[theastronaut]

To weld the skin on, I started with a few tacks. I used a piece of aluminum c-channel to show the low spots that are created when welds shrink, since it flexes in an even arc. Each weld was planished/stretched via hammer on dolly stretching until the arc returned. In the spots I over-stretched and made a high spot, the next round of weld dots would shrink the high spot back into shape. I've mentioned hammer on dolly stretching to reverse weld shrinkage before, but showing it with c-channel gives a clear visual on what's going on.


The low spots before planishing.









No low spot in between the welds.





After planishing the first and second rounds of weld dots- the arc is restored.







This one was over-planished which made a high spot. Welding directly beside it shrunk it down to the correct arc again. Welding directly beside another weld dot lets the previous weld act as a heat sink so the HAZ isn't quite as big for less overall shrinkage. I can keep the HAZ down to about 3/8" wide using this method.







Thin pry tool used to align the flushness of both panels.





Flange detail.









After way more weld dots and a lot of hammer/dolly work I had the overall shape pretty well where I wanted it. I used the shrinking disk to pull down the high spots along the seam, and there was a high spot from top to bottom about 6" inward of the front edge which gave the door too much crown front to rear and made the front of the door dive in at the fender edge.







Cleaning the fingerprint rust off with a wire brush before DA sanding the skin.









Wiped down with mineral spirits to check the reflection. Not perfect, nowhere near metalfinished but should be good enough to be skim coated. I'll still probably need to do some final tweaking to the overall contour to get an even arc across the fender and door once it's reassembled.