I was able to spent some hours this week on my Chevy II. I fabbed some mini tubes this week. With the fuel filler neck originally running through the left inner fender and the large bulge this causes I didn't want to just move the original inner fender wells inward and fill the gap. The original rear inner fenders also have a generous radius that would cause tire clearance issues at full compression of the suspension or full roll. The scratch built tubs are made out of 16 ga. steel and there are two major pieces and two minor pieces tig welded together. I made a hammer form buck and used a shrinker/stretcher to form and shape the pieces. The price of DSE tubes doesn't seem so high now looking at the labor time I have invested but when you don't have a Camaro you are left with few options. There are more pics here http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg247/ChevyIIPost/
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Ted Rea
"Don't drive FASTER than your guardian angel can fly"
The bucks are made from Home Depot MDF board. Two 3/4 inch pieces glued & screwed together. The profile or shape was taken from the right inner wheel well to match the recess or spot weld area of the old inner fenders. I like symmetry so I duplicated the right side in reverse to replace the left and eliminate the ugly fuel filler bump. The radius is from a 1 1/4" radius router bit. I will use these bucks again for the outer half of the wheel tubs. The right inner will become the left outer buck. I am doing the outers also for clearance issues. The stock outers have a bulge at the front area that will rub just before full suspension compression. I will do this work when I replace the rear quarter panels. After blasting I found no less than three patch panel and a pound of mig wire hair on each rear quarter panel. I used 16 ga. which is probably over kill but I felt with the depth of the new tubs(9.5") compared to the OEM units(5") the added stiffness would be an advantage.