Body Panel Mounting - Hang Your Own Dirt Late Model Nose

After the nose and lower valance have been riveted together, the assembly can be fitted over the bumper tubing with the lower lip of the nose resting on the spring steel support.

Long uses these body hanging bolts from Port City Racecars to attach the lower lip of the nose to the spring steel support. They provide a lot of area to keep the plastic from ripping off of the bolts (and look good, too). You can use standard bolts for this task, just make sure to use large fender washers between the head of the bolt and the flexible plastic nose.

The next step is to fabricate a piece of sheet aluminum to cover the hole from the top of the nose to the hood opening. Using a tape measure, Long pivots the fender bar (some people also call it a T-bar) so that the gap between it and the firewall is just a couple inches shorter than the hood.

The nose piece begins as a rectangular piece of aluminum pop riveted to the fender bar and allowed to extend past the plastic nose.

The corners are cut away with a pair of snips far enough back to at least clear the headlight decals and then it’s pop riveted against the nose.

Here’s a look from the underside.

The next step is to make the upper aluminum fenders. Beginning with an aluminum sheet, crew chief Jim Cook creates 1-inch edges in a sheetmetal brake to add strength and then uses a hand shrinker to create a bend which is centered just above the wheel hub.

Here, you can see the completed fender going into place.

The vertical portion of the fender is pop riveted into place and completes the rear portion of the wheel opening. This piece of aluminum sheet must be smaller on the right side of the car than the left because the suspension is always in compression on this side through the turns and requires greater fender clearance.