Time to move onto INNER FENDERS!
I am at a point with the car where really, there is no rust in the car anymore and I've cut and trimmed and inserted new metal into the car enough that I'm not afraid of it anymore. So - why not keep modifying it?
I wanted to get more wheel and tire under the car - and everything I am reading indicates a 10 inch wide tire is about as large as you can go.
Mom and Dad pulled through in birthday fashion again! Some two and a half inch wider tubs arrived wrapped up for me to graft into the car. What needs to happen first????
CUTTING.
Cutting out the old inner fenders wasn't overly difficult. The thing to keep in mind is the attention one needs to give to the stays/brackets that hold secure the trunk hinges. Some round bar and angle tacked into place keeps these things sturdy.
Once cut out, fitting the new fenders in requires you to alter the profile of the frame rails to fit in the new fenders. One needs to notch out the frame rail in a curved fashion to make the needed room.
This is a good time to really put the enamel/rust preventative/inner frame coatings to work. I used Eastwood's internal frame coating which worked great with its long tube to reach into the framerail and hose down those surfaces. The other thing that was neat from my perspective- (and you can see in the picture) that the rails are galvanized - so be careful when welding to make sure there's adequate ventilation.
Once cut out - I did some dry fitting to see how things fit into place.
Once fit, it was time to seal up the hole in the frame and also weld on a strip that could be used to attach the fender to the car.
You have to do this to both sides (obviously). i ended up completing one whole side first, then moving onto the second... because I wanted to have a whole picture in the event I could reproduce the process better for the other side (and hopefully go faster, have better quality).
The BIG LEARNING I had as I did this, was to find a long - 4 ft - piece of thin round bar that you can bend easily with your hands. Use it to trace the outside of the fender, getting its profile.
Map that profile to the floor of your car and slowly cut the piece out, hedging towards not cutting enough so you can use a flap wheel or similar to hone the opening to being perfect.
Above is a view from inside the trunk area - you can see how you have to cut things in the frame rail a little more clearly here. From the factory, the frame rail 'flares' outward as it moves towards the back of the car. SURELY I CAN FIT MORE RUBBER UNDER THE CAR NOW RIGH?
Finally - a couple of shots from some of the last mocking in of the rear inner fenders. This is just before spot welding them in. You can see the spots drilled out to allow for welding. Just make sure to align them to the mounting flange, so you don't have holes without something right behind them.
