stevenmurray

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/37382/innerfenderclose.jpg"></center><p>
I'm going to start looking for a donor piece as the metal my front fenders bolt down into has a good deal of rust. Link is to Katman's recent repair. Similiar deal.

In my photo here - I was just going to get a donor piece that went to the hole (yellow arrow) as I heard the hole becomes a good guide for patching in.

The pink arrows point to strange white coloring and possible corrosion. Is the pink area needy of replacement?

I found one guy that might sell me there pieces but at first I told him I only need to the yellow arrow.

Sawz-all is not the proper tool for cutting these out of a donor car is it?

Basically I'll turn these parts over to a body shop, they can do the welding.

steve<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/quattro/msgs/14897.phtml">https://forums.audiworld.com/quattro/msgs/14897.phtml</a</li></ul>

Katman

Get replacement all the way to door jamb...

Here's why:

1) You don't know WHAT you'll be up against, until you get the COMPLETE 'triangle' part out. Theres's a seam all along the a pillar, from top to bottom, and you don't know what condition things will be if you leave the back part of the 'triangle' in.

For example: See that hole, that was hiding behind the triangle on my car (Near the top of the 3 fendr mounting holes)? That was letting water in, and the water was getting on the ECU!:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/80066/seam_hole.jpg">




2) It IS actually easier to weld in the 'complete' triangle, than splicing along a new seam across that hole. Two butt welds, and a couple of plug welds, where the spot welds were. No having to line two pieces up percisely! Results in a repair that look a bit more 'original' too..





The 'triangle' is held to the car, sort of in two places.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/80066/weld_area.jpg">

The bottom edge of the triangle is held on with some spotwelds (And makes sense, as it would be in tension under load.) Easy to drill the spot welds out, to get the triangle free.

The top edge is Butt Welded on, by filling a small gap. That makes sense, as it's in copression. That's easy to get apart on the donor, by carefull slicing with a angle grinder cutoff wheel.






I cut all my part out of the donor car with the sawzall, making sure I got lots of extra (I took out some of the A pillar too). I cut off the 'triangle' part from the A pillar, only when I was sure of how I was going to move forward, in the comfort of the shop.

I'd suggest that you do the same, and 'fine tune' the donor part to fit your car, when the car is all apart. Better to have too much donor, than too little!



However....

Your car looks hardly rusty at all (by comparison to mine!) You may be able to get away with somehow only replacing the top of the 'triangle' area.

Depends on what you see when you get the fender off. (You can get the fender off at home to scope out the situation, and then pop it back on with only a few bolts, so you can still drive around.)


Maybe print out all my pictures and writeup, and take it to the shop too? I'll be 'famous' then!

Maybe? :-)

squidix9

Just as long a you don't have any fuel leaks.