Why Do Patches Take So Long To Prepare

I had high hopes of getting a lot done last night. I was able to get out to the garage before 7, and, after pushing Betty into the driveway, set to work cutting out the patch to fit in front of the right rear wheelwell. I had the piece I cut out as a starting point for a template, so I traced the cut edges onto Betty’s scrap hood that I’m using for material. Then, using stiff paper, I rubbed the outline of the curved edge onto the paper. After cutting out the paper, I added its outline to the one on the hood, thus completing the patch’s perimeter. A few minutes with the cutoff wheel on my grinder and the patch was free. It took another thirty minutes of careful grinding away before the patch properly fit the opening. And then out came the heat gun to remove the old blue paint and over to the bench grinder to wire brush the rust off the backside. One patch down and I was back on the ground to measure for the tiny patch that will fill the gap left at the rocker panel. Once that was cut and cleaned, I sprayed the surfaces of the two patches that will face inside with galvanizing primer and pushed Betty back in before calling it a night.