Just wondering if anybody has ever done this before? I custom made the inner fenders on my Iroc, cut em up, bent em up, welded em in, fiberglassed.....more fiberglass, bondo.....more bondo, sanded....sanded.... and more sanding haha. Anyway didn't know if anybody else has ever done it and if so wanted to see any pictures just to see how yours looked. Oh and by the way thats a spohn k member and a arms and they look awesome in there.

 

i cant say ive seen that before. they look like they came out nice. I just dont know how they will stand up to all the flexing the strut towers do.

 

Very good custom work...however 86TA is 100% on the money. The flex that the engine bay will almost 100% see is going to reek havoc on your work. I hope it stands up for you but I think you may be seeing stress cracks appear over time (progressively worse with hard cornering or "diving" into corners).

 

Looks cool, but what was the real point? Just to clean up the engine bay?

A good STB like the edelbrock might help the flex problem. However, I would still feel hesitant about using "fiberglass and bondo" on any structural part of the car.

Just curious, is the rest of the strut tower intact under your added plates?

 

its all welded in, overtop of the original inner fender and welded to that for support. Everything is welded and the only reason i fiberglassed was to smooth out the transitions from one piece of metal to the next and obviously a thin coat of bondo to make everything perfectly smooth. Its a strait line car so no worries about cornering or anything like that and i do have a strut tower brace to strengthen it some but it is very strong being that everything is welded in. Its pretty much to clean up the engine bay. All my wires for headlights are hidden, my overflow for the radiator and my windsheild washer fluid both have areas in the front corners which you can't see from the picture. Very clean look. I'll post a couple more pictures if anybodys interested in checkin it out to critisize, good or bad.

 

So you added weight to the front of your drag car for cosmetic purposes?

Looks good though.

 

haha thats what everybody says right after they tell me how cool it looks...... i know... i know... i figured the weight i lost with the tubular k member and a arms got put right back on with that stuff but its not a strip only car. Come on give me a little more credit than that haha. Built for showin off, cruisin, and friday night 1/4 mile.

 

I hope your headers fit.

 

AAAHHHH...welded on top of the existing...now that idea makes MUCH more sense to me than before. Good work again! I think its a very original idea.

 

I don't see how this will affect header clearence.

 

You dont???

 

Not at all. He did nothing to change the wheel well in the area of the headers.

 

he didn't extend the "frame rails" inward so there will be no loss in header clearance whatsoever

 

i might take a couple more shots this weekend just to show how smooth the whole thing is. i dont even have a guess as to how many hours i put into it, bending and welding. Appreciate the criticism and compliments. Its not everyday you do something that nobody has seen before.

 

How do you get to all the wires and overflow tank and such when things start to break? I think it was done well but doesn't it make repair work harder?

 

im quite sure the wires and overflow tank are not buried under the new panels. It would take a real idiot to do something like that.

 

the wires were a pain to run under the panels but there is plenty of clearance just by popping the head lights out to get back in there. as for the overflow and washer bottles they aren't under the panels, just in the corner of the engine bay on opposite sides of radiator. Plus, they're both chrome so why would i hide them?

 

Well definantly take some more pics so we can get a better idea of whats going on. Looks like you're getting there.

 

heres a couple more pics. they're a little blurry and i just got done blowing out my shop so everything is dusty but you can kinda see how i mounted the overflow and wiper fluid bottles.

 

I have seen similar things done to a pure drag car but it was always with aluminum and riveted in.

Anyway it looks good!