Can I just weld my fenders on?

[modok]

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.

[DoubleJ]

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

[modok]

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

[DoubleJ]

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

[modok]

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.

[scrivyscriv]

[DoubleJ]

Just to follow up, I took everyone's advice and bought a welder and a bunch of hardware. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOPB5AyqABw&t=253s
_________________
Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIN0qtD-gUOPQesXTO-WMYg/videos

[bomberbob]

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

[Busstom]

[DoubleJ]

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

[DoubleJ]

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

[mikedjames]

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