front fenders! what to do?

[greenmonsta79]

Yeah I have done the torch and wet rag deal before but the disc shrinker looks like the ticket because you don't have to be fiddling with the damn torch #1 and #2 would be much faster and more economical in my view, I am posting some pics I used some stripper today and found this lovely bundle of joy hiding under 1/4" thick filler, Northerndave, I think the same gremlin that got ahold of your fender found mine back there in the 70's! (passenger that is!) I will say this whoever did the bodywork was absolutely horrendous WAY,WAY,WAY too much filler I did straighten the lower dogleg on the driver fender today but I still need to get a shrinking disc and go at the raised spot (they had it pushed in and it had about 1/4" deep bondo pool in it, the pic of the inside of the fender is where the deep pitted rust is that is the only thing that has me worried! We will see what happens to it when I wire wheel it!

 

[greenmonsta79]

Here are pics of the passenger side fender, looks like someone was playing "Dukes of Hazzard" to incur this damage!!! This fender was also crunched pretty good behind wheel well actually pushed it in, I layed it on the floor and got the BFH out and she is somewhat back to original shape!!! the only rust on the fender is where the fender had been pushed into the rear splash shield and it has a little rust but the rust isn't a issue it's the mother lovin' dents!! The one on the leading edge is a big issue I tried my stud gun but no luck, I think I might actually weld 3 bolts to the leading edge there and take a torch and heat it up a little and see it I can pull it forward some.

 

[northerndave]

wow, people bought these cars to beat te hell out of them back in the day, I'm pretty sure of it lol!!

Sems our cars are very similar in the fender areas...

 

[greenmonsta79]

Dave, I am convinced your that pic of your tin chicken's beaten up fender put the hex on me!!! LOL, I was laughing my *** off when I got all that mud out all I could think about was the pic you posted of your fender!!!!

 

[godfatherofchry]

If it was me I would bolt the fender back on the car to do the fineal dolling and rufing out.and leve it on for the bondo work. just from my experenices?? and if I remember if you turn that finder up on its noise you should beable to take a long bar ( I had a cut off lef spring ) and get to that dent in the noise..just tring to help..Artie

 

[northerndave]

Cool tip on the leaf spring bar dolly Artie.

I'm thinking the same with my fenders (that it will be easier to to the bondo & sanding with the fender on the car)

I'm taking my fenders off tight now mostly because I want to seal things up between the outer & inner fender and I have some patching to do on both of my fenders so i decided to do that off the car.

My doors are coming off too because I want to rebuild my hinges and also to paint those areas better than I could with the doors on.

 

[greenmonsta79]

Artie, I will have to try the leaf spring trick, I had a super long 3/8 extension but it was straight and did not work so yeah thanks for the tip on the leaf spring, And yeah I basically took the fenders off to get at any surface rust and seal them up and paint em black, I like to jam paint all the panels and then paint the car with all the panels on, a lot less hassle IMO and I have seen terrible paint matching when painting the fenders and doors off the main body.
In fact last night I put em back on the car to test fit that passenger side fender and the lower dogleg is putting pressure on the rocker (no gap) so it needs work. Dave, How do you plan on rebuilding your hinges? Mine aren't bad per se but is there a kit somewhere? Thanks.

 

[northerndave]

I'm not certain on the hinges but I guess I was thinking there were bushing kits available where you drill out the existing holes and tap these shouldered bushing inserts in... I guess i've seen it with other classics & muscle cars so I assumed this was the way with the mopars too... not certain though.

 

[northerndave]

http://www.yearone.com/serverfiles/...&hid=120CD15343&cat=1&trk=12&searchid=5645172

 

[greenmonsta79]

Righteous, Thanks for the link Dave, I have rebuilt other makes before but I did not know they made the kit for these hinges even comes with the spring!!! I might try finding somewhere other than Year One to buy them cause man they will kill you on shipping!!!!!

 

[northerndave]

ya know, I wouldn't doubt if rock auto sells em.

Hey, why the hell didn't you tell me that there are 1500 bolts holding each fender ont the car???

lol!! I swear! Damn!! Mo-Mo-Co didn't want the damn fenders falling off did they?? LOL!!

I see that the kit for these is new stock bushings up top and I believe you drill the lowers hinge brackets oversized in which you install the oversized hinge pin. Seems like it should work ok.

 

[greenmonsta79]

Yeah, I will agree with ya on the bolt deal although it wasn't as bad as trying to figure out how the dang grille and headlight assembly came out!!!! That was a true puzzle that I cussed for awhile! Had your fenders ever been off before?
Mine had never been off the car and they had a gooey butyl tape like crap where the fender bolts onto the car on the engine bay! I even found a piece of wire with a assembly line paper tag on the driver side upper door jam fender bolt bracket (that pain in the *** one!)

 

[northerndave]

Oh that bolt that you don't know is there until you try to yank the fender loose and you realize there is "one more"?

What a peach!

yeah I broke about 5 weld nuts loose which I will weld back on, broke several bolts and had to cut 5 off with the cutting wheel because the clip nuts broke.

But I am so glad I pulled the fenders.

You know what I mean I'm sure.

 

[greenmonsta79]

I was lucky I only broke 1 of those weld on nuts off, I sprayed em' all with PB blaster from the back the day before I attempted to remove them!! And the bolts that peeved me off was the one way up there by the inner splash shield (not the one by the door jam!)

 

[northerndave]

Yeah that's the same bolt I was talking about too.

This guy?

Dunno why I said door jam, I guess because I reached in from the hinge area with the WD40 to juice the threads up.

 

[greenmonsta79]

LOL!!! Yes exactly that was the "JEEZZZ WTF IS HOLDING THIS MOTHER ON" bolt!

 

[jaak]

My right fender (on the 69) had a nasty dent on each side of the wheel house, So I planned on just replacing (this was back before AMD started repopping). I call Steven's Performance (about 10 min drive away) and the quote for a decent used fender was $800. Needless to say I bought a $15 hammer/dolly kit and learned how to use it. Wound up using the original fender I had, turned out great.

Jason