# 69 GTO Outer Wheel House Fit Issues



## FooGee (Aug 10, 2011)

Working on a 1969 GTO Convertible. 

I purchased a reproduction outer wheel house but it does not seem to fit the countours of the original inner wheel house. including some pictures. any ideas?


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

Welcome to the world of aftermarket parts 

It's hard to tell from the photos, but it almost looks like the edges of your inner house are bent in a few places. I'd try working those "outward" with body tools to see if I could get a flat surface to mate up with the new part.

Bear


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## FooGee (Aug 10, 2011)

the edges are a little rough after hacking away the old outer housing. this is just a test fit. but the outer housing is WAY off. the first picture is best. look at how the black metal (outer housing) butts to to the uncoated metal (inner housing).

i am starting to think the convertible and hard top have different wheel wells. i wish i knew this before totally destroying the originality wheel house. 

not sure what to do now.


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## jmt455 (Mar 26, 2012)

AMES has installation comments in their catalog. It states that the wheelhouse outers are for hardtops and they need to be re-configured for convertibles.

Is this the same as what you bought? (AMES Part#J201R)


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## FooGee (Aug 10, 2011)

they are dynacorn

1506W 1968-69 Outer Wheelhouse RH GTO ONLY

page 20 in this catalog http://www.dynacorn.com/PDFs/Retail/Retail_GTO.pdf


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## jmt455 (Mar 26, 2012)

Looks like a lot of work...I wonder if you'd be further ahead if you bought a pair of the hardtop inners and then massaged everything to fit the convertible inner panels.


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## bondobill (Oct 24, 2011)

This is how we installed the wheel houses on Brents 68
Used a backing sleeve to weld the wheel house to. We cut off the inr edge of new house, we did that to not get into the factory seam
You could do the same thing only with a different twist. Build a sleeve and attach to the underside of inr wheel house, cut off inside edge of of your new wheel house, attach the wheel house to the sleeve with self tapping screws. You will probably have to move it around a few times to get to where you want it. When your happy spot weld with mig.
In the top photo you can see we didn't use a sleeve at rear of wheel, gets kinda skinny back there, that area we just butt welded it. 

Bill


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## FooGee (Aug 10, 2011)

you guys are right. Reproduction wheel wells only fit hard tops. I wish i knew this before hacking away at the original. it would have been much easier to cut away the bad pieces and butt weld replacements from the reproduction like i did for the inner wheel well. 

Bill, i did not fully understand your sleeve idea. after removing the top part of the inner wheel well i was able to get a good fit. now i will do a similar sleeve / lip for the top portion out of a flat piece of sheet metal to replace what i cut out. 

here are some pictures. let me know your thoughts guys!


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## jmt455 (Mar 26, 2012)

I think you found a simple, elegant solution.
Nice work.


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