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swiss cheese fenders

944 views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  deadbodyman 
#1 ·
The rear fenders for my 48 fleetline are in remarkable shape,but the mounting flanges look like swiss cheese.I'm looking for advise on how to repair them.I bought a cheap shrinker & stretcher,should I just make a whole lot of patches or cut the whole thing off and rebuild the flange?The original is "corrugated" Rim Wheel
 

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#2 ·
You will love your shrinker/stretcher jaws. Make at least all the flange that is rusty or very thin. You will be glad you did.

Start with a piece of 18 ga bent into an angle similar to a piece of angle iron and work the flanges until it fits the body. Once you have the mounting flange formed, you can trim the fender to fit. Keep your weld as close as possible to the bend in the fabricated flange and that will help you control the distortion. Take your time and go slow.

Best of luck.:thumbup:

John
 
#5 ·
That corrugated area looks to me like the result of the stamping process. John hit it with the way to fix it. The other alternative is the spray welding process but the guys who do that are rare and hard to find.

Sam
 
#6 ·
since you bought the stretcher/shrinker I'll assume you have an interest in metal shaping. doing this type of repair is fairly straight forward and since it wont show, should be a lot of fun to repair. Don't expect to get it right the first time and be ready to toss your work piece at any point regaurdless of how much time you have on it and start over again. Messing around with a piece that's wrong will end up never being right and just sucking up time. doing it a second or third time gives you more experience and you'll get faster and better at it every time.
A little trick we use to make odd shapes is by covering the area with reinforced packing tape, trim and mark everything with a sharpie then

removing it and laying it out on the metal to be cut.
Theres many ways to go about this so if one way don't work well for you try another but you can do it and you should, it'll open up a whole new world to you.
 
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