Ok. I spent some time working on the fender braces. First I took the early pair of firebird fenders and carefully heated the paint along the skin faces that connect the skin to the upper and front braces and wire brushed off the paint to clearly expose the spotwelds.. I drilled through the spotwelds on the skin just deep enough to cut the welds but not go into the top braces nor the front upper brackets that sit behind the nose. Once they were all drilled I used panel seam splitter tools and a hammer to separate the pieces from the fender. I found the passenger side front upper bracket bent from a hit at one time, but was able to use a press, some pieces of steel and a body hammer to rework back to shape. So the braces are out and ready for bed fenders. I used a spot weld drill on the old fender since I was able to access all the welds with the drill.
|