Remove Rear Fenders

[Brentwood Bob]

What is the worst that can happen?

[bruceincam]

Or go get another perspective. Take it to the best local body shop; tell them what you want to accomplish and get their advice.

[Superhart]

Please allow me to clarify something. I get the impression when I read some of the posts that some of you feel that I was planning to use wedges or prybar on the outside of the fender against the painted surface. That is not what I intended. I was planning to use the wedge on the inside of the fender well after I remove the wheel. There is no way that I can see the tools that I plan to use coming in contact with any painted surface that would show on the outside of the vehicle. If I end up, scratching or smudging something on the inside of the fender, well, that’s a different story. I plan to coat the inside of the fender well with undercoating material when I am finished. No painted surfaces will be harmed. I still think that I will be successful in creating the gap I need between the fender and the car body by using the composite wedges . If they don’t work, I think my next step will be to just abandoned the project and leave well enough alone.

[Brentwood Bob]

I did assume you would be working from the wheel well side only. Using a broad span under the prying to avoid indenting the side of the wheel well panel.

[Randy in ca]

Obviously your Coupe is not stock/restored and it's not uncommon for welting to not be used on modified vehicle bodies. Is there a reason you want to install the welting - such as to cover up a visible poor fit of the fender into the wheelwell recess of the quarter panel? Does it appear that the fender and the quarter panel were painted separately? When the welting wasn't used is there any chance that some kind of sealer was used on the inside? Strange things get done at times. A picture of what things look like now might answer a lot of questions. Good Luck.

[Superhart]

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Well, I appreciate all the comments and suggestions that have been made. Here is what I am planning to do. First, I will jack up the car and remove the wheel. Next, I will remove all of the hardware that attaches the fender to the rear running board. Then I will remove the inner fender brace from the car. Next I will loosen the bolts that attach the fender to the car body approximately 4 to 5 turns but not remove the nuts from the bolt. That is because I do not need to remove the fender, only create a gap sufficient to insert , the new fender welting. Then, working from the inside of the fender. Well, I will use either wood or composite wedges, one on either side of each bolt, and tap both of the wedges, hopefully until the fender moves outward on the bolt. I will do this for each bolt intern , a small measure at a time there is a sufficient gap between the body and the fender to allow insertion of new fender welting between the two metal pieces. I’m not worried about the paint since I will be working only within the fender well, not against any painted surface. Hopefully when everything is finished, all I will have to do is spray some undercoating on any bare metal that I created inside defender well itself. I will post a follow up when this project is complete and may be included a couple of photos. This may not take place on till the weather breaks .

[Superhart]

I apologize, but it was just this moment that I saw the response from “Randy in CA”. Randy, I like the way you think. I wish I could answer your questions but, unfortunately, I purchased the car three years ago from the widow of the original builder. The main reason I decided to install welting was because since I bought this car, I have seen a couple of other, Model A Street rods that had the welting installed. I then wondered why my car did not have welting. Unfortunately, I was unable to contact the man who originally built this street rod. I decided to add the welting because I assumed that they should’ve been welting between the body and the rear funders. Since acquiring this car, I have done several things to it and adding the welting was just the next step in modifying the vehicle to be mine. I just recently found out that my rear fenders are modern reproductions, and that sometimes these reproductions come with mounting holes misaligned, etc., I don’t plan to get extremely creative with this welting thing. I just think the seam between the body and the rear fender would look a little better with welting installed. since I bought the car, I did several modifications to it. I converted the front suspension from stock to a aftermarket front end cradle that uses Mustang components which allowed me to install coil over Shocks and power steering to the front end. I also redid the interior from the stock bench seat to bucket seats and added Vintage Air. Add the wilting to the rear fenders was basically the last project that I had in mind to complete.

[Russ B]

Basically what you want is to get welting installed with minimal damage and maximum ease. When building my cabriolet a few years back, using repro steel fenders, I installed and removed the fenders multiple times as I was fitting everything. Each time there is some difficulty getting the fenders away from the fender bolts/studs welded to the body. As you seemed to be saying, the bolt holes in the fender might not be in the exact proper location. A fair amount of twisting and pulling can be used to move the fenders a few threads away from the body. Over a period of several removals and installations, I enlarged the fender holes, remembering that the fender washers will cover a lot of enlarged holes. If you don’t have the standard fender washers, buy some as they are available at most hardware stores. Using wood wedges as previously suggested will help you make progress in pulling the fenders off the bolts/studs.

Welting can probably be installed without full removal of the fenders, but such removal will ease the fitting of the welting. Because the surfaces have complex curves, welting may need cutting of the ‘flap’ at varying intervals to get a tight to the body fit. You also will want to cut a wider slot in the ‘flap’ where the welting contacts with the studs. Once you have the welting fitted and are reinstalling the fender for a final time, it may seem the welting is too loose sitting in the gap between the body and fender. Don’t worry as the gap pretty much disappears as the fender is tightened up against the body, but you need to tighten the bolts slowly and keep pushing the welting bead into it’s proper position as you tighten the bolts.

Good luck with the job, and be patient, but unafraid to use a bit of force to twist, push, and pull the fenders off the body bolts.

[Superhart]

Russ, what you described in your post to be exactly the problem that I am experiencing with my car. I have a good gut feeling that if I carefully use the wedges on either side of the body bolt and fairly careful that I will be successful in gradually Moving the fender away from the body. All I need is roughly a quarter of a inch just enough to be able to insert the tail of the new welting material. Of course once I create the gap between the body and the fender, I will mark with masking tape, the location of each of the body bolts . The wilting that I plan to use his somewhat of a custom made product. What I did was that I took welting that I purchased from Model A Parts distributor and covered it with weather, resistant vinyl upholstery material that is designed to withstand, prolonged exposure to sunlight. I had the upholstery shop , make sure that there is at least a 2 1/2 inch “tail“ on the welting. That will allow me once the welding is in place to be able to use hemostat (sorry, guys. I am a retired physician, so I use what I have been familiar with for the past 50 years) to pull the welding snog as I tighten the fender bolts. I was able to choose a red vinyl that pretty well matches the color of my paint. After the fender is tightened back into place, I can use a scalpel to trim away any welting material that extends below, the inner lip of the shell. Then I will apply spray of undercoat to finish the job.

I will post a follow up with a couple of photos when the job is finished. Since I need to work outside due to lack of sufficient garage, space, I may have to wait until early spring to do this work. With all the input from the club members, I feel as though, I will be successful. Thanks to everyone.