Longitudinal repair without cutting away fender?, Can this be done, if so how did you do it? Options

[jjs3rd914]

It all started when wanting to reinstall the battery tray back in stock position. A PO had put battery in rear trunk and fiberglassed over the "hell hole". Of course the more we dug the worse it got. We have completed the upper area repair inside engine compartment and now ready to install the Restoration Design (RD) outer clamshell overlays. All the major repair threads show the removal of the lower portion of the fender get full access. We really do not want to do this unless this is the only way to correctly install the pieces so they will work as designed.

Has anyone installed the RD overlays (or Brad's system) without cutting away the fender for access? If so how did you do it? It would appear that a very small MIG gun (anyone know of such a tight area gun?) would help, but one still would not get to all the critical areas that need welded inside the fender.

Are we indeed doomed to cut the fender piece, reweld and repaint? The car was just painted by the last PO.

Thanks, and thanks to all the previous posts on repairs.

jjs3rd914

[r_towle]

Get a sawzall and a 4 inch grinder.
For the top of the jack post its a combination of the two and a hand chisel to get the remaining piece off.

For the welding of the top part of the overlay under the fender, it can be done with the suspension in place, but as you said,,it takes time and patience.
Drill some holes right up near the top and you can reach those to spot weld the top in place. It is not easy, but certainly can be done.

If you think of one more idea, cut a section of the fender away, approx. 8 inches of the bottom of the fender, stay one inch away from the door for the vertical cut, and take out this piece.
From there do the overlay welding, sitting up/or standing in your case.
Then take the same piece you cut out and weld it back in place..
If you use a very thin blade, you will only remove 1/16 of an icn of material, and when you go to re-install, clamp it with a 1/16th inch gap to get it to line up like stock, welding rod/wire will fill in that gap.

If you go this direction, weld only one inch at a time, then rest...let the metal cool naturally. When I do these body panel type welds, I have other things to do, so it may take me two days to complete that 12 inches of welding...but this way I never over heat the fender and warp it.

You may need to hammer and dolly the weld the flatten it back out...it tends to curl in both the fender and the piece in the weld area...just work slow, hammer and dolly each time you weld and you can control the movement pretty well.
And when you grind, again...take breaks...let it cool down..

Rich