Patch Panels

[bobmc]

Who makes the best fitting patch panels?
Name and address please.

Not sure who makes the ones I purchased, but I emailed the store where i purchashed them to find out.

The bead on the quarter patch panel is twice as wide as whats on my car. The rear inner fender well panels bead is shorter than what is on the car, as well as wider than the original. It would take many hours of cutting and reforming these panels to make them useable. Trying to cut my losses and buy better ones if available.

 

[BCCHOPIT]

I think they are all junk but some one might have had good luck. I would like to find some wheel wells that are good. I have only found junk that I would never weld on to my car.

 

[1930fordor]

Every patch panel I have welded in needed modifying, some panels are better than others. You would think they would spend a little extra time and build their dies right.

 

[Kevin in NJ]

You can make your own better for less time than takes to fix the bought panels. With possibly the exception of the cowl panel Bill Stipe (I think that is who) makes.

I outline how I made my own on my website, see the link below. I spent $40 on the arbor press and a few hours surfing the web on metal working. The dies were made from scraps I had.

 

[1930fordor]

You have a lot of good information on your web site Kevin.

I like your suggestion of a copper plate behind your weld when TIG welding. I use rare earth magnets to hold the copper in place when I TIG. You just have to use a big enough piece of copper so the magnets are not close to the weld or you will see a real funky ark.

A bead roller and a metal shrinker/stretcher are really handy also.

 

[Craig Lewis]

Might I suggest a set of cowl patch panels from www.stipemachine.com ...just to see how sweet metal working can be?
Bill's made these puppies with the factory crown in BOTH directions ...so they fit like a glove.
I went through the same grief as you guys with the jobber panels
- putting the fwd arc into 31 coupe inner wheel panels...they just plain left it out
- welding a flat patch, onto a double curved door bottom
- same thing on the cowl bottoms.
I can't wait to cut off the cowl patches I fudged on there and weld the stipe patches in place....it'll certainly save money on bondo!
I know it sounds like I'm advertising for the guy, and I guess I am...but it's encouraging to find an exceptional product made on this continent, and a bonus when it saves us time/$ and @*%#!
...now if we could just convince him to make door bottoms with the double curve
Are you listening Bill???

 

[30cabriolet]

I just put on a pair of Bill Stipe's panels and they are not perfect either. They are too wide front to back by about 3/32". If you line them up at the bump for the cowl band, they do not fit at the door jamb. At least they are bigger and not smaller.
As for other panels, none of them fit without a ton of rework. Kevin is correct when he says it is easier to make them yourself.

And, STAY AWAY FROM HOWELL'S.

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

I just put on a pair of Bill Stipe's panels and they are not perfect either. They are too wide front to back by about 3/32". If you line them up at the bump for the cowl band, they do not fit at the door jamb. At least they are bigger and not smaller.
As for other panels, none of them fit without a ton of rework. Kevin is correct when he says it is easier to make them yourself.

And, STAY AWAY FROM HOWELL'S.

With all due respect to you sir, would you care to make a pair of cowl patch panels that are better than Bill's is, ....for less than $100, .....and then allow us to critique them here?

Truthfully, I am not quite sure exactly what you were expecting. In reality, you did not purchase a complete panel. You purchased a "patch", --an item used to make a repair to an existing panel. I think most would agree there will be some trimming required, --and expected! Maybe that is why Aviation parts are so expensive to buy. (They fit right out of the box.)

.

 

[bgarrett]

I agree.
Why pay for poorly fitting patch panels when I can make my own poorly fitting patch panels for free?

 

[30cabriolet]

Brent you are correct. Nobody can make a quality patch panel for under a $100.00. The guy asked who makes the best fitting patch panels and the answer is no one does. Someone else then commented that Bill Stipe's panels fit like a glove. I just was giving my experience with those panels that even though they are the best thing out there, they too need fitting and tweaking. If someone thinks that they “fit like a glove” and can be just cut and welded in, then they are wrong. The pictures above show it well. If you can lay the new panel completely over the existing panel, then it is too big. Most people, myself included, don't have the luxury of owning all the tools needed to do metal work. We have to make do with the simple tools we have at home. So, if I buy a panel, I buy it hoping that it will fit close and then I do whatever it takes to fix the problem when it does not fit.

As for panels for aviation, they are so expensive because almost every piece is hand fit one at a time out of sheet stock.

 

[Mitch]

Bobmc,

You didn't say what body style you have, but my 1930 coupe quarter, wheel wells, and cowl patches were very good. They were from Snyder's. I don't remember exactly, but make sure to ask for the best and I believe you'll get Stipe's cowl patch. It needed a little curve added to the bead. The quarter patch was spot on.

 

[Ralph Moore]

I'm going through the same thing on the rear of my 30 coupe. I've ordered rear corner patches from Snyder's and MAC's, both of which didn't line up and the reveal lines are the wrong size. I then went to Howell's for the extra long ones, and they are the same way. I guess it's just a starting point and then you have to tweak, stretch, shrink, cut, trim, weld, and then they will fit!

 

[Craig Lewis]

I seem to achieve better results by cutting out ONLY the rust and trimming the patch smaller to fit. It makes no sense to me to remove original, correctly contoured body metal... when you know the replacement patch is less than perfect. You won't get more perfect than the old stuff, so try and save all you can.

Also, I'd hazard a guess that "making your own" panels from scratch isn't going to save time nor money for 99% of those reading this.

 

[Ralph Moore]

I agree Craig. No one can make them as good as Henry did. That's why I replaced the major portion of my rear quarter with an original piece. They both had damaged/ rusted areas, so I took the best of both. Pity the bottom corners were both trashed.

 

[RockHillWill]

Re: Hard to Find Patch Panels

If you think it's hard finding a good cowl patch panel, try finding a good fender patch panel that fits well.

 

[Ralph Moore]

I still have a long ways to go, but this is the progress I've made on the right rear quarter.

 

[tuneman]

Now that is some aggressive Work! Did you scab in a piece of another quarter panel or did you form one yourself?

 

[Ralph Moore]

It was from another quarter that I bought. It was rough as well, but had enough "good" metal in it to take care of the worst of mine. When I started taking the bondo off my original one I found that the entire lower reveal line was all bondo. And the metal was mangled pretty bad.

 

[RockHillWill]

Looks like you did a very nice job on your panel repair. That work is not easy to do!

 

[Ralph Moore]

Tell me about it, it was a bit scary at first. I am no body man, but I have been a mechanic for 30+ years. I just took my time, I must have looked at it for four hours prior to making the first cut, trying to figure out the best way to go at it.
I have added the wheel well and patch behind the door(which didn't fit right out of the box either). I still have to deal with the rear corner, and a couple of other spots.