I finally made the decision to do a completely tubular rear end. The benefits in weight savings, utility, safety, and simplicity are enormous. The rear is not going to stay like this, I am building a fiberglass rear end as well. With this I can have plenty of confidence to get close to the walls on oval tracks.
The fiberglass widebody is coming along nicely. The plugs for the molds are complete and I am building the molds for the front fenders right now.
Each fender was built using 24 individual pieces of sheet metal and smoothed using filler.
The front fender mold (on top) and final product (on bottom).
Over-fenders fit up on the car using Riv-Nut inserts.