My GY8 '71 Road Runner

[Grabbergreendream]

Nice work.
Out of curiosity, how are the fender mounting areas where they meet on top of the inner fenders? One of my fenders has a rotted spot in the mounting area that has 3 oblong bumps between 2 of the mounting bolts. I've been looking for a patch section(hint) should you decide to scrap any leftovers. I would certainly make it worth your time...

 

[ct71rr]

Nice work.
Out of curiosity, how are the fender mounting areas where they meet on top of the inner fenders? One of my fenders has a rotted spot in the mounting area that has 3 oblong bumps between 2 of the mounting bolts. I've been looking for a patch section(hint) should you decide to scrap any leftovers. I would certainly make it worth your time...

Depending on which section you need; Toward the front of my donor fender that area is ok - a little crusty. Toward the rear, it’s really crusty. You’re welcome to it if you can use it.

Donor fender:

Front section:

Back section (toward windshield), this section is pretty rough:

 

[Grabbergreendream]

Lol! That back section is what I need. Mine had the same corrosion. Perhaps if I had the front section I could graft it in...
Let me get a good look at mine & see if its worth the fuss at this point as I have it patched up & epoxied. I will pm you to discuss so I dont muddy up your thread anymore.
Thanks also.

 

[ct71rr]

OK, sounds good.

 

[ct71rr]

I started working on repairing the driver’s fender. I had to add a small patch to the top of the front section I’m using from the donor fender. After gettin that in, I started getting the front section welded on. After taking several measurements from the passenger’s side fender for reference, I cut most of the bad section out and began fitting the “new” section in. After measuring and remeasuring about a 100 times, I made the final cuts and tacked the front section on. I then confirmed all the measurements again and welded it in fully. I had a few blow-throughs is places but, I think it went well.

Another small patch in the donor piece:

Measurements for reference:

Test fitting, one of a thousand times:

Tacked in:

Welded in:

Flexible shape pattern fits perfectly:

Thanks for looking!

 

[ct71rr]

Before:

After:

I then patched the lower rear section of the fender. I used an AMD panel for this. They actually make one for my car! I had to add a small patch to this as the replacement panel did not cover all of the damage. This small patch was kind of difficult to make. It has a body line in it that goes down into a sweep to the bottom flat area:

Damaged area:

Test fit of AMD panel:

Not quite long enough:

Patch panel:

Its got some shape to it:

Test fit:

Tacked in:

Welded in:

It’s going to need a little more hammer and dolly work.

 

[ct71rr]

I had a few areas to patch on the top of the driver’s fender, as well. One section was at the front, attached to a smaller panel that bolts on to the front section of the car. I inadvertently cut a piece of this panel when cutting out the bad section on the fender. I made a small patch for this and sprayed it with Eastwood inner frame paint before welding the two together. I also sprayed the backside of the patch panel I made.

Need to patch this section I cut off (red arrow):

Painted:

Ready to weld:

Welded in:

 

[ct71rr]

On to the passenger’s side fender. I had to replace the same rear bottom section with an AMD panel. I also had a few sections on the top that needed to be patched and numerous holes from slide hammer “fixes”. Before replacing the bottom section with the AMD panel, I had to try to straighten out a messed up area near the wheel opening just above this panel. I also had another area at the front to try to fix. There were several small dents/depressions in the metal. I fixed them as best I could.

Next!:

I had to try to fix this first:

Welded on:

This is the best I could do:

Another patch:

Here too:

Fixed:

Here too:

Got to try to fix this too:

Best I could do:

Thanks for looking!!

 

[ct71rr]

And I burnt the crap out of my finger with mig wire! Idiot!!

 

[Nxcoupe]

And I burnt the crap out of my finger with mig wire! Idiot!!

View attachment 1446992

I always wear gloves for that reason. I forget sometimes, but I am quickly reminded why I wear them. You are doing a great job saving those fenders that a lot of people would have called 'scrap'. I'm like you, I'd rather save it than spend money

 

[T2R9]

Fantastic work as always!

 

[JDmac72chrgr]

And I burnt the crap out of my finger with mig wire! Idiot!!

View attachment 1446992

Can't say "Like it" but can say YYYEEEEOOOOOOWWWWW!! SON-OF-A BITCH!!!! That hurt!!
Metal work looking good!!

 

[ct71rr]

Can't say "Like it" but can say YYYEEEEOOOOOOWWWWW!! SON-OF-A BITCH!!!! That hurt!!
Metal work looking good!!

Murphy’s Law got me. I always wear nitrile gloves when working on the car. I also wear my welding gloves over them. For some reason, I forgot to put my welding gloves on. I guess I was just in the groove, puttering along. A big piece of molten wire went flying, burnt through the nitrile glove and got stuck in there. Had to rip the nitrile glove of fast. Terrible!!

 

[ct71rr]

I finally figured out why both fenders were tack-welded to the header panel. I found broken bolts in the first two holes on both fenders. I drilled them all out and re-tapped them.

It never ends!!

 

[Demonic]

It will be worth all your hard work. Fantastic!

 

[JDmac72chrgr]

Am I wrong here, WOULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN FASTER & EASIER TO WELD NEW BOLTS/NUTS INTO HEADER BEFORE PLACING FENDER ON??? Also easier to align/shime fender??

 

[ct71rr]

You would think! I’m not surprised though, given the amount of shady things i’ve found so far on this car!

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

Very nice work

 

[ct71rr]

On to the fender inner-support bracket things - I have no idea what they’re called! AMD includes the bottom section of these brackets with the lower fender patches. Nice! Most likely because if the bottom of the fender is rotten, so is the bracket behind it. One of the brackets is a lot worse than the other. Both will need the bottom section patches and one will need almost a complete rebuild of the top section. Super! And, AMD does not make a patch for this. I’ll have to try to make a patch for this area. There are a lot of bends, angles, shapes and off-sets in this area. I started by making a masking tape template. Looking at this, I decided the only way I could make it is to do it in three pieces. After constructing the pieces, I welded then together. I think it came out ok, I not happy with the large round and square holes I had to cut into it though.

Not good:

Not good either:

Either is this, no patches available for this area:

AMD does make these patches:

Use the “good” side for a template:

Tape template:

First piece, angles match original:

First piece done:

All three pieces rough test fitting:

Welded up:

 

[ct71rr]

Template still fits:

This is where it will go:

It wasn’t the easiest part to try to make. I did the best I could.

Thanks for looking!