Technical Help with radiusing Willys rear fenders?

Hey Willys guys I'm radiusing my rear fenders on my 38 Willys sedan and was wondering if that is a easy one time only way to do this would hate to mess up a set of fenders. Is there some helpful Threads or guys who have done it before. Now I don't want to learn how to do some other type of car I want help with Willys only. As you Willys guys know they have that hook in the bottom of the opening and that is what i need to remove . I am running a 29.5x10.5x15 Mickey Thompson slick.

 

Lets Bump this to the top.

 

not to dissuade you, but if you want ot save those uncut fenders my dad has a set of radiused steel fenders leftover from a car he sold a few years back and I'm sure he'd make you a deal on them to clear the shop space. temporaryrod is his hamb handle.

 

It don't get any easier than that. ^^^^^

 

Yous guys kill me. The guy just wants to remove the curl at the bottom of the fender, pretty easy, get it outside so you can step back a bit and look at it. Now take a piece of chalk and draw it out how you think it should go then step back and adjust accordingly.

The other really easy way to radius any fender is to take the wheel and tire you plan on using set the car a bit below ride height to allow for suspension compression and then set the wheel against the car and draw around the wheel.

The old timers didn't overthink it they just got 'er done. Both methods here are tried and true.

 

String from the center of the axle to a piece of chalk. That is traditional and easy. If you want to change it you can wipe it off and try again. Somewhere I once saw a tool that attached to the axle that would roll the fender when you were done.

 

Man That's a whole lotta fucking around, no?
I'd have something to add, but OP only wants to hear from guys who've actually done this on a willys.

 

Hey buddy you hit it right on the head and I have done pretty much what you have said but my fenders are not matching each other so I am at a loss as to what I did or didn't do right. I have pic's of other Willys where it looked like that is all they did to cure the problem so that is what I have done and now my fenders don't match so I guess I am back to the drawing board to correct the problem.

 

Right now i will take anybody opinion on this matter with the help I may Figure out where I did go wrong, I will take on any bodys 2 cents worth.

DOES ANYBODY HAVE PICTURES THAT MAY HELP PLEASE POST THEM IF THEY DO.

 

I didn't take a picture of the layout process, but what i did was found a phillips screwdriver that fit the center hole of my axle to use as a pivot point and drew an arc on the fender with a piece of string and a sharpie. I plan to redo it larger. This was just to make sure it would be accurate.

Gary

 

Maybe a picture of your problem might help form an "opinion on this matter (with the help I may Figure out where I did go wrong,)"

Now I've not found most axles to be dead center of wheel openings or symmetrical side to side. The Axle is part of the chassis and square to the road while quarters and fenders are of the body. The body is deceivingly symmetrical to itself and plopped down onto the chassis. Stacking of tolerance can really throw stuff off side to side. OEM realizes this and does things to minimize the visual impact, they realize that no one can see both sides of the car at the same time. HOWEVER, changing of the OEM disguise such as opening wheel wells to fit larger tires may bring any discrepancy front and center.

So what's the problem that's showing up?

 

Thank you 31Vicky, That is my next step in this mess I have, is to see where my body and axle are in relationship with each other. It's not that far off but if you walk from side to side it can be seen and I am one that notices things like that so it has to be fixed. As far as pics I have to take them and then I will post so people can see what is wrong. I do thank you guys for your input and appreciate the help you all have given. As for you guys who offered already radiused fender I wish I could have found you before I cut mine, but I may still be interested I buying a pair of them, I will get back to you guys and let you know one way or the other. That's what sucks about the building you looks for parts and never come up with them till you do something and then the parts are everywhere, oh well we live and learn, maybe I should have run a thread looking for already radiused fenders. One way or an other I will make this work so if anyone else has advise to offer lets get it out there for other to see, after all isn't that why we are here.

 

Hell lie about it everyone else is.

I have cut the curl from the bottom front of a Willys fender before and the way I did it was just how I described I using a chalk and stepping back until it looked right to me. The way that I made them match or come close to matching is take the piece I cut from the first side and use it as a template for the other side. Actually a butcher paper template works better, but that is on the cutter I guess.

here is something to think about and this proves to be true for a lot of old cars, the fender from one side to the other is not always a match. I don't know if it is poor quality control or getting to the end of a stamping run or ??? That being said you can take the advice of the greatest hack on the custom auto industry, it doesn't matter if one side matches the other no one can see both sides at the same time.

Blue49,
Looking at your J it just occurred to me, I don't think I have ever seen a running J without the wheel openings cut. I have seen stockers but I am not thinking stocker here.

 

Ok, porknbeaner that is exactly what I did, now the fenders not matching from the beginning could be my problem and I understand you can't see both at the same time but if the tire is going to rub on one side your going to feel that and that is what is going on with mine. The driver side turned out pretty nice it is the passenger side that is where the front of the fender is to close to the tire and I will have a rubbing problem when the suspension works. I am going to see if the curve of the two fenders is different when they are standing on the floor and if they are that could be my problem and then I will reshape the fenders from there. Yes as you said all I wanted to do was remove the little curved hooks on the bottom and my tire would fit but then i run into this problem so I thought maybe I did do something wrong and couldn't radius them that way.

 

Nope you did nothing wrong, and yes you are on the right track, if you have one that is having a problem just open it up a little more.

Here is one that most people don't know and has nothing to do with this thread other then to drive home my suggestion that on old cars sometimes the fenders don't match from one side to the other. '32 Fords the front fenders don't match. I am talking the curvature where the fender ties into the front of the car so it is really noticeable when you walk up to one. if you see one at a show and they are symmetrical then it is one of two things the fenders are repops, or they have been worked.

reason I mention this you say? The Willys was an econo car, even more econo car then the ford.

Ok no charge for the side bar. Keep after it you'll get it worked out.

 

These are re-pop fenders but and just for a visual.



So the big arch bolts to your body and the small arch follows the wheel.
All of that contoured metal in between those two arches locates the the centers of the arches in relation to each other. Not saying this is your problem, but very easy to grasp concept on one possible cause.
If by chance one fender had a bit less roll on the front and a bit more roll on the rear- then the opening wheel opening would be further back and therefore having that opening closer to the axle center towards the door and more room towards the rear bumper. All that discrepancy Even though a tape measure on the curve will yield the same measurements. Hardly noticeable with stock tires tucked up in there.

It would be very easy to determine if this were your issue with a few carefully fitted contour patterns and comparing them side to side. It will take you 15 mins or so solve the WHY part of your mystery. Correcting it will be a compromise, knowing the why can help come up with an acceptable compromise.

I would say that you make each side look good and nearly the same by visual means only. Everyone is going to look but you will be the only one to analyze it with measurements. If you are really anal and OCD about perfect symmetry here, you'll probably need to re shape the fenders- but if you keep going pretty soon you'll find the 1/4s aren't identical either.

 

...could be your suspension sags a bit more on one side than the other?...I'd check to see if that is the case and if rearend is square to chassis/body....you'll get it fixed, keep at it.

 

Hey 31 and Rusty, After some sitting on the brake stool this afternoon I have come to see that the roll in fender and the 1/4's could be part of my problem also as I was down taking pic's, I could see that the roll in the fender is not the same. But I am leaning more toward the 1/4, so tomorrow will be a day of measuring and checking to see just how much difference there is. Ok well I think I am on the way to solving this.

 

Hello, You were right 31 Vicky there was a difference in the curve of the one fender, after setting down and doing some measuring I found that the fender had a different curve in the front so after some hammer and dolly work i now have fenders that clear and match each other as far as the suspension travel, when the body gets it's final mounting on the frame I will mold them to fit and add a rolled pipe to the inside lip for strength, also on the sedan the running board bolts to the front of the rear fender so I will have to rework it some but things are fitting and clearing the tire nicely. I want to thank all who put there time and 2 cents in on this problem, It's nice to have people to roll things off to solve a problem.

 

Glad you got it on the run now.
I wonder of I can add 38 willys to my resume well not really

 

Hey Buddy that cool with me, I'm going too.

 

Do a search for the thread "beside the barn" WILLYS find. Go to page 17. Larry has been doing the WILLYS thing for many years.

 

Thank you 1933_willys_77 I have cured the problem I had, but I will use that thread for some of the other information on the rest of my build. That build thread show how the cure a lot of different problems that we may come across.

 

Hey Guys, been working on the rear fender radius and they are just in the rough out right now but I thought you all might want to see what I came up with, remember their just tached till I get some of the other thing done and then I will finish them. Also I have decided to keep the car in it's Original Patina so that is why you see things being done the way I am doing it. Here some pic's to share with you.

 

I thought for sure I would get some comments on how I did my fenders after all that gave me some helpful hints. Old post get pushed to the back and most don't see them, Thanks to all who offer up their ideas it did give me a idea on how to attack them when I started.

 

Tony,
Thanks for the compliment. We have been out of town for a couple of weeks and honestly I haven't been on here much lately. It has been my experience with the cars that I have built that neither the front or the rear fenders are identical. I find that most people don't notice the difference and it is way more obvious if the opening around the tire is off. Using spacer blocks is the easiest way for me to keep it the same. Sorry I didn't see this earlier but I am glad that you have it figured out. Larry

 

Hey Larry, that's cool love your fleet of rides, thanks for stopping by and putting in your words of wisdom.

 

The radius came out great, looks like it has been that way for a long time too. It does look like you could use some taller tires or maybe its just the angle of the picture.

 

Hey elgringo, I still have to do the rear springs they are not Willys and I have to cut the hanger up into the frame half ways so that will being the body closer to the top of the fender and have much better look. I was wondering if anyone was going to say anything about that, but I kinda like it up in the air, like that it's level and still has the gasser look, I don't want the Oaklahoma look cause then you can't see over the front fender.