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DIY Patch panels


Bhigdog

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This is not a Buick, it's my 56 Chrysler but it might be helpful. Patch panels for my Chrysler are made from unobtainium and I suspect will be getting hard to find for 50"s Buicks. Here is how I went about fabricating panels with an English wheel I knocked together with some scrap yard steel and cast off bearings. The bottom bearing is from a pillow block and has a curved outer race, that's important. The pix don't show a threaded rod and nut on the bottom to adjust the pressure. I had never used an English wheel so there was a definate learning curve and a bunch of scrap panels, but when you have no choice you do what you gotta do. The pix are pretty self explanatory so I won't include a bunch of verbiage. After fabrication they were trimmed and welded in like any other patch. The wheel flares were tapped in by eye on the edge of an anvil and the flange cut, folded and welded. I needed to make 4 panels. Yes, you will need a skim coat of filler to smooth everything over but you will need that with any patch panel type repair unless you are master class metal man. Which I am not.

Hope this is useful......................Bob

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Nice job Bob! It is great to see how you made this tool.

Some tools like this English wheel are seldom needed by a hobbyist and are expensive to buy.

I have always thought that local car clubs should acquire tools like this & make them available to club members.

I would love to find a set of "Dent Balls" used to remove dents from musical instrument horns. Like many of us with older cars, I have brass horns and a couple of water distribution tubes that need some dents removed.

Edited by Mark Shaw (see edit history)
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I think the wheel was under $20 to fabricate using surplus bearings. The wheel is kind of job specific but I have used it a few other times for non car stuff. It's amazing how little pressure will move metal and generate a curve. It was a hoot making the panels not having a clue how to do it. First I made wooden bucks of the quarters and tried to just beat the steel into shape. Total total failure. Then I thought of the English wheel theory and that was actually kind of easy. I did nearly go through an entire 4 X 8 sheet of steel before I got 4 good ones...............Bob

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Guest Rob McDonald
This is not a Buick

It's okay, I love a '56 New Yorker second best. The one special accessory one needs to make use of an English Wheel - a great big shop like you have.

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I am indeed blessed. I did my first body off restoration, including painting, in a two car garage with little more than a hobby torch set, basic hand tools, and a 1939 compressor with a nearly shot motor and bad bearings. That car, my 1939 PU got it's AACA senior. The English wheel could easily be made with a hack saw and cordless drill by having a local shop or friend do the welding. Square footage is a nice luxury that makes life easier but an awful lot can still be done by resourceful folks of determination ........................Bob

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Square footage can be a blessing and a curse...it is nice to have good space...it is a curse to see empty space so you spend money to fill it....

The latest...Suzanne said, "Damn, it's reasonable" referring to price, then "It's beautiful"...to be unveiled in South Bend. Less space in the 40' x 60' shop next winter....

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