How to frankencar my rear fender on a wagon?

92 Subaru Legacy L *wagon*

The rear fender doesn't bolt on for the wagon. The salvage yards that carry old Subies won't let you use torches, sawsalls, or any tools to cut body parts off. It has to be removable via bolts. It's their insurance that restricts how their customers can remove parts. That means I cannot cur off a body panel to use it on my vehicle.

On my old '92, the rear fender has rusted out on the backside of the wheel well. About 2 inches of the lower lip is gone (at the bottom of the metal panel to which the lower vinyl skirt attaches) so one bolt won't support the front of the vinyl skirt. About the same is missing for the wheel well lip. There is a hole in the side panel at this corner (wheel well and lower side skirt). I don't have any means of bending out a new metal piece to overlay that area. So I figured to frankencar the rusted out spot by cutting off the rear panel from a car at the salvage yard, cut it to size by first making a template, prep the old fender, and attach the cut-out piece atop that spot. There is room between the lower lip and the vinyl skirt to position another lip in there and the wheel well lip would just overlap. I'd then run the top cut line straight back at the height of the gas cap opening on the other side (since that side has a rust out, too), use some bondo, and basically have an edge run horizoontall to the rear. Would look good enough to me and might even look good overall. Problem is in getting the fender from which I can cut out the piece to lay atop the old piece where the rust gets cut out..

I can't get a chunk of th rear fender from the salvage yard. I can't find Subies at any other salvage yard except for these two yards that won't let me cut out body metal. So I'm wondering if the shape of the rear fenders on a sedan model might match. Maybe the rear fenders on a sedan are bolted on so then I could remove them, cut them to get out a lower piece and frankenstein my car that way. But it would require the shape of the fender on the sedan to be a match at the bottom of the fender. So, does anyone know if the lower portion of a rear fender on a 90-94 Legacy *sedan* might match the the shape of the lower part of the affixed fender panel on a 92 Legacy *wagon*? The sedan's fender might be shorter but that's not critical (but then I would have to run the "bead" at the visible overlay edge in a square shape). It's the area of about 4 inches up and 4 inches back from the corner of the wheel well and lower viny side skirt (i.e., bottom edge of rear panel behind wheel) that I would need to overlap.

I might've tried using sheet metal but I have no means of bending out a nice straight lip at the bottom and also a lip for the wheel well. I figured to cut out a piece of a junk car that included those lips and would cover the opening after removing the rusted metal. If the salvage yard gets in a 90-94 Legacy sedan and *if* the rear fenders on a sedan bolt into place then I can grab one and snip out the corner with lips to cover my rust out.

Reply to
Vanguard
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Did you ask if _they_ would cut the panel for you? A friend of mine runs the local Soobie yard; I'm sure he'll sell a rear quarter (assuming he has a donor available), but shipping might be prohibitive. I'm guessing, but probably around $100 plus probably at least that much more to pack and ship.

If there's much rust, welding in replacement sheetmetal might be a real challenge, FWIW.

Sorry, nope.

What you might try is using fiberglass. No time for a complete tutorial, but basically you use a wire brush on an angle grinder to remove as much rust as possible; down to clean metal on the outside, all the way around the rusted out area(s). Use a chunk of chicken wire or similar on the inside to more or less mould the shape of the fender where you are applying the patch. Use a couple layers of heavy glass fabric cut to size, saturated with a decent two part epoxy (The stuff you usually get at the hardware uses MEKP as a catalyst. This will work OK, but it stinks horribly; the epoxy has little odor, and is more predictable as far as hardening times and such. Search the web for a supplier near you, or go here: for more than you ever wanted to know about the subject, and decent prices as well ;-) to cover the chicken wire on the outside. Place extra plies where screws need to be installed. You don't have to be real exact, the cured composite will sand readily, and will take paint acceptably well. Tough to get show quality using this technique, but I don't think that was what you were hoping for anyway. This works so well, with such minimal effort, that you may well find yourself touching up the _other_ rust spots on your car while you're at it.

Hope this is helpful.

ByeBye! S. Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

Reply to
S

They don't do anything. The 2 salvage yards that carry cars older than 10 years old simply drain their fluids, remove the battery, and prop them up on welded together wheels (so customers can get underneath but its dirt and often sloppy). They keep their costs down by not inventorying anything so you haven't a clue what is on the car before you show up. They only inventory that they have the car (year, make, and sometimes body style). All the other salvage yards around here never have Subies that old. They have newer ones but the old ones aren't aplenty anymore to be showing up at the salvage yards. The 2 that I go to (each an affiliate of each other) actually buy them at auctions or they buy them outright. Their site is

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Damn. That was my only hope, and that they were shaped the same around the wheel well.

That's what I figured on. I'm not a pro but I know how to layer up sheets of figerglass mesh and mould to a shape but I'll probably start with a rough metal template as backing (to also give more strength than just fiberglass) along with bondo to make the form and fiberglass over it. It won't be as strong and the rear of the wheel is where all the stones fly so I'll have to look into getting much better guards. I didn't think of using chicken wire (or other fine-meshed grating) to provide the starting form.

Reply to
Vanguard

Watch out...AVG found that page tries to load a copy of "Exploit" virus.

Reply to
CompUser

Hmmmm. I've dealt with Raka several times over the last few years, and can assure you that they are a reputable company. Never the less, I have forwarded your comments to them so that they can have their web person take a look. Thanks on Raka's behalf for the tipoff in any event.

ByeBye! S. Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

Reply to
S

There question isn't whether Raka is reputable-- they certainly wouldn't deliberately put a virus on their home page.

But there is definitely a virus there.

McAfee reports: Detected As: JS/Downloader-AUD

Reply to
Mark Olson

In article , snipped-for-privacy@tiny.invalid says...>

With both McAfee and AVG not liking it, it sounds un-good.

Reply to
CompUser

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