzee" .
I have also flanged panels to overlap and weld in patches. But the cut and butt works better for me in most cases.
How are you going to sandblast that sheetmetal without it warping all to hell and removing factory filler? I think most people use a much safer media these days.

 
Never heard of such! Hardly anyone does lap joints anymore. Most are butt welded joints nowadays. To do a lap joint, you need a step flanging tool that goes in an air chisel. You use that to make a step in one of the pieces of metal you are welding together, usually the one on the car. Then you cut your patch to fit just inside that stepped flange. Then you weld in the ditch with spot welds, and if you don't weld it solid from one end to the other it will crack the filler eventually. If the dude is taping stuff together to weld it....I don't believe I'd be letting him sandblast a car!
 
Here's how Fitzee installs patch panels......He overlaps, but then.......Watch the magic. This guy is awesome.

Personally, I would never lap and Bondo. My project came with an overlapped joint that you speak of. I cut the lap out, and did a butt weld.



LOL......Treed by @HankRearden
 
I use clecos but you can use sheet metal screws as well to hold the replacement panel tight to the original panel. Then I take a thin cutting wheel on my angle grinder and slice through both panels where I want to weld them. I tack the two as a butt weld, then switch to a saws-all and cut a little more and tack, and so on and so forth. On the back side a strip of waste will eventually be removed as well as on the front. Kind of like cutting a wallpaper seam. Then I go back and fill in the tacks between the first tacks, only welding a 1/4 inch at a time and keeping it cool. Eventually it is all welded up and you can then grind it flat on the outside. The picture is prior to cutting and welding but fitted up with clecos. I use .23" E70-S wire at about 17V and around 300 inches per minute feed. You will want to look at the back side of the weld and be sure the base metal is totally consumed (no cut edges showing at welds). The metal on the back side should be proud of the base metal. If the back side looks good and is flush to proud, then you can grind the front side flush. Keep the metal cool when welding and grinding by moving around.

I have some photos of the rear side and one of the front but they are on my phone and kind of a pain to move over.

IMG_4804.JPG
 
I don't know what he's using, but I've seen other cars he's done and they come out real nice. As far as his body work. It may be questionable. I've got another guy for that
 
On my daughter's '93 Civic I did couple years back I slowly carefully cut the patch to size and butt welded in. No overlap and no tape. I like to grind the tops of the tack welds as I go to help the additional tacks properly arc penetrate. You can warp panels very badly when grinding welds too if not careful.

I did another car after this one and used a small cut off wheel on Dremel tool. Much easier to see/control and was able to get the gap much tighter then when I did this car. Angle grinder sparks flying much heavier tool much harder for me to see/control. I am still learning.

IMG_20191228_140750.jpg


IMG_20191228_141204.jpg


IMG_20200309_114538_01.jpg


IMG_20200309_141432_02.jpg


Finished-rear1.jpg
 
340sFastback said:
On my daughter's '93 Civic I did couple years back I slowly carefully cut the patch to size and butt welded in. No overlap and no tape. I like to grind the tops of the tack welds as I go to help the additional tacks properly arc penetrate. You can warp panels very badly when grinding welds too if not careful.

I did another car after this one and used a small cut off wheel on Dremel tool. Much easier to see/control and was able to get the gap much tighter then when I did this car. Angle grinder sparks flying much heavier tool much harder for me to see/control. I am still learning.

View attachment 1716021245

View attachment 1716021246

View attachment 1716021247

View attachment 1716021248

View attachment 1716021250
Click to expand...

You did a nice job on the Civic! Where did you find patch panels? I have a 94 Civic coupe I need to get a few patch panels for, but haven't had any luck finding any. I may not be wording my search right, but surely to goodness someone makes patches for these little Jap traps...lol.
 
JDMopar said:
You did a nice job on the Civic! Where did you find patch panels? I have a 94 Civic coupe I need to get a few patch panels for, but haven't had any luck finding any. I may not be wording my search right, but surely to goodness someone makes patches for these little Jap traps...lol.
Click to expand...
PM sent since I don't want to muddy up a mopar forum with Honda specific body parts discussion. Thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top