Rear fender widening?

[hotrod1]

Has anyone widened their rear fender on a tri 5? I know that brothers used to sell them in fiberglass, but no more. Anyone done the metalwork with out getting two additional fenders and taking pieces out of them for the additional pieces? I am interested in adding 2 ". Easy, tough?????

[PDW HOTRODS]

I did on a AD truck. A tri five should be no problem. Take your time welding so you don't worp the metal and you should be fine.

[tmoble]

cut it down the middle, straight. come up with a strip of sheetmetal the width desired and start welding.

read up welding sheet metal first. basically, it's a lot of small stitch welds. the smaller smaller the better.

A lot of work, tubs easier. Guess it depends on how wide the axle and how wide the tires along with wheel offset or lack of it.

[lakeroadster]

Just throwin' this out there.... widen the bed, not the fenders. I did this on my '65. Widened the bed 4" and added mini-tubs.

Widening the fenders, IMO, throws off the proportions of the truck.



If you are interested in the details, check out my build thread. Go to post #10.

Hope this helps.

John

[mr48chev]

I'd go with something like Lakeroadster showed. His work on the the corners of the box make it pretty simple and allow you to use the stock tailgate and front panel. If you decided to build your own wider tailgate and front panel it would work too.

[Lextech]

I also think the wider bed looks better. If you do decide to widen the fenders---don't use a strip wider than the gap you are filling---As in, don't overlap the sheet metal. Butt weld your filler strip. Over lapped sheet metal shows distortion at different temps. If may look perfect in the garage but distort slightly when it is put into the sun for a while.

Jeff