Cut It Out

Today I made a little progress with The Clam.  I removed the stubborn inner fender well from the new fender.  There are clips between the fender well and the fender that rusted and broke so they spin freely on the end of the bolt when you turn the head.  They are located down inside the cavern pictured here.  I remember the circle imprinted on the inner fender is the factory prescribed hole that is to be drilled if the blower motor needs to be replaced.  I replaced mine a while back but found I was able to do it without drilling the required hole in the fender.  GM offered a factory plate to screw back into place.  Apparently, this car never had a new blower motor.

If you look closely, you can see the vise grips I was finally able to get clamped on one of the clips.

The next step was to apply copious amounts of penetrant on the backs of all the emblems so they don't snap off when removed.  Surprisingly, they all came off without much of a fight and with no broken studs.

The little things take up a lot of time, such as removing all the trim pieces without breaking them and making sure the old rubber doesn't break or tear when removed.  This rubber was surprisingly supple given the condition of the rest of the metal.

Using the brace on the rear as a guide, I mapped out the cut lines to determine how much metal to remove.  Last time, there were two holes for trim pieces that I cut around so they would maintain their location.  This time I don't have to worry about that because the holes present are not correct, but unfortunately that means I'm going to have to locate and drill new holes for my trim pieces.

Here is the brace on the backside of the fender.  This is pretty much exactly the same situation I dealt with before. 

Half way there.  I only have a 5 gallon compressor, so I have to cut a little bit, wait for the compressor to fill with air, and then cut a little more.  I bought this tool to do this same job the last time. 

Here it is after getting the old metal out.  As was the case last time, the brace is solid but has surface rust.  This brace is undoubtedly what causes these fenders to rust in this area.  You can see the accumulation of rust and debris trapped inside the fender.  I used small picks and compressed air the clean this area.

Here, the old metal is removed.  The plan is to remove the old metal, weld all the unneeded emblem holes closed, measure and drill new holes for emblems and woodgrain trim and then have everything sand blasted.  Then I'll come back and primer and paint the brace, then coat it with Honeycoat, as I did last time.  Then I'll reweld in the new panel, grind it down, and then coat the back with Honeycoat again.  That will keep it nice and sealed and prevent rusting in the future.  I'll keep the old piece I cut out to use as a template for the new piece.

There were a few other small things I fixed on the new fender as well, such as the bottom sheet metal lip pictured here.  This part of the fender is rolled under the car and is hidden with trim, but I still want it to be right.  I used some vise grips, a hammer and some dollies to roll the lip back as it should be.