Defender Body Work: Holes

[RBBailey]

OK, so I've got lots of little holes here and there in the body panels, and in interior panels. Most of these I either ignore, or I plug with rubber grommet things.

However, there is a nice big hole up front of each of my wings where a previous owner put extra side marker lights in. At first I was just going to leave the lights in, but now that I am trying to get the wires all plugged back in, I'm realizing how bad of an idea that really is. So I want to just eliminate the extra light. This will leave a hole.

You can see what I'm talking about here: https://nas-row.com/showpost.php?p=4691&postcount=16

How do I patch those so I can paint to match the rest of the body?

I gotta say, I'm tempted to buy a couple of Union Jack flag stickers and call it good! LOL!

 

[Rivet]

I would say that having them patched/tig welded would be the way to go, but then again if you're paying to have that done and then paying to get the paint matched, you might want to consider just getting new outer wing skins. It looks like you've already done some good work with the newer bulkhead and chassis so you might as well get it done right.

 

[geatlander]

Any welder worth his salt could mig weld a piece in the hole using a spool gun with aluminum wire, then grind it smooth. I suspect someone on this forum could even mail you a few square inches of an old damaged fender to cut "plugs" from.

You will have to repaint the whole fender though, to make it look nice. ...or just patch it with a couple of fender washers and a stubby bolt.

 

[BLKFLD]

It's harder and pricier than most people think. I ended up using alumabond or whatever it's called and was done with it. I'm happy enough with the result, but if I were patching front fenders I think it would be as expensive, maybe cheaper, to just get new skins (and have the option to add a vent or delete one if needed).