SRT-8 Daytona Clone

When it came time to mend the inner wheel house to the body I decided to take a different route than would normally be done on a street car. I decided instead of steel tubs that I would crush panel it with .040 aluminum. This provides an easy custom closure.
First I installed a 1"x 1" flange on the spot weld flange of the inner wheel house. ( the pictures are looking rearward in the driver side rear wheel house)
Next I made up a steel pattern base with pre drilled rivet holes to provide a rigid base.
To this base I added my paper patterns out to the body to get the contour  over the curve.
The last picture in this series shows the completed pattern out of the car ready to transfer to the aluminum.

Copying the pattern on to a piece of .040 pre painted satin aluminum I made the finish crush panel.

While the pattern was taken tight to the body I turned the outer lip down to help the panel gap slightly away from the body and provide an area for a silicone bead.

Next I installed the crush panel applying silicone behind all riveted areas to prevent the panels from loosening  and  finally applying a bead between the panel and the outer body to secure it and provide a cushion between the panel and the body.

I repeated the process for the forward section of the wheel housing.

The LX chassis has plastic inner wheel house covers that protect the fuel lines and other things mounted in the wheel house from road debris. I wanted to adapt and reuse these covers so after slightly modifying them to pop inside of the 68 body I had to create an attachment to the outer body. I first made up an inner rim to fit the wheel opening. I bent a piece of .040  90 degrees and shaped it to fit inside the wheel opening. After it was shaped I put a 1/4" step in it to receive a flat vertical flange. Temporarily installing the plastic inner cover I made a paper pattern for the vertical flange. The last picture is of the completed 2 piece flange.

With the vertical flange temporarily installed I bent some sheet metal 90 degrees and made a pattern that would help me make a flange for the outer rim of the plastic cover to bolt to. The second picture is of the completed flange with 1/4 20 aluminum threaded inserts  in it to receive the bolts. The last two pictures are of the plastic wheel house cover installed. Instead of using the one way push in plastic clips I installed threaded aluminum inserts at the attachment points so that I could bolt this piece in.