Started auto-shop at the beginning of this school semester and man I must say, I need to practice my welding more. I have been working on my rear passenger quarter panel since the beginning. The previous owner backed into something that caught the panel and ripped it, but it wasnt a clean tear. The tear caused many waves and ripples in the metal. After welding the seem (and burning a few holes in it at the same time) I finally got the metal shaped and ready for some lead, just after I weld in the remaining holes. I dialed in my Mig welder and went to work finishing in good time. When I was grinding the welds down I went a tad too far in two spots and got the metal too thin and I made two new holes. Went to weld these holes in and the metal was so thin I just made them bigger. Finally got the holes filled in and ground down, only to notice that now from all the welding and grinding my panel doesnt have the shape it did when I drove into shop this evening, BACK TO SQUARE 1 !!!!!!! so frustrating. anyhow I am confident I can get the panel shaped and filled with lead monday night.

just my story for the night, I needed to vent. Lets hear some frustrating tales from everyone about their restoration, or even parts replacement gone bad (if only temporary).

Caesar

Don't know if this is fustration or stupidity on my part, had to rehang my driverside front fender after a jeep with a lift kit decided to update my crease line. Got everything lined up ok, darn can't find where I put the sockets and rachet, no problem have two more sets in the box, retrieve these and hang the panel in no time.

Assuming my cat ran off with the tools, I admired my handiwork. Imagine my surprise several weeks later when I discover my fender raining sockets all over the road due to a gap between the panels, guess I didn't fit it so good after all! Now I know what happened to those tools. I'm still convinced the cat was somehow involved.

I have some welding stories too. My first try at repairing a rust hole was just behind the drivers passenger door. To fix the rust hole what I did was take some rod, stick it in the hole and weld it to anything that would grab. As anyone would know that that has done panel repair knows that this will result in bubbles. Since I new nothing about cars it took me to tries of redoing the primer around there to say, "screw it", cut the section out and redo it. It was good though, that section will last forever and I learned a lot since it was my first whack at repairing rust. Unfortunately I'm having the same problem at the front of the quarter panel that I replaced. What can I say, you learn from experience and I've got none as of yet(though I'll try my best ).

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My car may be slow to sixty, but at least it's been reliably slow to sixty for more than thirty years.