Separating the inner/outer wheelhouses

[JTG 10]

I've started the process of installing quarter skins and I'm also going to replace the outer wheelhouses and trunk dropoffs. Most of the old quarter is removed and I've cut the outer wheelhouse off just before the seam with the inner wheelhouse. The inner is fine so I want to keep it. I've drilled out the spot welds but it looks like these 2 pieces were also seam welded at the base of the vertical flange. For anyone else who's run into this issue how have you separated the two pieces?

 

I tried using the 3" cutoff and it worked but it's a bit crude. Plus I don't know if I'll be able to use it at the top where there's another bracket going up that is in front of this seam.

 

Here's a link to an old thread where someone else had the same problem. Unfortunately he never followed up with a solution.

 

http://www.1969stang.com/mustang/forum/showthread.php?t=5237&highlight=wheelhouse

 

Thanks, JT

[Mike65 475]

 

JT,

When I did both of my outer wheel houses I used a cut off wheel to get them down to where the seam weld is & then used an angle grinder to grind off what remained of the outer wheel house & it worked fine for me doing it that way.

Mike.

[69mi 10]

.005 ounces of c4 spaced about 3 inches apart along the seam.

[JTG 10]

Thanks guys. I think I'll try Mike's suggestion before I use the C4.

[JTG 10]

Well, I got it ground down. From the inside of the car I pried the inner and outer flanges apart above the seam weld. Then I used a cutoff wheel to remove as much of the outer flange as I could. Then from the outside I ground down what was left using and angle grinder. I also used a deburring bit which was good because it was smaller so I could see how far I was going.

[Mike65 475]

Great, I am glad the way I did mine worked out for you like it did for me.

[dzahm 10]

You know FWIW- you might wanna line up the qtr panel before you weld up the outer wheelhouse. It just strikes me (a non body guy- but someone who has been down this road b4) that you might temp install the qtr, then reach inside and position the outer wheelhouse, then mark, then weld it in. Maybe its just my coupe- but I been fighting wheelhouses for a while, even when I thought they were dead on they were not. YMMV

[JTG 10]

Yeah, my plan is to clamp the outer wheelhouse and quarter on. Shift the two around and get them all lined up. Drill a couple of screws into the wheelhouse to hold it in place, remove the quarter to do the wheelhouse welding then reinstall the quarter and weld it in. Of course with plenty of pictures along the way in case I need to reference back.

[Mike65 475]

Once I got the quarter skin & outer wheel house clamped together where everything lined up good I put 1/2 dozen self tapping screws in to hold the outer wheel house in place.

[dzahm 10]

Yeah, that sounds good. I spliced an outer w/h in, and had it lined up exactly the way it came off- or so I thought- I was sooo proud of the repair-you really couldn't see the job- but the qtr was hell after that-it was my body guy that told me the "better" way (wish he'd have mentioned that prior to welding it up)