V8 1973 VW Beetle Project by V8 Super Beetle

2 minute(s) of a 270 minute read

I started widening my fenders. I think I'm not going to keep them as wide as they are. Right now they are 3" wider but I think all I need or want is 1.5" so that way the outer edge of the tire is inline with the outer edge of the fender. So I'll have to go back and grind the welds off, slide the fender in and then weld again.

BTW, this welding was done with my stick welder, if you can't tell. I had a hard time getting it to start an arch because I tried to keep the amps as low as possible to prevent burn through. Seems to work just fine, but there was the occasional burn through. I used 1/16" 6013 rods and the sheet metal is 22 guage. Who's says you can't use an arc welder for sheet metal?

What do you guys think?

5-5-2008

Thanks for all the helpful hints!

I would've love to have built a 2x3 tube chassis using a Mustang II suspension. I went the route of using a S10 chassis because it was a lot more affordable, budget for this build at this time in my life is limited, but the only draw back is it'll be a heavier vehicle and I had to cut out quick a bit of the bug body to make it work. I've seen the front fenders as the rear idea somewhere before on volksrods.com, cool idea. And using the front fiberglass clip is a cool idea too, but I really like the look of the super front compared to the regular beetle, that and I plan on using the bumpers. So, it'll look pretty much stock except the wider fenders and bigger wheels but that's a pretty common modification on non-V8 bugs.