Fender work Ideas (1 Viewer)

[Isotel]

Tell me what yall think..

my old fenders are Shot, Rust, and Dents everyware.. Especialy the Passengers Side.. ( Previous owner had to many one night)

New Tub will be custructed of 1/8" or maybe even 3/16" Steel, When i Scrape a tree or rock it wont completly mangle it.. Rockers will be made of 3/16".. To look just like factory, but be functional as sliders. Here is a Shot of what i came up with in autocad.. Can somone help me with the dimensions of where the Gas door should be?? Thanks..

The goal is to keep the Cruiser looks, but gain Clearence for Tires, and Big Rocks.. (Axle will be moved back 3" w/ 55 rear Springs)

Let the Cruiser Purists Flaming Begin..

 

[Bad Coco]

I got CCOT to make me some 1/4 panels with no holes including wheel wells. The idea being I'll but my wells where the tires end up. moving mine back as well.

 

[Pinion]

I was at the exact stage you are a while back and Im in the middle of finishing it up right now.

Get a 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 1/8" wall of boxed and cut it to length. Use a hole saw and a drill bit to make your new access holes for the rear sill. That will solve your sill problem. You will want to do this before dealing with the quarters. Tack in a set of bars that will hold everything square before doing any cutting.

I had a friend bend my rear quarters up. 1/8" thick. Tell whomever does the work that the radius in the rear is 6" and they used the brake every 3/16" of an inch and put a little bend in it. Turned out perfect. I cut off the rear fenders with a spot weld cutter and a sawzall. Then I used a plumb bob to find the center of the wheel drum and marked that as where the center of the wheel well and apex would be. Since I had the wheel wells uncut, I took a set of TJ flares and marked out my opening in relation to where my wheel center would be. After marking it all out, I cut the wheel well openings with a 4 1/2 grinder with a cut off wheel, drilled for the flare and cut the flare to match. The TJ flares open up the wheel well decently, they are durable, and cheap to replace.

 

[LandCruiserSteve]

Nice work and good idea, Pinion. I kinda like that rounded wheel well. Since you're not OEMing back to stock anyway, it gives it that original vintage Cruiser look.

 

[honk]

Nice work and good idea, Pinion. I kinda like that rounded wheel well. Since you're not OEMing back to stock anyway, it gives it that original vintage Cruiser look.

You mean that "developmental look" taken from the thankfully brief period during which Toyota broke away from Jeep toward achieving perfection as the original FJ40.

 

[LandCruiserSteve]

You mean that "developmental look" taken from the thankfully brief period during which Toyota broke away from Jeep toward achieving perfection as the original FJ40.

I knew that would draw you out of the woodwork, Honk.

Nope, I mean true 'original vintage' Cruiser. The grandpappy of them all!!
Without which, you might be driving a square wheel well YJ j**p right now. ;p

(Oops - sorry . . . that was a pretty low blow. )

 

[nuclearlemon]

Get a 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 1/8" wall of boxed and cut it to length. Use a hole saw and a drill bit to make your new access holes for the rear sill. That will solve your sill problem. You will want to do this before dealing with the quarters. Tack in a set of bars that will hold everything square before doing any cutting.

what are you doing to prevent crap from building up inside there and rusting out again?

 

[Pinion]

Building up in where? In the sill? Its an open box of 1/8" wall, not a C shaped piece of bent sheet metal. When needed, I can just stick a hose in the new sill and rinse it out. If I were particularly worried about it, I'd cap the ends and get some plastic caps to cover the access holes where I drop the socket in for the body mounts.

All of my seams are sealed with an all temp/all weather paintable marine silicone and then the whole shebang was undercoated. For some dumbass reason I think I got overly excited and forgot to use the Magnetpaint before undercoating. Im sure that will suck in the future. Going to have to use aircraft stripper to get the undercoating off and then repaint.

 

[Pinion]

Also with the extra curves at the bottom, I cut them in half and welded one half to the inside of the tub where the tire carrier support is on top and the other half inside the rear of the wheel well. Now those sections are 1/4" thick. Nice and sturdy for the carrier, and added protection on the corners. I did the same thing to the driver's side as well in case I wanted to install another carrier on that side in the future for a cooler carrier or something.

 

[Isotel]

nice work pinion, Good idea on the 2"X2" Rear Sill, i had been thinking somthing similar for mine..

Luckly here in colorado our rust dosent eat as fast as out in the Northeast. My Uncles Cruiser has Rusted away after being out there for the past 10 years

 

[ken_79-fj40]

There was a guy in Vermont that I heard about a while back. He was making complete body tubs out of 3/16 steel. I can imagine they are about bulletproof, but I hate to think of how heavy they must be. I think the guy's name was Wally or something.

 

[dfmorse]

Idea much money

isotel:
What I did was to buy stuff from Cool Cruisers of Texas and spent lots to have a body shop rebuild the whole rear end, even if it didn't need it. Looks great!

dfm

 

[Pinion]

Thats funny. I got the idea for the rear metal from Wally after seeing his work. He definitely does a great job. I thought that 3/16 was going to be too heavy for my application so I had my own stuff bent up.

 

[rabid]

Runs about the same weight as the factory hard top, give or take a little.

Mine has been many years now, no chance of EVER rusting through from what I can tell.


3/16th sides, 1/8" floors. Beefy.

I have more info if anyone is interested.

 

[Isotel]

how much did the fenders weigh each??

 

[zebrabeefj40]

how much did the fenders weigh each??

I had some quarters made up in 3/16". They weighed about 30 lbs each.

HTH,
Nick Jennings

 

[rabid]

some pics.

 

[Franky40]

Just a dumb question for Pinion and Zebra, the 1/8" and 3/16" seems a little like overkill, weren't the originals either 18 gauge or 20? Also, while we are on the subject, what about sandblasting the old quarters, prepping for rust and then reskinning with like a 20 gauge?

 

[zebrabeefj40]

When you're wheeling the wide open spaces out west the heavy steel doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But Northeast/New England area trails are tight; too tight for full width axles in some cases. Leaning bodywork into trees and rocks is standard operating proceedure. Then you need to factor in rust. Rabid mentioned his tub won't be rusting through anytime soon. If he had used 20 guage steel he might be redoing the tub on his Cruiser again by now! Or it would be a wadded up ball of scrap from the beating his truck has taken over the years.

Nick

 

[nuclearlemon]

it's a cruiser...there is no such thing as overkill...just s.o.p.