The outer wheel well seems to be spot welded to the inner wheel well every 3/8 of an inch. This would be a big enough pain but it then goes up under the panel that forms the back of the rear quarter window. How can I get this thing off?!! Should I just cut the old outer wheel well and leave the lip in place and weld the new one over top. What have others done? I am not replacing the inner wheel well and I sure dont want to take off the back of the rear quarter window panel, it goes all the way back to the rear window. Help!!

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1969 Camaro 350 & 1969 Impala SS 427/ 4-speed (restored)

I replaced the outer wheel wells on my 69 camaro and did not remove the flange that is welded to the inner wheel well. I cut the wheel well with a die grinder and a thin cut off blade. Jack

Personally I would cut it very close, then grind the spot welds to remove the old flange. I know its alot of work and there are tons of little spot welds, but that is how I would do it.
Austin

Ther was an article in last month Super Chevy (or CHP?; getting old, can't remember which one) that showed replacing rear quarters on a first gen. It was pretty detailed, with pictures.
It said to just cut out around the flange and then break the welds apart where you could see them to refit the new panels.
If I can find the article, I'll give more details.

Joe

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69 396 w/SS Trim
Badboatdude@CS.com
69 Pics http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1506559&a=11674961

Thanks guys but getting welds apart is not the problem. The welds are behind another panel. There is no way to cut or grind the welds down. If no one has a better idea I am going to use Smallblock's way and leave the flange from the old wheel well in. Joe, if you could find that article great! Thanks for the help.

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1969 Camaro 350 & 1969 Impala SS 427/ 4-speed (restored)

You should have room to either grind them with a body grinding disk (not a stone) or use a flat scraper and a hammer and seperate them like that. The other panel wil need the spot welds drilled out before you can install your new wheelhouse so it should be loose before you start. Leaving the flange in wouldn't be that bad, but I woud try to get the old one off before going that route. I replaced the inner and the outer togather on mine so I didn't have this issue. The spotwelds all appeared to be low and very small compared to other spot welds for the wheel houses. Let us know how it comes out.
Austin

The welds are small but behind another panel I am going to leave the old flange and just cut very close. This will make the outer well further out by the thickness of the old flange and the panel over it. Hope it works. Thanks for the help!

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1969 Camaro 350 & 1969 Impala SS 427/ 4-speed (restored)

Dan, I have replaced the wheelhouses and 1/4s on several 1st gen Camaro's exactly the way you are talking about. Leave the flange, just grind it as flat as you can where the new panel sits on top of the old flange.
No problem.
Ron

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95 Z28 Convertible M6
70 Chevelle SS 396,
66 Nova SS 327-350HP M20

TooCoolZ28??? when you do it that way was there any trouble with mating up the inner wheelwell lip with the quarter lip??

TooCoolZ28, same question. Obviously the outer wheel well is spaced out a little. Is it not enough to matter where it meets the quarter panel?

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1969 Camaro 350 & 1969 Impala SS 427/ 4-speed (restored)

Does the new outer fender well need its flange modified? anyone have a series of closeup photos on this process?

-Inet

http://forums.performanceyears.com/forums/showthread.php?t=523734&page=3

cut it and grind it flush.

I did not have to make any mods to the wheel well...Here's my body work in progress... I may have a few more pics that I can upload...feel free to ask any questions on my thread or this one...
http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=178319

I did not have to make any mods to the wheel well...Here's my body work in progress... I may have a few more pics that I can upload...feel free to ask any questions on my thread or this one...
http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=178319

You are doing a great job on your restoration! After viewing your pics I see we are about at the same point on our cars. I do have a quick question though. On removing the 'outer' wheelhouses - are there any hidden spot welds on the inner wheel house that I am not seeing from the backside or are they just that hard to remove due to the sandwiching of the wheelhouse to the inner body structure? I used a Rota broach and have cut all the spot welds that I can see but the wheelhouse will not budge from underneath the two pieces pressing them together in the inners. Up to this point everything has gone smoothly but I want to make sure I am removing them properly. Should I be using an air chisel or seam buster to break it loose? Any advice you could offer would be great! THANKS!
Chris

The flange that lays on top of the wheel well has a few more spot weld on it...try and locate them and drill em out and use an air hammer it will work wonders just pay close attention to each series of blows you do to minimize the damage to parts that you're keeping