I was playing around with the stance on my '46 Ford coupe this weekend. Its got a MII IFS with airbags and a C4 'Vette IRS. The neighbor (who is also a motor head) said he had some tires/rims that might look good. We stuck 'em on, and they look great, kind of a gasser/custom look. Here is the problem... The rims and tires are for a small SUV or pickup. I don't have as much room as i would like. So I started thinking (this is probably where I went wrong) that, since the fenders are merely bolted to the body, I could make 2" spacers from pipe, use 2" longer bolts to mount the fenders, and then cut a strip of sheet metal 2" wide and weld it to the body and the fenders to make it "one piece" and cover the gap. I was already planning on welding the fenders to the body and getting rid of the ugly welting, so this wouldn't be much more work. It also might look reallll good, making the fat fenders Super-Fat. Pros/cons/ideas? Lemme have it...and thanks
Sounds like a lot of nooks & crannies to collect salty mud and rot out in about as long as it takes to say next year. The spacer sounds reasonable but cut out all the bolted together crap with it's inherent rust traps and just butt weld the fender/spacer to the body. Make sure to put support brackets or rods from the fender just behind the wheel opening to the body so it doesn't flex and crack later. Check stock fenders, most have these if they haven't been removed. You will probably be moving them a bit aft for the big tire's clearance, but don't leave them put!
Do those fenders have a crease in them for a chrome strip? If not, or if you want to clean them up, you might consider widening the fenders by stretching. You can make those fenders grow 2" without adding any metal. See this album for details: http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/community/communityalbums.cgi?action=openalbum&albumid=9980138836765 If you want to add metal, you could cut the fender and add a strip of metal, stretch a little to get the shape you need...I have a video coming out soon with a lot of this stuff in it. John www.ghiaspecialties.com
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