new silly question,...front fenders..

[flmont]

If you drill out and cutoff the front fenders,...I trust they get welded back on,.??? or riveted or what....??? Thanks Frank

[RonnieJ]

They are welded.

[TheCabinetmaker]

I usually don't drill off the fenders of the car I am keeping (ie drill thru the spot welds) as this damages the body that the fender attaches too, I want to attach my replacement fender to the body, and not have a bunch of holes making my body attachment point swiss cheese.
Instead use a grinder to remove the trashed fenders metal at each spot weld till you have hit the body metal, just thin the fenders metal with the grinder over each spot weld till it breaks off the body metal.

Now of course if you're taking a good fender off a junk car, do the opposite, grind off the body metal whilest preserving the fender's metal. In fact to gain access to remove a good fender, I will use a saw and cut up he body well away of the good fender, so that I can flip the parts over and get to the spot welds under the fender with out laying on my back!

You want to hack at the junk panel to avoid any un-needed drilling /cutting / grinding on the metal from the part you are saving, be it body or fender, you wan the least damaged parts to put back together.

So grind thru the spot welds on the panel you are not saving, this will leave you with much sounder material to work with, a much neater and professional job.

[flmont]

Ahh,.. Ok, ...Thank you...Frank

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

On the other hand, the holes left by a spot-weld cutter can be used for plug welds. Some people like to use that technique; others prefer other techniques.

--DD

[TheCabinetmaker]

often them cutters do get pushed thru to far and muss up the panel your trying to save, and when you find you got some close together welds (overlapping) to remove, the cutter is very poor at a clean removal. Unless you back up the center punch with an anvil, you tend to distort the metal.

I prefer a method that does the least damage to the metal to be saved. If you want to replicate a spot weld by filling a hole, fine, drill some nice controlled holes with the metal correctly backed up to prevent distortion. then weld up those holes. The spot weld cutter has uses but for full scale fender removal it does to much damage unless you take extreme care. A grinder will do a cleaner job, faster.