92 Subaru Legacy L *wagon*

The rear fender doesn't bolt on for the wagon. The salvage yards that
carry old Subies won't let you use torches, sawsalls, or any tools to
cut body parts off. It has to be removable via bolts. It's their
insurance that restricts how their customers can remove parts. That
means I cannot cur off a body panel to use it on my vehicle.

On my old '92, the rear fender has rusted out on the backside of the
wheel well. About 2 inches of the lower lip is gone (at the bottom of
the metal panel to which the lower vinyl skirt attaches) so one bolt
won't support the front of the vinyl skirt. About the same is missing
for the wheel well lip. There is a hole in the side panel at this
corner (wheel well and lower side skirt). I don't have any means of
bending out a new metal piece to overlay that area. So I figured to
frankencar the rusted out spot by cutting off the rear panel from a car
at the salvage yard, cut it to size by first making a template, prep
the old fender, and attach the cut-out piece atop that spot. There is
room between the lower lip and the vinyl skirt to position another lip
in there and the wheel well lip would just overlap. I'd then run the
top cut line straight back at the height of the gas cap opening on the
other side (since that side has a rust out, too), use some bondo, and
basically have an edge run horizoontall to the rear. Would look good
enough to me and might even look good overall. Problem is in getting
the fender from which I can cut out the piece to lay atop the old piece
where the rust gets cut out..

I can't get a chunk of th rear fender from the salvage yard. I can't
find Subies at any other salvage yard except for these two yards that
won't let me cut out body metal. So I'm wondering if the shape of the
rear fenders on a sedan model might match. Maybe the rear fenders on a
sedan are bolted on so then I could remove them, cut them to get out a
lower piece and frankenstein my car that way. But it would require the
shape of the fender on the sedan to be a match at the bottom of the
fender. So, does anyone know if the lower portion of a rear fender on
a 90-94 Legacy *sedan* might match the the shape of the lower part of
the affixed fender panel on a 92 Legacy *wagon*? The sedan's fender
might be shorter but that's not critical (but then I would have to run
the "bead" at the visible overlay edge in a square shape). It's the
area of about 4 inches up and 4 inches back from the corner of the
wheel well and lower viny side skirt (i.e., bottom edge of rear panel
behind wheel) that I would need to overlap.

I might've tried using sheet metal but I have no means of bending out a
nice straight lip at the bottom and also a lip for the wheel well. I
figured to cut out a piece of a junk car that included those lips and
would cover the opening after removing the rusted metal. If the
salvage yard gets in a 90-94 Legacy sedan and *if* the rear fenders on
a sedan bolt into place then I can grab one and snip out the corner
with lips to cover my rust out.

Hi Vanguard!

On 2 Oct 2006 10:20:05 -0700, "Vanguard" <ky9bglu02@sneakemail.com>
wrote:


>The rear fender doesn't bolt on for the wagon. The salvage yards that
>carry old Subies won't let you use torches, sawsalls, or any tools to
>cut body parts off. It has to be removable via bolts. It's their
>insurance that restricts how their customers can remove parts. That
>means I cannot cur off a body panel to use it on my vehicle.

Did you ask if _they_ would cut the panel for you? A friend of mine
runs the local Soobie yard; I'm sure he'll sell a rear quarter
(assuming he has a donor available), but shipping might be
prohibitive. I'm guessing, but probably around $100 plus probably at
least that much more to pack and ship.

>Problem is in getting
>the fender from which I can cut out the piece to lay atop the old piece
>where the rust gets cut out..

If there's much rust, welding in replacement sheetmetal might be a
real challenge, FWIW.

>Maybe the rear fenders on a
>sedan are bolted on

Sorry, nope.

>I might've tried using sheet metal

What you might try is using fiberglass. No time for a complete
tutorial, but basically you use a wire brush on an angle grinder to
remove as much rust as possible; down to clean metal on the outside,
all the way around the rusted out area(s). Use a chunk of chicken wire
or similar on the inside to more or less mould the shape of the fender
where you are applying the patch. Use a couple layers of heavy glass
fabric cut to size, saturated with a decent two part epoxy (The stuff
you usually get at the hardware uses MEKP as a catalyst. This will
work OK, but it stinks horribly; the epoxy has little odor, and is
more predictable as far as hardening times and such. Search the web
for a supplier near you, or go here: <http://www.raka.com/> for more
than you ever wanted to know about the subject, and decent prices as
well ;-) to cover the chicken wire on the outside. Place extra plies
where screws need to be installed. You don't have to be real exact,
the cured composite will sand readily, and will take paint acceptably
well. Tough to get show quality using this technique, but I don't
think that was what you were hoping for anyway.
This works so well, with such minimal effort, that you may well find
yourself touching up the _other_ rust spots on your car while you're
at it.

Hope this is helpful.

ByeBye! S.
Steve Jernigan KG0MB
Laboratory Manager
Microelectronics Research
University of Colorado
(719) 262-3101

"S" <jernigan@chester.uccs.edu> wrote in message
news:9rr7i2dqgfq719g55q5e9a7qjvmf568pkb@4ax.com...
> Did you ask if _they_ would cut the panel for you?

They don't do anything. The 2 salvage yards that carry cars older
than 10 years old simply drain their fluids, remove the battery, and
prop them up on welded together wheels (so customers can get
underneath but its dirt and often sloppy). They keep their costs down
by not inventorying anything so you haven't a clue what is on the car
before you show up. They only inventory that they have the car (year,
make, and sometimes body style). All the other salvage yards around
here never have Subies that old. They have newer ones but the old
ones aren't aplenty anymore to be showing up at the salvage yards.
The 2 that I go to (each an affiliate of each other) actually buy them
at auctions or they buy them outright. Their site is
www.upullrparts.com.

>>Maybe the rear fenders on a
>>sedan are bolted on
>
> Sorry, nope.

Damn. That was my only hope, and that they were shaped the same
around the wheel well.

> What you might try is using fiberglass.

That's what I figured on. I'm not a pro but I know how to layer up
sheets of figerglass mesh and mould to a shape but I'll probably start
with a rough metal template as backing (to also give more strength
than just fiberglass) along with bondo to make the form and fiberglass
over it. It won't be as strong and the rear of the wheel is where all
the stones fly so I'll have to look into getting much better guards.
I didn't think of using chicken wire (or other fine-meshed grating) to
provide the starting form.

In article <9rr7i2dqgfq719g55q5e9a7qjvmf568pkb@
4ax.com>, jernigan@chester.uccs.edu says...
> Hi Vanguard!

> Search the web
> for a supplier near you, or go here: <http://www.raka.com/> for more
> than you ever wanted to know about the subject,


Watch out...AVG found that page tries to load
a copy of "Exploit" virus.

Hi CompUser, All.

On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 13:15:09 GMT, CompUser <NoooSpamm@yahoo.com>
wrote:


>> for a supplier near you, or go here: <http://www.raka.com/> for more
>
>Watch out...AVG found that page tries to load
>a copy of "Exploit" virus.

Hmmmm. I've dealt with Raka several times over the last few years, and
can assure you that they are a reputable company.
Never the less, I have forwarded your comments to them so that they
can have their web person take a look. Thanks on Raka's behalf for the
tipoff in any event.

ByeBye! S.
Steve Jernigan KG0MB
Laboratory Manager
Microelectronics Research
University of Colorado
(719) 262-3101

S <jernigan@chester.uccs.edu> wrote:
> Hi CompUser, All.
>
> On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 13:15:09 GMT, CompUser <NoooSpamm@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>
> >> for a supplier near you, or go here: <http://www.raka.com/> for more
> >
> >Watch out...AVG found that page tries to load
> >a copy of "Exploit" virus.
>
> Hmmmm. I've dealt with Raka several times over the last few years, and
> can assure you that they are a reputable company.
> Never the less, I have forwarded your comments to them so that they
> can have their web person take a look. Thanks on Raka's behalf for the
> tipoff in any event.

There question isn't whether Raka is reputable-- they certainly wouldn't
deliberately put a virus on their home page.

But there is definitely a virus there.

McAfee reports: Detected As: JS/Downloader-AUD

In article <12iaph9r9nfdm10@corp.supernews.com>,
olsonm@tiny.invalid says...>
> There question isn't whether Raka is reputable-- they certainly wouldn't
> deliberately put a virus on their home page.
>
> But there is definitely a virus there.
>
> McAfee reports: Detected As: JS/Downloader-AUD
>
With both McAfee and AVG not liking it, it sounds
un-good.