56 Fairlane Gasser - how to radius a wheel well when you don't have a clue

Ok, so I realize this car is not getting done very quickly, but I did take one step forward with the three hours I had to dedicate to it this weekend.

I need to radius the rear wheel wells to get the Torque Thrust/Cheater slick combo I want to use to fit. If I was a better fabricator, I'd cut and roll the fender lip or weld in conduit, or something like that, but since I suck - I took another route.

I went to my local Pick A Part yard with my Sawzall in hand, and cut the wheel lips out of the front fenders of a 70s-80s Volvo 240. I always thought the curve looked about perfect, and the lip will blend in real well with the factory fender reveals on a '55-'56 Fairlane, although this would work great on a '55 Chev too.

I don't think this is an original idea, but is sure as hell is going to work well. Here are some pictures of the mock-up; next comes cutting the fenders to match, then trimming and spot welding in the patch panels.

Total cost - $28. Just thought I'd share this idea with my fellow Gasser Hambers out there.

 

Seen a few on 55 Chevs before, never a Furd. Looks good, you just can`t go with a huge tire. All the 240 wheel openings are the same, 75-93, you want the fronts, and I think you may want to swap the sides. I fix Volvo`s, hence the stupid trivia.

 

Great Idea, you dont need to be a good fabricator when you think like that .

 

Smart.

Looks good.

If the fender well needed to be bigger, four of the cut-out Volvo pieces from the junkyard could be used to put together a longer opening.

 

Well, I've come to find that I definitely wasn't the first to come up with this idea. Here are a couple great looking '55 Chevys that used the same trick. I believe the owners of both these cars are on the HAMB, I know for sure the yellow one is.

Hope my car looks as good as these when its done - Speedy

 

look's good I would do it...

 

neat trick

 

Hey - how about some photo up-dated??

 

Will do as soon as I have something to show off - had to get through the holidays and all that - back to working on the Fairlane soon!

 

It might not be an original idea to you,but its a good one.I never thought I would like that on a Ford because I always like the original opening,but that is going to look good.

 

Cool. 65 mustang quarter sections work too, and you can get them repop.

 

Interesting. Very cool idea.

 

Thanks guys, I'll admit I am working really slowly on this particular project as this is the first car where I've done sheet metal mods like this, not to mention the changes to the front suspension and so on, but when things get a little further along and I know I'm not heading down the road to disaster, I'll post a build thread of sorts.

I haven't seen too many Fairlanes built this way, so I'm sort of making it up as I go along, and definitely learning by doing and asking lots of questions. Thanks for the props - Speedy

 

OMG the yellow one is a gift from heaven...pervious owner radiused my 55 veryyy badly with a sawzall and pliers, and i have been racking my brain for months trying to figure out what to do with it...SOLD goin to the yard tomarra...! (cant see to good in my pic but its not pretty)

 

UPDATE:

So ( a year or so later ) I decided to go a different route.

Here is a thread showing how I radiused the wells on my '56:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=573495

 

...here's a ratty 55 Chevy I saw in a boneyard that used that idea as well...