Sometimes the original panel is too damaged or rusty to re-use or it is missing altogether. In these cases we must fabricate the panel from scratch. Below are two examples of this.
The rear guard of this SS2 Tourer was badly rusted and the steel was too thin to reuse. In this case the guard was made 'free hand' in sections by the panel beater with the original rusty guard and the body as a pattern. The sequence shows the method of manufacture.
On this SS2 Tourer the front guards were missing. Using a guard from another car as a pattern a wooden buck was made. Many individual sections were then made using the buck as a guide for the shape and then welded together. The guard was then panel beaten to smooth all the joins, finally 'dressed' up with a hammer, dolly and file. The last operation was to put the swage back down the centre.
