Piggy Goes to The Vet

[Cruiserlab]

(I forgot about the IPPS and posted this in the 40/55 section earlier, but though I'd post here too, for those that live exclusively in the barn )

Hey guys, this may have been done before, in which case you are allowed to let me know in a civil way, but this might help alleviate fender rust in FJ55 fenders.

My 55 (the piggy) went to the 'vet' to have some surgery done

I simply cut out part of the brace. The fender is probably strong enough as is, but I am going to add some reinforcement. Also, don't mind the crappy welds.

Here is my thinking:

The fender is going to want to fold in two different ways. The first is illustrated by the red arrow. The brace for the fender isn't going to do much for this, and other parts of the fender (the lip at the bottom) already take care of this issue. So that leaves the blue arrow. This is what the brace is for. So if I add material where the green lines are, that will make the brace do its job, while also eliminating the water and dirt trap that the engineers gave us. To add more strength, I added a few plug welds along the brace, seen best in the first picture.

Is this Logical? This might just turn into a build thread too.

 

[bobm]

That how I modified mine years ago

 

[RUSH55]

I’m going to have to do the same thing.
Made a repair that I was able to get by with, but want to make the correction a little better.

I want to reconstruct the backing support like you have there, but just doing some plug welds instead of running beads, to keep the warping to a minimum.

Then at the bottom, the consensus is to leave it open so that the mud and water can get flushed out and not have a place to get trapped.

 

[bobm]

This is how I did mine

And Dat's Dat

 

[Cruiserlab]

Awww, daaaang. That's wayyy to nice for me I'm taking the ghetto approach and just filling and patching, not replacing half the fender.

Looks awesome, and sweet color. What year is that? I got mine as a pair and the other is a 74 in Pollux/White.

 

[Cruiserlab]

On a more serious note, what gauge do you use for fenders? It looks like most people use 16 ga. for floors, so that's what I bought and am now using on the fender too. The fender looks more like 18 ga. though.

 

[RUSH55]

On a more serious note, what gauge do you use for fenders? It looks like most people use 16 ga. for floors, so that's what I bought and am now using on the fender too. The fender looks more like 18 ga. though.

A debatable subject.
Thicker can be nicer because of all the benefits of heavier material. It’s also more of a pain to form if there’s any curvature to account for.

 

[bobm]

Bracket was .060 and fender patch and all floors and body 18 ga.

 

[bobm]

73 was an ORNCH gone now

 

[PabloCruise]

(I forgot about the IPPS and posted this in the 40/55 section earlier, but though I'd post here too, for those that live exclusively in the barn )

Hey guys, this may have been done before, in which case you are allowed to let me know in a civil way, but this might help alleviate fender rust in FJ55 fenders.

My 55 (the piggy) went to the 'vet' to have some surgery done

I simply cut out part of the brace. The fender is probably strong enough as is, but I am going to add some reinforcement. Also, don't mind the crappy welds.

Here is my thinking:

The fender is going to want to fold in two different ways. The first is illustrated by the red arrow. The brace for the fender isn't going to do much for this, and other parts of the fender (the lip at the bottom) already take care of this issue. So that leaves the blue arrow. This is what the brace is for. So if I add material where the green lines are, that will make the brace do its job, while also eliminating the water and dirt trap that the engineers gave us. To add more strength, I added a few plug welds along the brace, seen best in the first picture.

Is this Logical? This might just turn into a build thread too.

Good stuff!
C'mon over to the Pig Sty anytime!

 

[PabloCruise]

A debatable subject.
Thicker can be nicer because of all the benefits of heavier material. It’s also more of a pain to form if there’s any curvature to account for.

Rush likes his Piggies thicc...