Makin them wheelwells bigger

[hwp]

Ok. I am in the middle of the widening of the wheelwells on my 74 duster. I have been useing the Tech page artical as my bible. There are a few diffs between the dart he did it to and the duster I am doing, but nothing wild so far. I do have a question. I was trimming the floor up to the frame rail. The floor pan overlaps the framerail. When I cut it flush with the frame, it opens a gap where the frame and floor meet. Should I just weld it up and grind flush before I reinstall the wheel tub, or should I wrap the corner with some steel. The tech artical said nothing of this happaning, or what to do. any help would be great. I have to get more cutting wheels and blades for the air saw. I will be smothing out the wheel tub before I put it back in.
IE cutting out the dimples and welding in some flat peaces. So far this has not been that big of a deal. I have been using the spot weld cutter, but most places work better with a drill bit.

[b569rr]

Do you have a pic?

[mopowers]

I think this is what you're talking about.







It opens up a gap because the frame is stamped, so there is a small radius where the frame flattens out at top.  I just cut it flush with the frame and welded the gap up.  It's super thin, so I used a very low amperage setting and sped up the wire a bit to keep it from burning through.  Then just grind it down like you were saying and put the inner wheel tub flush with the frame and weld that up.  I welded mine to both the floor up top and the frame on the inside of the tub.

[hwp]

Thats what I am talking about.
The top 2 pics. The floor pan rest on top of the frame rail. The frame is hollow with no production top. So Its a "C" chanell.  in the third pic, it looks like you spot welded the floor to it.  And then the wheelwell is welded solid on top and bottom.
Thanks guys for the help.

[mopowers]

Thats what I am talking about.
The top 2 pics. The floor pan rest on top of the frame rail. The frame is hollow with no production top. So Its a "C" chanell.  in the third pic, it looks like you spot welded the floor to it.  And then the wheelwell is welded solid on top and bottom.
Thanks guys for the help.

I actually welded the floor back to the frame solid and ground it down.  I don't have a picture of that.  You may have to use a c-clamp to close the gap.

[hwp]

thanks for that information. I will try and post some pics when I get home this after noon. The combonation of floorpan and frame rail that cuves under the floorpan are hard to cut.

[ep87]

Hi I'm glad this topic came up as I'm dealing with the same problem. 1st I tried to cut the frame flush with the floor and tack the two together, a small section at a time and and found I burned through, I tried simulating the welds on some scrap 16ga. for the rail and 18ga. for the floor which is pretty close, and was able to do some great tacks (see picture). When I tried it on the car I still had the burn through problem, so I decided to cut some tabs in the floor and rail flange bend up the floor and cut away the flange tab, bend the floor tab flush with the rail drill and plug weld the tabs. I think the problem with tacking them flush might be that the metal is thinner right where the flange for the rail was bent. I'm not at all happy with the results since the tabs will push the inner wheel well away from the frame slightly and it just looks sloppy. I'm using a Lincoln 110V weld pac 100, and the lowest amperage setting I've tried is 2, maybe I'll have to try 1 and see what happens.
Richard

[68_Val_Sedan]

when you are butt welding like that just make small weld dots every 2 inches or so then go back and make dots of weld in between them and keep making dots until it is all sealed up.   runnig and bead on an edge like that wilth matal that has been ground thin is next to impossible with a mig.

[Bill_Reilly]

I didn't even mess with it in my own car - I welded the wheelwell solid in the trunk and tacked it in the wheel opening. I could've really gone nuts and welded it solid in the wheelwell too, but I didn't see any need to go that crazy with it. The tub itself served to close the gap.

[ep87]

I didn't even mess with it in my own car - I welded the wheelwell solid in the trunk and tacked it in the wheel opening. I could've really gone nuts and welded it solid in the wheelwell too, but I didn't see any need to go that crazy with it. The tub itself served to close the gap.

So if I understand right. you just cut off the trunk floor and frame rail flange flush, and used the inner wheel well to hold the trunk floor and frame rail together? which sounds a lot easier.
Richard

[hwp]

Not very good pics but its welding up nice. burning through a little but not to bad. It builds up quick.

[hwp]

another one

[blasphemous]

Looks like it's coming along fine!

[Bill_Reilly]

I didn't even mess with it in my own car - I welded the wheelwell solid in the trunk and tacked it in the wheel opening. I could've really gone nuts and welded it solid in the wheelwell too, but I didn't see any need to go that crazy with it. The tub itself served to close the gap.

So if I understand right. you just cut off the trunk floor and frame rail flange flush, and used the inner wheel well to hold the trunk floor and frame rail together? which sounds a lot easier.
Richard

Yep. Whether you weld in the wheelhouse as-is, or you add metal first, the end result is the same - both the floor and frame rail are rigidly connected to each other with metal. It's actually stronger than stock no matter how you do it - the stock parts are all spot-welded together, so any solid weld at all will be far superior than what was there.

[flyboy01]

Just when I think I know everything, I learn something new.   

[Bakaruda]

This is what I did.

[b569rr]

I also did what Bill did. Welded 100% of the trunk floor to the wheel house. Welded the entire wheel house flange to the inside of the sub frame.

[ep87]

I didn't even mess with it in my own car - I welded the wheelwell solid in the trunk and tacked it in the wheel opening. I could've really gone nuts and welded it solid in the wheelwell too, but I didn't see any need to go that crazy with it. The tub itself served to close the gap.

So if I understand right. you just cut off the trunk floor and frame rail flange flush, and used the inner wheel well to hold the trunk floor and frame rail together? which sounds a lot easier.
Richard

Yep. Whether you weld in the wheelhouse as-is, or you add metal first, the end result is the same - both the floor and frame rail are rigidly connected to each other with metal. It's actually stronger than stock no matter how you do it - the stock parts are all spot-welded together, so any solid weld at all will be far superior than what was there.

Thanks Bill I'm going to cut off my Funky tabs and do it that way

[hwp]

after lots of welding grinding and cutting. I am almost ready to install new wheelwell

[mopardart71]

what should i use to cut the fender wells out saw za?

[mopowers]

Use whatever you have.  Sawzall will work as well as a 4.5 cut off wheel in an angle grinder, or even a air powered cutoff tool.

[mopardart71]

what should i use to get rid of the gallon of filler thats in the seams around the wheel tubs?ive been pokin at it its taking a a long time ,do i cut in that seam?im just starting it so im gonna be asking questions.ill just start my own topic.

[hwp]

I used a handheld tourch and scraper. Very bad fumes. But was better then chemicals or a wire brush.
Oh. I used a saws-all, one of those air powered saber saws (worked the best) and a cut off wheel.

[codfish]

I'm just finishing my minitub job right now.  I used a sawzall mainly.

As for the seam sealer around the joints, I guess i got lucky because I used a screwdriver to remove it.  Must have been dried out a bit.



codfish

[kendog170]

I cut leaving the the frame lip and floor and folded it up so there is three layers to weld up.To late where you already cut.I just did it this way for a different approach.Definitely weld it up solid!