I decided to start on the spare tire hole yesterday. I’ve never done a patch this large on exterior sheetmetal before so I was a little apprehensive about how many times it would take to get it right and how it would turn out.

A while back a friend gave me a beat up 33(?) Chevy fender to use as patch material. When I first looked at it next to the Dodge I didn’t think the shape would be close enough to do any good, but I dragged it out again and took a closer look…..I came to the conclusion that with a bit of tweaking it might just work out.

I rough cut the patch and with a little bit of tweaking I got it to fit pretty well. I had left a little bit of a lip when I cut the tire well out so I bent a couple of them up to support the bottom while I tacked it.









By the time I quite tonight I had it welded in and the welds pretty well ground down (still a bit to do tomorrow). I’m pretty pleased about how it has come out so far.






I figure I’ll skim it with filler tomorrow and throw a little bit of primer on it them call it good until I get ready to do or have the rest of the body work done.