Last night I pulled the passenger inner fender liner to investigate a path for CAI and discovered these fenders are embarassingly thin... I bent the inner fender mounting tabs when pulling the panel mounting hardware... and I was using a real panel popper. Are these fenders 21 gauge???

Very disapppointing

 

That is why you see so few shaved door handles. We were going to do that originally but the steel is so thin that it warps from the heat and is hard to make it look good. It can be done, but it is a pain.

 

(side note... not sure why title has the letter l on either side of beer can. They were supposed to be single quotes, and were when I submitted. Board bug???)

 

May not be able to use special characters in the subject line.

I thought maybe you had been popping a few beer cans just to compare them to the fenders!

 

 

XXL, just wanted to interject here that I was kidding in case you didn't pick it up. You don't know me so I don't want you to think I was saying anything bad about you. Just trying to be funny.

 

I don't know about the fenders...haven't touched them...yet! But the quarter panels are a bit thinner than 22 gauge...that's what I used for taillight fillers:

 

Fixed it for you

 

Understood. I don't drink beer... it doesn't mix well with my crack habit


I contemplated this mod, but I like the bumps on the quarter panel... and shaving the lights led me to the "then why have the bumps" question. Have you got more pics or a thread on this mod?


Guacamole

 

Keep in mind that the thin sheet metal is one of many reason for our good gas mileage. A lot of weight can be saved by thinning the sheetmetal just a little.

As for welding on it, if you dial your heat settings in correctly on your welder, back the weld site with a copper bar or paddle, work slowly and space your welds around the work area, your warpage should be minimal. It's all in the technique and a skilled hand (which is NOT me, but I've seen some skilled pros do amazing work).