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Page 2 The project begins |
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So, back in the shop work continued on the rear fender. it was cut down a bit where it had a bit of a bulge, shrunk and welded together again, the welds were ground and the fender rolled on the English Wheel.
After some hammer and dolly work it looks okay, except for the last two inches in the back, which will be adjusted later to get a similar shape as the other fender.
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The attention was turned to the right hand fender. It had to be widened a bit, and the shape of it adjsuted a lot, but in the end the work went nicely,everything was welded, ground and done.
New fender edge pieces, inside and out, even the tail lip done. Looked pretty good right then.
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Back at it again, planning to work on the left hand side inside fender edge, when I realized that I have to start over. The fenders don't look the same, and the the left fender looks better. |
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When the front of the fender is moved, the whole thing shifts.
In other words, the running boards have to be mounted and the aprons ready
to fit the fenders.
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Funny how the fenders makes the car look bigger. |
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The driver's side running board was mounted to the body and to the rear fender and after that work on the fenders could be continued.
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After the fenders were fully welded, they were again taken off the car, then hammered and dollied to iron out most of the kinks and dents, using red primer as a guide coat to easily find the high and low spots.
The screws that hold the fenders to the body got slip rolled braces made from 3/4"x1/8" flat bar to keep the inner lip of the fender tight against the body.
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A picture of the old and new fender edges. The original ender lip is rolled around a wire.
The new ones are fabricated by welding a 1/4" round bar to the fender lip. The result looks pretty much the same.
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A friend came with the brilliant idea to hang the front fenders off the front spring towers. A mounting plate was cut from 3/8" thick plate. Two of the bolts are through holes, the third, outermost bolt is welded to the tower. A slim fender mount was made and put right over the top of he wheel, since it's least in the way there, where the wheel sits when it's pointed straight ahead. |
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The fender was fastened to the new fender brace with a sheet metal screw to keep it
lengthwise in situ, while it was jigged up and the rear end of the fender was cut off
and a new fender to runningboard mount was made from angle iron, bolted the the
runningboard, and tacked to the fender.
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The new edge tacked to the fender, making it look less flat.
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The inner fender edge coming along pretty nicely.
That 1/4" round bar is a chore to bend, but the result
is worth it.
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The fender back on the car, work on the fender to apron transition was commenced. It took some
time to get any kind of workable idea for this transition, it has to be fairly neat, easy
to make and also easily disassembled for taking the fenders off the car.
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The apron was cut a bit shorter and a piece of 1/8" flat bar with bold holes was welded to it.
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This corresponding sheetmetal part got a similar flat bar with bolt holes. It also frames the exhaust primaries as they go down through the fender and will be part of the fender itself. The wheel can be seen from above, it's turned left as much as it goes, and a hump has to be made in the fender to make room for wheel to turn freely.
A couple of parts were drawn in CAD and sent for cutting from stainless
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A lot of tack welds here. All of this will be tig welded
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Laser cut parts were delivered a few days ago. The fiirst one is mounted with acorn nuts. This is all stainless, so it will be poished for contrast against black paint. |
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Since the fender is getting ready, it's time for the head light mounts.
There was no way to mount them as low as desired, other than to make
mounts to put them at an angle.
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Luckily the glass was easy to turn level, so now the head light
looks normal.
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Both headlights mounted and the right hand side fender somewhat positioned, here's a first real look at what the front will look like.
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