My Sunday Afternoon With Ringo

First church, then lunch, and a few house chores, and then I was free to go out to the garage and weld. After assuring myself I had a fully charged extinguisher close at hand, I donned my welding garb and began making plug welds along the bottom edge of the long rocker panel patch. After filling all but a couple holes, I ran out of welding wire. So much for momentum. Any more welding has to wait until I make another trip to Harbor Freight.


On to the passenger side. I measured the Clark’s rocker panel patch to remind myself where I needed to cut (on top of the rocker, a 1/2 inch inboard from the bend), and then laid out a length of masking tape to serve as my guide. After replacing the wire wheel in my right angle grinder with a new cutoff disc, I removed the rotted rocker pieces all the way forward to the front wheel opening and all the way rearward to five inches past the door opening. I then grabbed the eBay-bought fender patch (see section C in the image) and held it up in front of the spot where it’s supposed to fit. It’s too wide. In for it to fit properly, I get to slice a thin vertical section out of it. Another case of getting what you pay for. With my last cut on the fender safely below the upper edge of the patch, I ended my afternoon so I could eat dinner with the family.