The bonnet work, while seemingly minor, is more complicated that I had envisioned. Well, I shouldn't say more complicated, just more intricate. I've gotten lots of practice and cutting and replacing patches by now, but this one has taken some planning.
When I left off the last post, I had come through identifying most of the damage (missed a few spots, but nothing too major) and had cleaned the passenger's side. I moved on with this visit with cleaning the driver's side, identifying an additional cancer spot on the front bottom of that wing that had not been repaired, as well as finding a dented up area in the front near the turn signal and head light back on the passenger side.
The dent damage, previously "repaired" with filler, all cleaned out.
I figured I'd suffer pain early on, so I went at that bonnet locating cone reinforcement plate. This turned out to be a multi-piece repair that would not be easy. Fortunately, I kept my cool and made "good choices" (like I always tell my kids to do) and decided that complete removal of the entire assembly was the best way to go.
Turns out, below the reinforcement plate is a strengthener piece that runs down the outline of the bonnet, under the plate.
The strengthener. You can see the cancer towards the RH bottom side.
The reinforcement plate, some cancer already removed, the rest visible.
The bonnet after removal of both pieces. Very littel cancer behind those; mainly surface rust.
With the pieces removed it was merely a matter of cutting out the cancer and welding in patches. Of course, both pieces had some curves and bends to them that made it a bit tricky.
I started with the strengthener, removing the bad metal. I was able to take advantage of the stretcher again (love that thing) and put the gentle curve into the repair piece that was required to follow the contour of the strengthener.
Repair patch welded in.
Another angle of the repair.
With that done, I moved on to the locating plate itself. The bracket that holds the cone had quite a bit of corrosion behind it, so I drilled the six spot welds out on that and removed it, confirming that the corrosion and pitting behind it required removal and replacement.
The offending area cut out, repair patch standing by.
And repaired. Still some cleanup to do.
With all of the planning and delays, and the fact that it was a school night, that was about all I got done for that visit.
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