Technical Forming new fender opening

View attachment 2859265 I finally got back to working on the Plymouth. Finished the chassis and got the body mounted mounted last fall. When building the chassis listened to advice on the hamb and kept the axle center-line in the original position. Once I got the body on it found the rear tire was way forward in the wheel opening. I think they were originally built this was but it looks bad to me. Couldn't move the axle so went with changing the wheel opening in the fender. The front fender is centered and has a nice shape so decided to copy it to the rear.



Nothing fancy for tools, just a regular and shrinking hammer, a few dollys, and a big cresent wrench.
I made a cardboard pattern of the front, copied it to the rear, and then cut it our with a saw. I left 3/4'" for re-forming the fender lip.

It took me a few hours to figure out how to post pictures on the new hamb, sorry for upside down and sideways, not sure what is happening.
Next step was to make a wooden form, used 1/2" plywood and used the fender as a pattern, used a router to put a nice cure on the edge. Since the fender was not flat I cut the wood form into sections and clamped them to the fender. Used the cresent wrench to slowly bend up the fender lip. Went around it 4-5 times until it was formed up about 70-80 degrees. Clamped the wood form and hammered away. My first time at this and it took a lot of small hits. No big swings, hundreds of little hits.
Wrench, then wood block, then the round t-bar. Like I said hundreds of little hits. Here is what it looked like after about 45 minutes.
Still needs a little more work, but no welding, no special tools. Hammer-dolly-block of wood.

Here is the final product on the car. Wheel centered in the opening and looks like it came from the factory.

 

Big improvement, but not too obvious. Thanks for posting.

 

Nice job thanks for sharing ...enjoy your car!


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Same marks I have had on my avatar for a couple of years! I'll get to it one of these days.

 

I read quite a bit about forming fenders. Just had to jump in, cut it up and start hammering. I was pretty amazing about how much you could move the metal. It too a lot of hammering to get it there. I think it looks better than welding in a rod to form the shape.