Over the years, battery acid completely destroyed the battery tray and ate away at the driver side inner fender where the tray is mounted. Before I could prime the parts with epoxy I needed to replace the missing metal.
The first step was to create a pattern that I could transfer to a new piece of metal. I just used a piece of paper and made reference marks so that the holes that are supposed to be there would end up in the right spot. I traced the pattern into sheet metal and then hammered the edges over a form to create the compound curves. A couple of relief cuts in the corner made things easier. I used a cutoff wheel to remove the cancerous metal as marked.With trimming, grinding, and several test fits, the piece was ready to weld. Then it was just a matter of recreating the two holes that are supposed to be there. The larger hole is for access to install a J-nut into the smaller one. The battery tray is anchored here with a bolt.
I finished the day out by laying down some epoxy primer to protect a number of large parts until they can be finished. The dash frame has some rust pits to be filled before it's resprayed black.
