I decided it was time to modify the rear fender wells for more tire clearance. The goal was to open them up, make room for the 38's to stuff and then seal em all back up and make it look half decent. I feel I succeeded, what do you guys think?
First off was to figure out where I wanted it to be cut out, after some discussion we decided to cut off the whole factory flare, this factory flare will come into play later on when I find the time to fabricate it back onto the side of the Bronco over the new cut line. I want to weld it back on but in the higher position and widen it to fit the new cut line fender opening. Like I said tho, this piece will come into play later on for the Bronco.
Before the cut.
After the cut, and absolutely NO TURNING BACK NOW!!
If you look closely in this pic you can see the inner fender and the fact that it isn't quite shaped like our outer fender cut line.
Using what tools we had at our disposal, we manipulated the inner fender into place so we could easily weld in a couple small strips of sheet metal to close up that gaping hole.
Once I had a template cut from cardboard that would fit the gap, I transferred it over to the sheet metal and then after lining it up on the body I tacked it in place. Once it was there good with quite a few tacks holding firm, we used a BFH to manipulate the offending sheet metal into a more conforming position and then laid down some more weld.
Here it is shaped to how it looked best, with no low spots and all lined up with our cut line and sheet metal filler plate.
Once that piece was permanently placed, we stepped over to the next filler plate, again using card board templates transferred over to sheet metal, and lined up and ready for a couple tack welds.
I made sure to weld the plate from all sides to try and keep any small holes and pits to a minimum.
Fully welded inside and out and ready for some cleanup and paint.
Then it was time to head outside a test flex the Bitch and see how close we were in our guesstimates on wheel rubbage.
Looks like I now have a couple inches to spare between the top of the tire and the fender lip under moderate flex. We didn't have a great spot to really flex her out to see if it rubs still or not. I'm betting it comes close but even if it does rub I will bump stop it so it doesn't and call her done for now.
All in all it took roughly 20hours of work between 2 guys to get from start to where I'm at now.
I also made a couple patch panels to get rid of the rust in the front of the rear quarters.
Got a lil more done today, patched the passenger side rusty quarter, and mocked up the factory fender flare on the drivers side just to see what is all involved in that job. Looks do-able, but will need some new sheet metal fabbed into the flares to make them complete and actually fit the larger opening.
I think I want to try and make them stick out further than factory tho, massage them a bit to add another maybe 2inches of stick out if I'm lucky. The drivers side flare has some rust to deal with but the passenger side is good to mod. I'm really considering buying 2 new front fenders and modding them like I want to do to the rears, we'll see as it's at least a few hours spent per fender to mod them so it may not be worth all the effort and then bash them all up out wheeling.
Also made a lil more progress on the tire carrier, just more cutting and shaping tho.
