John Schliker and Mark Moriarity were over to the shop this weekend looking at my piles of JUNK laying around... and we got to talking about kustom mods on my galaxie... damn it... something I never really noticed till they pointed it out. Welding the rocker to the fender welding the cowl to the fender... a common pratice in the 60's for that one piece body look. from a bodymans standpoint something I would never do... now that im all done with the metal work on the front clip im gonna do it. I thought it was crazy at first but all the corrosion is taken care of etc.. the more I starred at it the more i like the idea... then i get home and start going thru my custom books and damn it if almost every cool lowered 60's custom is like that... welded up and smoothed off... when im done fitting the front clip and tear it apart and jam it ill post pics of it welded up BEFORE and AFTER. Its gonna be bad ass... I snaped some new pics this weekend...
heres a pic of schlikers adonis clone that was built by the alexandria bros... starliners rule... i wish he would hurry up and buy a computer so he could join the Hamb. Tuck
They sure look smooth like that don't they? It's a tough call. I've got it stuck in my head that fenders were made to be unbolted. I always think about the what if scenarios.
I was doing the same thing... what if's.. but high speed cut off wheels are cheap. I think the only thing I would really need to worry about would be a front end fender bender. id be painting the fender anyways... They were talking about a pic in R&C of a galaxie with a 60 merc grill... a rendering. i dunno... it would look diff thats for sure.
it's funny you posted this. i've been going over doing this on my '53 too. About the only reason i havn't taken the plunge yet is i keep thinking about the nutballs on the road. If i get whacked in the front, it's gonna be a pain in the ass to undo what i did, not to mention the damage it could do at the cowl if it got hit right.. I don't know yet...that look is right on.. oh yeah, you should be getting a package from me this week Rat...
Funny how some people worry so much about the hassle it would be to replace a fender that has been welded instead of bolted. The way I look at it... if you do munch a fender (god forbid) in the time it takes you just to FIND a replacement fender will give you all the time you need to break out the cut-off wheel and then grind the weld down. These cars aren't meant to be practical transports anyway, right? btw - the car is looking good!
I decided to do that after seeing the same treatment done to the ULTRA clean '50 Ford built by Junior Conway in TRJ a couple issues back (the shoebox and Ohio George's Willys were on the covers). It's the detail work like that that makes the difference to me. Curt
Really, tho. Why would that be any different than replacing a 1/4 panel after a rear ending? Nobody ever thinks about cuttin that off and replacing it. Basically, you've got yourself a front 1/4 panel. Am I wrong?
Or you could just do what the guys who built my copper truck did... Bondo it! That way, when it gets hit, its ready to remove... Actually, doesn't need a hit to crack it apart, driving seems to be doing that just fine...
Guys usta do those on new cars that were xustomixed and some lived and some cracked the first time they did a diagonal down a driveway, which is the only way to get down a driveway if the car is "low enough". I think if you are doing a 50 year old car you probabaly should check the frame real good for rust and flex and definitely replace all the body mounts and alighn everything like it;s the last hance you;ll ever get because it is. Think about why they arent welded there. The front clip is just bolted solid to the sides of the firewall and the core support is bolted to the front crossmember usually with a rubber mount so it can "move" when the frame flexes in the front. If the frame moves the body in a different directio from the core support it's going to flex the fenders where they are bolted to the firewall and probabaly bow them slightly in and out along their length. Ever notice how older front fenders have more crown to them than the door? If it's not from a fender bender repair where the metal has stretched it's probably form the fender just sretching from constant flexing whe going over bumps and dips and that's why they have those rubber bumpers between the fenders and the hood jambs. because they DO flex and move. So ya weld them solid and they don't have the built in flex point which was the nut and bolt that held the fender to the firewall. Now it's going to either spread the flex out across the whole panel or, more probaba;y since it wasn't stressed to do th job, stress crack close to where you welded it on. I think the best way to make it live, beyond replacing all the mounts with new rubber is to have a single radiator core support mount that's more "flexible" than the body mounts and only in the middle so the whole core support can move with the body instead of twisting and fighting with it. My 40 GMC is mounted only in the center. it could probabaly be welded and filled. The '55 Chevy pickup has a mount on either side of the core support, (Like Burbdup's probabaly), and the twisting of the frame will probabaly tear welded on fenders. They put a lot of rubber anti squek between the fenders and cab on them because they know they move a lot. So. What did this Ramble say? It'll work and live on some carsand not on others. Uni-body Mopars are probably better candidates for filling than Fords or GM cars because they are stiffer in the firse place. In fact, the Imperials came that way.
I did my 55 Olds like that over 22 years ago. Welded the fenders to rockers, so the molded in lakers would work. Welded the fender tops to the cowl..rounded the hood corners, too. Car's been done a LONG time, with over 100,000 miles on it, and it hasn't cracked yet! Weld it solid, and go! It was a very common thing in the mid 50's and later customizing.
I agree with DrJ's concerns but know that the separate fenders was a matter of economics, not flexing. In other words, the cars were built tht way mainly because it was cheaper and faster, and it's a side-benefit that the seams provide some margin for flex. However, I think a lot of that goes out the window when making a kustom. The look is so good, it's definitely worth it. It's worth considering DrJ's point, though, and beefing up where appropriate. As far as the issue of worrying about getting hit and having to replace the fender, that sounds like a real pessimist attitude to me. Kustoms are all about optimism, boys. If you honestly expected to get hit, no one would ever spend the time rounding corners, frenching headlights, welding trim holes, or spraying metalflake. Everyone would cry, "TOO MUCH WORK!" But that's what separates kustoms from your neighbors' cars. Kustoms don't make sense and aren't practical, and that's why we love them. Weld up those seams and make the car as good as you can imagine.
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