Ford F1 Rear Fender Replacement - Rear Fender Rehab

On the head of the bolt, we made two perpendicular cuts with the same air cutter...

...This will help the head of the bolt break away.

The next step is to drill out the bolt. An automatic center punch is used to punch the exact center of each bolt.

When drilling out the center of the bolts, a small pilot hole is drilled first, followed by a bit the same diameter as the bolt.

Once drilled, a chisel is used to remove what's left of the bolt head. You can see here that the bottom half of the head fell off once the center was drilled out, thanks to those perpendicular cuts made earlier.

With the bolt completely removed, you can see the three spots where the bolt was tack welded to the bedsides. These will need to be ground down so the new bolts will fit flush against the bedsides.

With safety gear in full effect, we used a 3M strip disc on an angle die grinder to remove all the rust and paint in the area surrounding each bolt hole. Remember that the new hardware will be welded to the bed permanently, so sanding and cleaning the surrounding area won't be as easy once the new bolts are installed.

The area around every bolt hole was sanded down to bare metal on both sides of the bedside in anticipation of the new hardware.

Here's a pair of the weld-in stainless fender bolts we'll be installing. Note the square shank below the head.

That square shank requires the existing mounting holes on the bedsides to be reamed with a square file until every bolt fits perfectly flush against the inner bedside.

You can clearly see how the hole has been reamed to fit the square shank of the new bolt and also the two dimples left from the factory tack welds that held the original hardware in place.

Here's a view of a properly fitted bolt from both sides of the bedside...