I have to replace the right side inside fender. (Rusted through below battery tray) Has anyone ever replaced one of these? It appears to be tack welded. UGH! I assume I have to drill these all out and then go from there. There doesn't seam like an easy way around this.

 

I used an air chisel to get the rusted sections off. Then you can grind down the spot welds and straighten any dents in the shock towers. You could break the welds with a hammer and chisel too. Just be sure to go about it so the rusted piece is the one that gets torn up by the chisel, not the part you want to keep.

Alternately, you could cut it off with a sawzall, or angle grinder/cutoff wheel, then go about seperating the spot welds. Just dont cut the shock tower or the flange. Its not really dificult to do, just line everything up well before you start welding. Tack weld it, check it for alignment, then hit it with a couple spots near the factory locations. Dont put a bead down it, you will have a warped piece that nothing will conect to correctly..

 

Thanks POD. I thought of trying the sawzall but I didn't even consider the Air Chisel which sounds like a better way to go. I will use that. Thanks again.

 

I used a sawzall to cut mine out on my 68. After I cut it out, I went really carefully with a hammer and chiseled out what was left welded onto the shock tower. Very easy to do. I do not have air tools, so it was all done by hand. Installation of the new piece was easy. A friend of mine is a welder and he just lined it up for me. It's pretty easy to do, but as thumpin said, be careful not to damage the shock tower or else you are going to spend some extra time straightening out the mistakes.

 

easy on the air chisel....i ended up kinda tearing up things that, well shouldnt of been lol

 

Takes a bit of restraint and a certain amount of skill to not tear things up with it.. I have a super nasty scar on my right ring finger from my first encounter with an air chisel.. yeah.. opened it up from nail to back of my hand.. anatomy lesson right there. That was 20 years ago.. since then practice has made a bit more perfect..lol..