Panel fit / welding help

[Budgie7]

As pics show started messing with a bit of rust and before I new it a few holes appeared. Anyway took the inside panel off so I could look down into the area. Seems to be ok on the inside, so bought a new lower panel, and now is the question , how much of the panel should I fit and on the very bottom edge do you drill holes into the new panel and then spot/ mig into the holes ?. If that's correct how do you seal the lower edge because presumably with it being spotted there will be area that water can get into again. I was thinking of pouring a primer coating into the inside of the panels and letting it run thru,
Any ideas, thoughts much appreciated




Many thanks
Barry

[boatbuilder]

Yes its spot welded along the bottom. I use 8mm holes. When welding on at the bottom clamp it with vice grips beside each hole so it doesn't separate when you start welding.
Seam sealer is the stuff to use to seal it at the bottom. Tigerseal is a good brand.

With the repair panel you could cut back to good metal with a 1 mm disc on a grinder, give yourself some straight lines to work with. Drill out the spot welds along the bottom and remove remnants. If you wanted you could joggle the top edge of the repair, drill some holes and spot weld it, then seam seal it on the back, fibreglass and filler on the front.

[Budgie7]

Thanks boatbuilder, but what is joggle, ?

[boatbuilder]

A joggler is a tool that bends a step along the edge of one of the pieces of metal being joined. It allows the repair to sit flat. Another way of doing it is to just plug weld a strip of metal as a backing to both bits and butt them up to each other.

[Budgie7]

Thanks, am taking the van into work tomorrow, so will have a go at fitting the panel. Never done major bodywork before. Fingers crossed.