[clay68c10]

There was a lot learned during this patching.
If the contours don’t match, do a little pre beating to get it sorta close. The curved bodyline at the bottom that you see when the door is shut was a good example. I actually flattened it out some because it just wasn’t in the right place.
You won’t get too far though. The whole piece wants to start moving around without any support.
This is when you get the gaps close and just start welding the parts that do match up. It may only be 2 tacks worth, but that’s ok. You just need a starting point.
Ideally this needs to be high points so you can hammer them down to match the existing contours. You can’t really get in behind them, so hammering down is the only option.


The red line is the spot I hammered fairly flat. I welded the high spot and then used a dulled chisel to make the shape. As the contour was getting close, I added tacks until it was right. So beat as needed, tack, beat some more, tack, etc.
This pic was taken just before I welded up the Y area on the left and the top of the curve on the right. It only took a couple more taps the get the deep part of the V right and then it got tacked up too.