I'm trying to fit my fenders to the body of my 37 Dodge more door. All the nuts crimped to the rear fender wells are missing. The fender wells are in fairly good shape. They are a little thin in places with only a few rust holes. Nothing worth replacing or putting heat to them welding. I have not been able to find a factory type nut. I decided to try making my own replacements. I bought some 3/8" nuts that take a larger 5/8 wrench. I welded them to some 2" fender washers. Then I used panel glue to glue them to the fender wells avoiding warpage from heat. I knew I couldn't bolt through the fender well without glueing the bolt to the nuts. I got some 3/8" all thread and cut some 1-1/4" studs. After screwing the studs in the nuts I used 3 layers of heat shrink tubing to keep glue off the threads and center the nuts with the holes in the wells. After putting on panel glue I used some small block Mopar cam retainer ****ons so as to not glue retainer flat washers and nuts to the well. Shock absorber top washers with a good cup also work. The panel glue also filled some thin spots. After the glue set up a couple of jam nuts were used to remove the stud. A knife cut the shrink tubing off and the fenders were bolted on. I know panel glue is a couple of dirty words but in this case it worked well with no replacements available.
The Jalopy Journal
