Fender patching (Left front fender, Part 2)

During my free time this week and several hours this weekend I continued my work patching the driver's side front fender. I realize that such a slow pace would get me fired at any body shop silly enough to hire me but, then again, I'm not a professional so I'm going slow and trying to avoid as many mistakes as possible.

First up, remove the rusted area over the brace:

The upper part of the exposed brace only has surface rust, but the bottom portion is shot.

Then I cut away the rusted portion of the brace:

Sorry it is blurry, my phone focused on the small bit of grass growing in the crack in my driveway.

Now for the hard part--since I couldn'd find a replacement brace, I had to form the patched area out of sheet metal myself. Fortunately, it will be completely hidden from view!

I just so happened to have a thick chunk of steel with a groove in it. Sweet!

Adding just the right amount of curve.

I then cut down the patch to size and welded it in place:

After filling in between the spot welds and grinding them flush, I then coated the area with a rust converting/primer/paint.

And then I cut the fender skin square and cut the patch to match, fit it, then spot welded it into place. There was a lot of hammering and filing to get it to match up.

starting to look like a fender again

You know the drill by now: I then filled in between the spot welds and ground them fairly flat.

That was my stopping point for the day. Next up is the rusted area on the top of the fender. Once that is done, I get to see how straight I can get everything with a hammer and dolly.