Notes and thoughts on narrowing the rear

Well, I started on this one with good results. I would like to say that it is a hell of lot easier than the front. So far I have one side in 8.5" and I think I can get another inch out of it without major body work. That is a good thing because I suck at body work. I though about Bobbing it at the same time but maybe one thing at a time and I didnt want to turn it into a career. I would like to in the future. Here is a brief rundown of what I have done so far.

The rear is real easy. I removed the inner fenders and cut a chunk out of the rear. I made a cut next to the rear support where the tailgate hookes to and went strait up to the open wheel well. I then peeled the floor up to get it out of the way and I cut 7.25" out of the rear support. I didnt measure it, it just ended up that long. Then I went to see how far in the side would bend before it stopped. Turned out it would go about 3". Time to loosen it up. The out side sheetmetal goes up around the door support and is held on with small tack welds in the door jamb. These needed to be loosened. Mine were already loose thanks to Upper Helldorado. Next was the inner fender where it connects to the floor. Turnes out mine was glued on. A chisel and a hammer broke it loose fromt he floor. I then hammed the floor down some so the inner fender could slide over the top. Next was the top of the fender. I needed it to have some bend and was looking at notching it. In the end, I ground out a small wedge at the very back top of the fender so it had room to bend and would be easy to take weld back into place. Finnaly, Since I had not cut out the inner fender as I found it to be important to help hold everything in place and make it easier to put in a wheel well again, I made a cut from the bottom up to around two thirds of the way up to give it some give. Now the fender bent in fine and stayed reasonably well. Since the fender is swinging in, It also gets shorter, but not by much. The rear supports ended up overlapping and with some floor cutting to clear the rear support, It came in 8.5 inches and lookes pretty good. 8.5 inches may not sound like much but the front is only in like 9.5" and it looks huge. The bottom lip of the very rear below the tailights, where it curves back into the body, Is almost flush now with the very rear of the floor. I would like to see it flush so I think I am going to try to get one more inch out of it. It might be tight as the bottom of the outside fender in the front is just about touching the inner lining. I plan on welding it all back up and will have to make some offset pieces to join up the rear supports again. I think you could even bolt it all back up and it still would look decent.

I'll try to get some pics going but they might look bad as my camera sucks.