Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Good Morning...One possible way to deal with those fenders is to fiberglass the underside of the fenders and then light fill and skim coat on the top of the fender...perhaps not perfect but workable...we've used this approach on several Model A Ford Fenders...granted, not Packards, but the fenders are strong and look quite nice for a driver...Ernie in Arizona

Karl,
I recently helped a friend with an aluminium bodied car that had splits in the body. There was timber under the splits so welding was not an option. The owner had a friend who builds and repairs high end super yachts. His friend repaired all of the splits using carbon fibre matting bonded to the aluminium. The finished repair was very thin so very little filling was required to blend the repair. The results were impressive, to say the least but it was not a simple DIY job. It was a job for an expert.
I would think that if you can find a similar expert in your country it would be a very effective repair for your fenders.

David … Erni Venturi, thank you for your advice and informations. I,m an old man and a friend of old school metalwork on old cars. Specially on this “Old Lady” (1924 Sport Phaeton)! And I´ll cover her not in any Plastic to her 100th Birthday. So I´ll fix this problems by the old way on sheet metal work. All dents and waves I´ll smooth out by lead solder how I did it always on this kind of special classic cars. I know that this cost time I don’t have. But I bought 4 weeks a go a new welding machine and this tool make perfect results on thin Sheetmetal. Very less heat and also very little mechanical distortion. This will help to save a lot of time on this work.
In the meantime I spend more than 2000 hr´s on this car to remake a lot of missing parts and restore all from the Frame component .. to build new the complete missing seat cushions to the new build Soft Top Frame. And not to forget all this little parts for the door locks, aluminum moldings for the Floor Wood plates, let cast new Door handles, mirror coating the reflectors of Head - and Fog light lamps, dashboard parts and countless more.
And I´m still have fun on this car. Also because … this will be my last full frame off Car Restauration.
Karl

Karl,
Despite my comments about carbon fibre, all of the panel repairs on my cars were done using your method, sheet metal. All welding was with oxy/acetylene, I suspect that MIG would be much better but have not tried it and I have already completed my last restoration. Your Sport will be a gem.