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modok Samba Member
Joined: October 30, 2009 Posts: 26777 Location: Colorado Springs
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Posted: Fri May 03, 2019 9:50 pm Post subject: Re: Can I just weld my fenders on? |
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Weld em on? ok sure.
But, I'd cut the flange off, and get it fit nice, do a proper T joint.
When you want to remove the fender, you could just cut it off leaving 1-1.5", and bolt a new fender to the remainder.
And you could fix the holes where the bolts were, when you improve your metal fab skills, in the mean time, avoid rain. |
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DoubleJ Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2019 Posts: 76 Location: Front Range
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Posted: Fri May 03, 2019 11:28 pm Post subject: Re: Can I just weld my fenders on? |
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Dave, you make a good point, if I dig further in and find even more rust, maybe I'll give the project a re-think. My 11 year old has declared the car safe, however, as we found 50 year old seatbelts hidden under the seats, so that's good.
Modok, that's an idea, hadn't thought of it. The car came with a gas heater that works, so I've put an ad up that I'll trade the gas heater for some fender work, maybe I'll get a bite. As for rain, being virtually neighbors and all, you know that the rain will be done here in 28 days and it'll be dry as a bone until next spring. Not sure how it got this rusty out here, must be from the east somewhere. _________________ Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIN0qtD-gUOPQesXTO-WMYg/videos |
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modok Samba Member
Joined: October 30, 2009 Posts: 26777 Location: Colorado Springs
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Posted: Sat May 04, 2019 5:53 pm Post subject: Re: Can I just weld my fenders on? |
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Yeah, the cars don't rust from sitting, but driving when the road is wet it's just as bad as anywhere. 10 years ago I took the fenders off, repaired all the mounting holes and fixed all the rust on the main body, and then just put the fenders back on. And, so I've been able to get NEXT LEVEL rust
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DoubleJ Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2019 Posts: 76 Location: Front Range
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Posted: Sat May 04, 2019 7:42 pm Post subject: Re: Can I just weld my fenders on? |
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That happened here, in the great (semi arid and rust free) state of Colorado? I guess anything's possible. My Forester has a rust bubble, born and raised here, you'd think I was taking the quarter panel on vacations to Illinois or something. So what everyone is saying is that I'm going to have to invest in a MIG welder that costs more than the car did and learn how to use it. _________________ Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIN0qtD-gUOPQesXTO-WMYg/videos |
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modok Samba Member
Joined: October 30, 2009 Posts: 26777 Location: Colorado Springs
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Posted: Sat May 04, 2019 8:04 pm Post subject: Re: Can I just weld my fenders on? |
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yes, 10 years year round use.
It's basically a race to oblivion, if the turn signal lens will crumble, the bulb burn out, or the entire assembly fall off.
I really don't have any idea which will happen first, but I'm going to just let it happen.
I recently sold by Eastwood 135 welder, for 300$.
It only cost 400 to start with, and i worked it fairly hard too.
They aren't really expensive anymore, now that some of the chinese stuff isn't junk, it's driven the prices WAY down.
The first one I bought, miller ep130 was 1500$ if you account for inflation, OUCH, but it served me well. |
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scrivyscriv Samba Electrician
Joined: October 04, 2011 Posts: 2922 Location: Memphis
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2019 11:53 am Post subject: Re: Can I just weld my fenders on? |
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modok wrote: |
I recently sold by Eastwood 135 welder, for 300$.
It only cost 400 to start with, and i worked it fairly hard too. |
It's a good welder and does about anything the average guy would ever need.. I have used mine on anything from 1/8" angle down to 20-22ga body panels and it has been really good to me. Much better deal than the big box store welders in my unprofessional opinion _________________ Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help. |
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DoubleJ Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2019 Posts: 76 Location: Front Range
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bomberbob Samba Member
Joined: May 17, 2015 Posts: 688 Location: Iowa
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Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2019 4:28 am Post subject: Re: Can I just weld my fenders on? |
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Excellent. I was in the same situation with my car, heater channels were rotted out on mine. I opted for a flux core welder from Home depot. I know its not advised on this forum but I think its coming out OK. I actually like welding, its different than wood working. If you screw up, its fixable. With wood if you screw up and cut something short, its scrap. _________________ 1968 Beetle (storage)
1990 Jetta GLI megasquirted, burning E85 (currently in heavy maintenance)
2004 Jetta turbo GLI
Marion, Iowa |
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Busstom Samba Member
Joined: November 23, 2014 Posts: 3838 Location: San Jose, CA
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Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 11:44 pm Post subject: Re: Can I just weld my fenders on? |
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DoubleJ wrote: |
I agree, that'd be ideal, but I'm all mechanic and zero body guy, wouldn't know where to start repairing all of those little panel nuts that would need to be repaired. |
"All mechanic"? Then that leaves zero percentage of your skillset for "welder," which is more in the realm of "body guy" than "mechanic."
If you think welding fender-nuts back on is hard, you've got a big surprise awaiting you when you try to weld fenders to that rotten foundation. Unless you're an EXPERT welder, that is...just sayin.
EDIT: hahahahahahaa, sorry, just saw your vid and realized what direction you decided to go. Good for you! I got to the bottom of page 1 and didn't notice there was a page 2 |
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DoubleJ Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2019 Posts: 76 Location: Front Range
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Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2019 7:41 am Post subject: Re: Can I just weld my fenders on? |
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If I had gone the route of welding the fenders on, I would have had to pay someone to run serious beads like that, and it wouldn't have worked out anyway since the car has been crashed in the front and nothing is straight or lines up anymore. As it sits, the passenger fender is short 2 bolts just forward of the highest point, as those holes no long line up, and I didn't make any adjustments to the T nuts when I put them in, just right back into the factory position. I've got to enlarge those holes a bit so I can bolt them up. Just getting the other holes lines up on that side required a 3 pound hammer and 114 curse words. _________________ Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIN0qtD-gUOPQesXTO-WMYg/videos |
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DoubleJ Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2019 Posts: 76 Location: Front Range
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Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 10:38 am Post subject: Re: Can I just weld my fenders on? |
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Glad you all talked me out of that dumb welding idea, turns out my left front fender is way bent and needs to be replaced. Just gotta pop out some bolts and lights, easy job! _________________ Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIN0qtD-gUOPQesXTO-WMYg/videos |
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mikedjames Samba Member
Joined: July 02, 2012 Posts: 2736 Location: Hamble, Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 11:37 am Post subject: Re: Can I just weld my fenders on? |
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Simple.
It will not weld up until most of the metal has vanished and burnt away as it is so thin and rotten.
Welding is not the fix for that kind of damage.
You will also need quite a lot of sheet metal anyway to fill in the gaps.
You may as well weld on sections to fix up the body, and weld up the fenders with patches and then bolt them on, so you can bolt good fenders on when you finally get some. _________________ Ancient vehicles and vessels
1974 VW T2 : Devon Eurovette camper with 1641 DP T1 engine, Progressive carb, full flow oil cooler, EDIS crank timed ignition.
Engine 1: 40k miles (rocker shaft clip fell off), Engine 2: 30k miles (rebuild, dropped valve). Engine 3: a JK Preservation Parts "new" engine, aluminium case: 26k miles: new top end.
Gearbox rebuild 2021 by Bears.
1979 Westerly GK24 24 foot racer/cruiser yacht Forethought of Gosport.
1973 wooden Pacer sailing dinghy |
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