Since my last post i test fitted the flares on. i still need to make cuts to the fenders, weld and seal them which I will be doing later this week.
I noticed i had chopped one side about 2 inches short. Dont know how i did this i was racing the sunset and i believe i may have cut on the wrong side of the tape.
Spent a Saturday afternoon back tracking and getting it welded back on. a few tacks later it was one again.
I took the dremel and grinder to it to even it out.
Now i am debating if i want to go thru the idea of welding them on still. The fitment is flush and i can just rivet them on. originally the goal was to weld these on grind and fill them flush but I am no bodywork expert and would hate if they ended up looking like the original butchered job. I will be starting body work soon. my goal was to have done body work and have the car ready for paint mid year. so i am a few months behind from my personal goal. However im glad as i would have probably attempted to stick with the stock fenders or even would have gone the plastic/ fiberglass way. It took me some time to decide on the fenders and finally pull the trigger. so three months behind was worth it to me.
I finally installed rear sway bar bushings that i had laying around which was a very simple affair. I also went ahead and pressed out the lateral bat hem joint on the driver side and swapped it for a polyurethane bushing. so now i am running a 50/50 bushing on one side and hem joint on the other.
The driver side hem joint was very noisy. for some reason it did not fit flush on top of the bolt i believe it might have been missing some type of shim. it would bang around on/off of acceleration as well as over any bumps. it was a metal on metal noise and it had been the most annoying thing on this car. why it took me so long to finally address it idk but its night and day now.