Fender Skirt Modification

[JimNolan]

Guys,
   Has anyone resized fender skirts before. I need to build up the rear of the fender skirt starting about 3" rear of center to the rear bottom to a thickness of about 1/8". The gap is gradual in nature starting out small and progressing to the largest part of the gap at the rear bottom. I was thinking of pop riveting aluminum strips to build up the flange and then maybe using solder to fill and smooth out the outside edge.
   If anyone has resized fender skirts, how did you do it. Jim

[alvin stadel]

Jim several years ago I had a problem like this, this is really off the wall but all I done was place another piece of rubber on top of the skirt and it worked well, however I had a black car, black skirts, and black rubber. I really don't think anyone ever picked up on it. I still have the car and it still has the double weather strip on the skirts.  take care, Alvin.

[Hoosier Hurricane]

Jim, you can't solder aluminum to steel.  You would have to use an epoxy type filler.  John

[JimNolan]

Thanks guys, the rubber I don't think would look right because the car is red but I'll take a look at that first. Epoxy would probably be better, I've got some very thick epoxy mat that would be good for buildup and do a better job albeit more messy.
   John, didn't they use solder in the olden days to fill gap lines between panel seams. Jim

[RICH MUISE]

Jim...thought about this all night. Here's what I would do. Firstly you mentioned the gap was only 1/8 or so so I would do it differently than if it were a larger gap. Stop at a local picture framing shop and ask them for some matboard scraps...most shops throw out handfulls every day so they probably have some in the trash they'll just pull out and give you. Matboard is pretty close to the same thickness as 18 ga steel. Cut the matboard into strips the width of your fender skirt flange and position the fender skirt on the car fitting in the strips to fill the gaps. The reason for the matboard is you can mock it up on the car without scratching the paint on the car. Once you have determined where filler strips need to be you can transfer it to steel, weld them on then finish it off with body filler.
This will give extra thickness on portions of the fender skirt flange, but who will know? and it's much much easier than the alternative which would be to cut thru the face of the skirt close to the flange as far up as it needs to be reshaped, then reform the flange to fit, figuring some way to retain the shape while your finishing, then recut the narrow gap to something wide enough to facilitate welding in a filler piece.Also, your original idea of aluminum strips...I wouldn't use aluminum. I think you'd be opening up a can of worms trying to "mate" dissimilar metals.
Also, I'm wondering if the're is a difference in fairlane wheel openings as opposed to custom openings, even if small...perhaps explaining the difference in skirts not fitting if they were made for one or the other.Rich

[cool57]

Jim several years ago I had a problem like this, this is really off the wall but all I done was place another piece of rubber on top of the skirt and it worked well, however I had a black car, black skirts, and black rubber. I really don't think anyone ever picked up on it. I still have the car and it still has the double weather strip on the skirts.  take care, Alvin.

I don't know if the reds available would be close enough, but check VW suppliers. The had colored welt in the '60s and earlier.

[JimNolan]

You know, you guys have a lot of good ideas. After listening to everyone, here's what I'm going to do first. I going to build up the front of the fender skirt 1/16". That'll reduce the gap in back to 1/16" and I'll add a piece back there. The top needs to stay the same so I'll be careful not to build up the top. I can do that in a matter of minutes and then stand back and look at it. If it looks OK I won't have to repaint my fender skirts. If it don't I've got a bunch of good ideas left. Jim
 Thanks again guys. I've never seen anything but black used as a seal but after I get through typing this I'm going to start searching the internet. The bad thing about color is, my car is Flame Red. Any mismatch of color might look bad. Jim
   Forget it, that won't work. My gap is gradual starting from about three inches in back of center and progresses to 1/8 inch. Darn

[RICH MUISE]

Jim...to go a step further in the "easy" direction...being on the flange of the skirt and not a surface that has to flex, and not being on the car body, I would think with only an 1/8 to fill, you could go straight to a body filler(after proper prep of course) and skip the welding alltogether. An 1/8 in an area like that should be perfectly workable if done correctly. I have a tendency to relax my standards a little when it's a bolt on component rather than the main body panels. Rich

[JimNolan]

Rich,
   What do you think about appling clear packaging tape to the fender flange and filling the gradual gap with appropriate layers of fiberglass on the skirt flange and then clamp the fender skirt up to the car and let it dry. Trim, sand.paint and apply rubber. I believe I could do that all the way around the skirt with the rubber off and end up with good results. Jim

[RICH MUISE]

Layers of fiberglass should work  well, except I'd skip trying to mold it to the car. It's messy as hell and drips alot until it starts to set up then it hardens real quick. I'd go for putting on more than you need, then sanding down the excess to fit, leaving room for a cleanup thin layer of body filler.

[Hoosier Hurricane]

Jim:

Yes, they used lead (solder) to finish seams, but they weren't using any aluminum.  Lead based solder won't stick to aluminum, and aluminum solder won't stick to steel.  Also, aluminum and steel in contact with each other in the presence of water will corrode.

How about bending the flange of the skirt until the back edge of it fits the wheel opening, then filling the resulting tapered area with body filler and sanding it to fit?

John

[RICH MUISE]

John's idea sounds like the best one to me. The fiberglass we were talking about, in thinking about it further, may have more of a tendancy to crack over the years than body filler. You'd just have to be sure you're not distorting the face of the skirt when you're moving the flange around...that may be a problem.  Rich

[Meteorman]

Im not sure i understand exactly what  you guys mean could someone email me a couple of photos maybe i can help, its what i do for an existence, email to  cutoffclassics@northwestel.net