repairing rusted inner rear wheel wells

[RICH MUISE]

I'll try to get one more done before I go to bed...This is definetly a part I wish ems would start making. They make rear lower quarter panels but no wheel wells, or at least patch panels, and if your outer quarters are rusted...guess what! The c#### guys have it made here. When you cut off your outer quarters, do so leaving all of of the wheel well lip intact if posible as you'll need it for a lot of careful measuring. The wheel well flange locates the outer quarter panel, so if your replacement wheelwell sheetmetal is off, so will your outer quarter panel. I started by making a wooden buck (form)of oak for the dogleg portion(about 8" of the lower front portion of the wheel well). I don't have shrinking and stretching dies or an english wheel, so everything I did is hammer and dolly, cut and weld. Basically, you shape the wood to the shape of the inside of the sheetmetal section you are forming,comparing it to the dogleg section on the wheel well(lower front)until it looks right. Cut a piece of 18 gage larger than what you think you'll need, drill a couple of holes in it and screw it to the form, then start hammering. I prefer a hard nylon hammer for this. hammer a little at a time, working your way around the form. You'll see the metal starting to shape as you keep going around. The metal will tell you when it has stretched about as far as it is going to without being relieved(in this case,cut). simply make a cut with a cut off wheel in from the edge of the sheetmetal to where to metal is resisting bending any further. Keep doing this as you go around the piece. You'll find areas that the cuts start overlaping that need to be carefully trimmed, and occasionaly other areas that need to be filled in with filler pieces.As with most cut and form operations, you will need to tack weld the cuts occasionally as your going along with the forming to hold what is right in place. when you are finished forming, weld the cuts up solid and trim as necessary, then use the new piece to mark out a sectionof the old dogleg where to new one goes. Always cut off less old metal than you think, test fit and keep trimming until the new fits in correctly, then weld in place. That's the dogleg section next post will be the flange section. thanks for reading, Rich

[RICH MUISE]

After the dogleg is welded in, I worked on the remainder of the outer flange area all the way around. As I mentioned, when cutting the outer rear quarter off, I carefully nibbled the fender away piece by piece not to disturb the fragile rusted flange on the wheel well. You want to take a lot of measurements at this time. For me it was easier to work in segments, that way I could form a section, cut off only what I was replacing,using the old rusted areas as reference to help locate the new and get it tack welded in.
To help with the forming, one thing I did that really helped was I traced the outline of the flange area where the fender spot welds to, transferred that to a piece of 18 gauge and used a bead roller to form a bead along that bend line. A bead can easily be rolled in an arc shape. Once I had the bead rolled the shape of the flange, I started the hammer and dolly, cut and weld routine to transform the bead into a bend. Once I went all the way around with segments tack welded in place, I went back and completed the welds. It is an area that doesn't have to look particularly pretty, just accurate. I ground all my welds, although it is and area that can't be seen once the car is assembled, sandblasted the rest of the wheelwell while the quarter panel was off, and treated both sides with por15. The wheel side of the wheelwell, after the por 15, I later shot with bulldog adhesion promoter, 2 coats of paintable undercoating,and singlestage urethane I did that the following summer when I did the body off thing. I hope my description was clear enough.

[JPotter57]

This is the kind of stuff I have been encouraging members to document for a while now.  Good stuff, Rich, thanks.

[05gt]

Good write up!!! Thanks for taking the time to write it out! 

[rmk57]

 Nice write up, have you tried posting pictures of this project? I guess you didn't have any luck finding a donor car to cut up. I still have a complete left rear quarter outside the garage just in case I need a section.

[RICH MUISE]

I called around a bunch, but the only people I could find that had good wheelwells wanted to sell the entire rear quarter panels,and they were 600 miles away, and I already had the new reproduction outer lower quarters. Besides, this welding and making unusual stuff from sheetmetal was new to me, and I was looking at it as another adventure!