Quote:
Originally Posted by Hardkor455
"no need to remove the entire bracing from the reproduction just cut where you need."
I ended up ordering repop fenders from summit. Where / what needs to be "cut"? Will it be obvious when they arrive and I go to test fit it?
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Replacing the entire rail is one way to do it, & if you have the metal working experience, in my experience, renders extremely nice results. It is, however, a quite tedious & methodical process grinding out of the spotwelds, then the bare donor fender has to be positioned in a jig up against the original rail. The fenders I've converted, we first posititioned the rail to the bare fender in the crude jig, then tacked the pieces together, then test fit them on a '71 Bird roller that had really nice fitting doors & core support/endura nose. Last, I made a near 30 minute trip to a customers production body shop who has a VERY high end spot weld machine.
The alternative method of cutting out sections of the the thick steel rail is easier, but will require careful grinding & filler work, & unless you are truly a wizard, the results will not be perfect. There are two major areas that have to be addressed with the rail, then the simple issue of adding the early valance mtg structure from the donor early fender.
The rear area of the raised "bumps" in the later fender rails begins aprox an 1" forward of the square hole where the bolt for the upper fender to cowl attaches. That rail area has a degraded edge stamping (rear sideways depression) & a series of 3 raised "bumps" that are not are not present on the '70-72 fender rails. The whole area at issue extends about 6" forward along the rail. That entire area will have to be carefully cut out & replaced with an early donor rail piece. The other area that is different in the stamping of the thick steel rail is forward where the thick '73 & 74-75 diagonal braces attached. The shape of the rail is pooched up some, & the inboard edge of the rail is not perfectly straight like on a '70-72 rail. The later rails have 5 atrachment holes, versus just the 2nd one back, & the rear one, used on the '70-72 fenders. The later fenders rails also lack a triangular strengthening gusset that is stamped in the jamb area on the early fenders. I'm not hands on acquainted with the details of the stamping of the depressions in the rails in the reproduction fender. That could be an issue, without having a Taiwan fender here to compare the cleanness of the stamping of the thick rails, not sure what the results will look like splicing in the sections.