So, I am just about finished replacing all the bad parts of my original floor pans. My next project is to patch all the bad places that were in the tops of the fender aprons. I am looking at this and thinking, holy crap, I do not want to make these by hand. I am worried that my patches will make the fenders not sit right, causing even more headaches down the road (for some poor body shop guy). Perhaps I should replace the aprons with decent donors, or at-least the tops of the aprons. I don't think I can safely replace the entire apron without causing serious alignment issues. Also, I guess that would include replacing the shock towers too, which are not bad at all. Kind of intimidated and lost here.
Had to do that with my mav project...Not to that extent but...The patches are not hard to make for this repair. Hammer a few out of some 18 guage steel and you'll be golden. Of course you better use 16 guage for those tower tops...
Reminds me of what my '72 looked like once I cut out all the bad metal. I used some sections off of the Mustang repop inners. That made for a nice factory look. Smaller pieces I made from sheet stock. Don't forget to get the holes back in the top for the rubber hood supports and the holes where the fender bolts go.
i forgot the holes for the rubber bumpers when i did mine..so now i only have the front two! and my repair i did wasnt quite the best..i'll probably re-do it next winter but you cant see most of it and my fender had tons of shims from factory as it was..so i just used a shim less in 1 spot and it was all perfect.
With the other work I've seen of yours, I think you'll be fine making them. The fender alignment has some wiggle room and you're in the middle of it. Worst case, you might need to shim it since the front and rear corners are more important anyway.
Or you could get rid of those shock towers by swapping in an aftermarket front suspension .... Seriously, I admire your courage taking this on. Keep up the good work.
Haha Well, my goals for the car include unmodified towers. Trust me, every front suspension thread I read I revisit the idea.
I had to make 2 per side in the same spots as yours,my friend had a metal brake.We welded them in and came out fine,I don`t think you will have any problems.I have seen quite a few Mavericks that rust in those same spots,seems to be a common problem.
Thanks, Dan. We got a brake last year, so I am sure I will be using it quite a lot for these. My main concern was the curved part that wraps up the front and rear of the shock towers. But, I guess some slow hand trimming will work just fine. Its good to hear that yours came out fine.
I think the sheet metal we used was one size thicker than stock.After cutting out the rust and mig welding them in I was surprised how much stronger and stiffer the inner fender wells were.If you take your time I am sure you can have the same results that I did.
