Left wheelhouse and flare

Sometimes you have to make compromises between the quality and the time and resources. My left side wheelhouse looked like this.

The both sides of the wheelhouse could have been ordered as reproduction part, but I decided to limit the restoration here and patch it using sheet metal plate with 1,25 mm thickness. The bad thing was that I had to recreate the shape without a model.

I set the new wheelflare on top of the old one to see the area which it would cover.

 

Then I marked the area with a pencil. My patch for inner wheelhouse is well visible in this picture.

I used tape to make sure that I won't cut too much. I've heard about a Mustang which had an inch of sheet metal missing all along the quarter panel.

Now the rusty part could be drilled and cut out.

First I made a patch for the lower section of the outer wheelhouse. Prior to this the rear end of the outer rocker needed to be straigtened. I drilled a hole and used a lug and a nut as a puller.

Then I created an arch for the wheelhouse.

And welded in the remaining parts followed with normal routines ( grinding, grinding, grinding and primering).

The following day I welded the new part.

You may wonder why I did not replace the full quarter panel skin. The reason is that I was unaware of the poor condition of the wheelflare when I made the initial order for sheet metal.

Those who have sharp eyes and have stared Mustangs for an adequte time can see that this Canadian made part is not exactly as the original Ford part. The area where the side emblem will be installed ( and I will install it, though many of restorers do not ) is not as deep as it should.

The self made shape of the wheelhouse looks good enough for me.

Now the car was ready to be turned around for the start-up of same operations on the passenger side.

The financial crisis

I read in the newspaper that the automobile industry in the US was about to go bankrupt. I got worried and decided to support them and order spares for my Ford. But these spares are either made in Taiwan or in Canada ! Ok. The actual reason for ordering more parts was the NO ADMITTANCE sign used to give shape for my driver side wheel flare.

I have ordered spares from NPD earlier and have been very, very satisfied with their deliveries and service overall. I wish all the best for the guys at NPD Ocala, FL where they have their international service. The draw-back of ordering goods outside US is that there is no free freight available for us and air-freight is quite expensive.

I made the list for the initial sheet metal order in an early stage and I did not have to have them quick. Therefore I ordered them through a local dealer in the beginning of october reminding him that I only accept the goods from NPD catalog. I wanted to avoid high freight cost so the package would come in ship-container along with many other. And that’s what it did. It took two months. The price was agreed based on the NPD catalog price and a multiplying factor of 1.3 .

Now what does the 1.3 multiplying factor mean ? I’ll give you an example.
101A-1LH REAR WHEEL FLARE costs $48.50 in NPD webshop.
If you order it and something else so that your order exceeds $300, you’ll get it delivered to any US home in three days for about $52 ( I assume the VAT is 7 % ).

When I order goods with factor 1.3 it means that the price includes the freight costs, customs and VAT ( 22% btw.). And that the currency is euro (€).

So, the REAR WHEEL FLARE delivered within two months to my local dealer ( where I have to pick it up by myself ) costs me 1.3 x 48,50 x 1 € = 63,05 €. As the rate between $ and € is 0,72 it means that I’ll pay $ 87,57 for the flare. Think about that next time when you save money by using traffic signs !

I wanted the flares fast so I ordered them directly from NPD no matter what the air-freight costs might be. They arrived in a week (Ocala FL-Orlando FL-Louisville KY-Koeln Germany-Herne-Boerig Germany-Glostrup Denmark- Helsinki Finland ) by UPS. After I had paid them and all the freight costs and taxes, I calculated the final ‘multiplying factor’ for this delivery. I was really surprised as it was only 1.32 . Should my local dealer review his business idea ?

Though I felt the parts were cheap, I almost paid twice the US price.

Talk about financial crisis ?

Rear frame rail and trunk

Am I stupid or what but it is extremely difficult to edit the text in these posts if I use the Picasa to upload the pics. I had ordered and welded the Canadian made trunkfloor drop-off. Later I realized that the trunk will need a bigger patch. I decided to order the bigger Taiwanese made part and only use the area which I needed because the Canadian part was already been welded as well. I made a smaller patch from sheet metal plate to the front left side of the gas tank opening.

This may end up looking like a jigsaw puzzle when it's finished, but I refuse to replace all the parts little by little if they can be repaired. The rear frame rail was given two pieces of fresh metal in front of leaf spring rear attaching point. The rust was cleared as far as possible, rust-converter was applied and the inside of the frame rail was painted with etching primer. Then the black part made in Taiwan was welded. Here is the result.

This was not the state of art part. It needed to be shortened and twisted to make it fit. Note the spot welds which connect the black part to the Canadian drop-off. This was rather an easy part of the project but required about three evenings anyhow. One for drilling, measuring and cutting, one for grinding and primering and one for the welding and finishing.

Quarter repair panel

Before cutting off the rusted parts of the outer wheelhouse, trunk-floor drop-off and the lower rear end of the quarter panel I test-fitted the parts. I think the best way is to install them all together. I placed the new panel on top of the old one as near to the right position as I could and used two lines of tape to mark the position. These two lines were relative to each other with a gap of 5 cm. Now I was able to cut the rust away and still be able to relocate the right position.

Then the outer wheelhouse repair panel was measured and cut.

After this followed the normal routines: drill holes, paint the ares which will be hidden, spot weld, grind down the spotwelds. Yes, I left the flange in the upper edge of the repair panel. So there will be two metals on top of each other which might catch rust.

But this will be a daily driver, won't it.