1964 Amphicar

January 25th update
In the picture above entitled "Sandblasted Hull" you can see a gash
in the hull below the passenger seat area.
The former owner evidently ran this Amphi up on a sharp submerged rock
and ripped a pretty good hole in the bottom.
The next few photos will show how I repaired the hole.
I start out by getting a piece of sheet metal the same gauge
as that of the hull (18ga), and cutting it to the size I want to make the patch.
Then I trace the patch panel onto the underside of the hull with a scratch awl
and with a straight edge held in place with the Handymans Secret Weapon
(made famous by Red Green, Duct Tape for those of you who don't watch Red Green)
I use a plasma cutter to cut out the damaged area shown below.
All the welding I'll be doing on this Amphi,
as with any Tbird I restore that needs any sheet metal welding
will be "Butt Welded". This elimates any overlapped edges
you get when you use panel flangers
The overlapped edges are a prime place to trap dirt and moisture leading to future rust.
Whereas butt welded seams completely eliminate this possibility.
I believe this is especially important on an Amphicar.
I use "Intergrip" clamps which I purchased from Eastwood Tools (www.eastwoodcompany.com).
They align the panels edge to edge and surface to surface leaving a .040" gap
which is perfect for a full weld penetration. See them in action in the photos below.
Another thing to note is that you should skip around when you're welding sheet metal patches,
In other words, DO NOT do one continuous weld of any length because the heat build up
may (most likely will) cause warpage.
This can be significantly reduced by welding about an inch
and moving to another section and welding an inch and
continuing that process until the entire weld is complete
see the photos below.