So the inner fender doesn't look real bad, I just need to add metal to fill what is going to be the gap between the Dakota inner fender and the 49's fender. Should be pretty easy..... Until I gave it some thought. I'm either going to have to bolt the inner fender to the cab/front panel/chassis, or I'm going to have to figure out how to bolt it to the fender and make it sit in the correct position. If I bolt it to the cab/front panel, I will be reaching way under that fender trying to bolt the fender to the front panel. I have no idea how I would be sure I could hold the fender, the inner fender, the front panel, and the other fender and inner fender in the proper location. I reluctantly optioned for choice one, bolt the inner fender to the truck, and fight the outer fender bolts into place. My last thought on that was maybe I could be able to bolt the outer fenders to the front panel, then slide each inner fender into place and bolt it to the chassis and then to the outer fenders.
The next thought was that I needed to know where the edges of the outer fender would be, without actually having them there, but where to start?
Pic 1, The inside of the front panel, looking at the frame and lower part of the inner fender. This perspective is looking at the radiator support from the wheel side of the passenger side of the truck. The flat piece on the right upper side of the picture is the panel the headlight will be mounted to. The rusty looking piece below it is the inside of the front panel. The bolt on the extreme right is one of the bolts that would hold the fender to the front panel, the edge all along the right edge of the pic is the area the fender and the front panel would bolt together. Going towards the left side of the pic, the new shiny piece of steel is what holds the front panel to the radiator support (this piece was the shiny piece visible through the grille opening posted earlier). The piece welded to the top of that shiny piece is the actual radiator support, and the vertical bolt you see is the actual radiator support to frame mounting bolt for the passenger side. The big piece to the left (and covering the entire upper left corner of the pic) is the Dakota inner fender. The part that looks rusty at the bottom edge of the inner fender is actually the rubber protector that is part of the inner fender. The "rust" is dry dirt. The parts below the rubber is the Dakota frame front crossmember and the bottom edge of the frame rail. The stuff under the frame rail, and to the left of the bumper cutout on the front panel is the lower sheet metal that attaches the front panel to the radiator support.
Pic 2, The front view of the inner fender, from the clamped bar stock supporting the rear end of the inner fender. See the carbon canister with the ratchet strap going over top of the angle iron that is holding the front panel in place. All of that was viewed earlier, what is new here is the 1/4 round piece of wood (it was what I had the was stiff and long enough to tell me what I needed to know, in this case, that would be where the top edge of the fender would be. One end you see is laying on top of the front panel, the other end is clamped to the top of the fender edge of the door. The distance between the wood and the inner fender is the space that will be between them.
Pic 3. Using the same piece of wood, this time on the side of the fender edge. Again, the front is against the side of the front panel, and the rear edge is clamped to the outer edge of the door. The space between the inner fender and the wood is what I need to fill with metal, and figure out how to hold it in position, and still be able to remove it. That edge will also have to be bolted to the outer fender somehow..
Pic 4. This is what that gap that will have to be filled looks like towards the front.