I needed to get a couple things worked out before I went on with the sheet metal work. First I needed a larger dish in my stump so I modified that by making a larger radius along the outer edge. I'll try it as it is and if I need to change it further, I will.
Second, I needed to work out how I would be attaching the skirt because that will have to be considered when making the lower edge of the fender and the upper framework of the skirt. On the older Ford Explorer tailgates they used two very strong, very compact bear claw style latches. They are rod and lever actuated with a door ajar sensor. I don't need the sensor, I need to convert them to cable operated, and make some mounting tabs at the bottom. The two on the left are original. The two on the right have been modified.
Also, these latches had crazy strong springs that weren't needed so I torched them and removed them completely. I'll let gravity do the work. If you look closely you can see that I drilled a hole in the case and also through the release lever inside. I'll thread a cable adjuster into the case and run the wire through the lever with a lock nut. There will be two of these on the upper edge of each skirt along with three alignment pins. There will also be three Dzus fasteners along the bottom edge.