Absolutely stellar metalwork my friend, so happy to finally see this process. sh*t, it was probably a couple years ago when you started pondering about it.
Thanks my friend, I appreciate the kind words. I want to say it’s been even longer than that, probably closer to around 7 years or so already!
Are you sure you're not some famous car builder using a cover to hide your true self? Always showing work above a DYI guy. And befor I forget, better than most of those TV pros.
Haha, nope, no pseudonyms or alter egos here, just a regular DIY Joe working on his car. I appreciate the sentiment though, thank you. I’m flattered by your comments, just not sure they’re warranted.
That fender looks awesome, really changes the look up a ton! Great job on the entire idea and making it a reality!
Thank you Mike, appreciate it sir.
Your metalworking skills continue to amaze me Donovan. Looks like GM stamped it out that way originally. Nice work!
That’s quite the compliment Jeff, thank you very much!
That looks fantastic, nicely done sir. I love the visual impact it has on the overall attitude of the nose, and that it's yet another 'one of a kind' mod. There's certainly no chance of it blending in at car shows.
Thank you, much obliged! That’s obviously one of the goals, to have something no one else has.
I genuinely appreciate all the compliments, support and encouragement guys, but I’ve gotta wonder if y’all haven’t put the kiss of death on me! Shortly after posting the above update on Saturday, I started fitting the driver’s side flare to the fender, and that’s where things started to go off the rails.
I still at this point have no idea what went wrong, but obviously something did while welding it up on the bench because the fitment was terrible. Well, not initially at least. I got the rear section fitting well and even tacked in…
…but it was obvious early on that something had shifted on the front half because nothing was aligning properly like it did when it initially was tack welded together during the fit up:
That’s a damn big gap. Trying to force it into place only resulted in creating a nasty buckle in the middle, so that was a hard no-go. The only real option was to make a relief cut right down the middle (where it had been welded), and cut the rear tack welds to get things to move where they needed to without kinking it at the arch.
Now I was back to square one with two separate pieces and the halves flopping around all willy-nilly. Utilizing a large number of my clamps was necessary just to try and keep everything managed.
Still not looking very good at this point:
This was the most critical area, it was extremely important that whatever I did, it couldn’t affect the bottom line here. It absolutely had to remain straight, flat and on the same plane:
To aid in doing that, I clamped a small piece of 1/8” angle to the underside, but even this was only marginally useful.
At least it kept the two halves aligned. I was at least able to get the “finger” in the middle welded up to restore some strength and form to it, but it was pretty obvious that the mess in the middle below it was going to have to be cut out and replaced. Thankfully I had just enough straight section of the damaged flare left that I could cut it out to replace it with.
So much for all that welding, filler, epoxy and seam sealer work done on the bench. It’ll all have to be redone now, and this time while it’s part of the fender.
It took most of the day to repair and recover from this little incident, so once I had it to this point and things fitting correctly again, I called it quits for the night.
Today went much
much better, I not only got the entire arc stitched in, but also the back half fully welded and ground down. I was officially back on track again:
It’s a little lumpy bumpy at the moment, but I’m not too concerned. The other side was the same at this point. It just needs some love with the hammer and dolly.
If all goes well and to plan, tomorrow night I should be able to get the front half fully welded out and ground down too, and then start on the end pieces.
This little incident just goes to show, I ain’t some superstar, not impervious to things going sideways, I most definitely screw up plenty too. But it’s all in your attitude in how you approach the situation thrown your way. I’ve said it before, it’s not “what if” you run into problems, but “how are you going to handle them when you come across them”? Because you
are going to come across them, trust me. Keep calm, use your noodle, persevere, and figure it out. It’s harder to do than say, but it makes all the difference.
D.
