I think I know the answer, but let's hear some encouragement. One of the few exterior body panels not replaced or patched on my Frankencar is the front left fender. But this was previously banged up and repaired (see puller holes). I can do my best to restore the contours, or...

...I can splice in this donor piece, that looks unmolested and pretty much rust-free.

What say you?

Well, it's faster with the holes.

This can be done by good body people so you would never know.

I would not splice on a fender to this car.

This is very fixable

Bob B

due to some rust on the back end of the passenger side fender, I spliced in a donor piece.
I fortunately have a father who used to own body shops and does a lot of custom restoration.
We even broke out the metal files to finish the work. (real old school stuff)
It was a lot of work and I wouldn't have done it with his expertise, and I'm no slouch when it comes to body work.
https://www.2002and914.com/home/the-914/bod...er-rust-repair/
shows a fraction of the work that we did to it. I enjoyed it because I got the opportunity to work with my dad on stuff but, like i said, it was a lot of work.

Fix what you have and save that piece for another car, or save it for yours if it ever gets damaged to the point where that part is really needed.

Mine was in a little worse shape than that and I managed to salvage it. Honestly, splicing would have been much faster for me but you have better skills than I do. I also had some rust that had to be patched so not just holes and dents. I probably would have spliced mine if I had the part. Salvaging what you have is doable though.

I would fix it. Mine had a similar past fix. I don't understand why body men drilled holes to pull out fender when they had access to both sides. To save time is the only thing I can think of. The one thing I wish I did was weld up the holes they drilled.

The one thing that really helped me straightening out sheetmetal was watching some paint-less dent repair videos. Those people are masters of massaging sheetmetal back into shape. Which I might need if I keep bumping into car as I put it back together.

10 mins with a mig and a grinder will fill the holes... Splice would take 4 hours or so...



What were not seeing in the pic is the ripples and damages.. That being said I would think about 30 mins of hammer/dolly work would make quick work of it.

Ditto on that.

Vote for fix what you have. Only original once.

Either way you're going to do some serious metal work.

As previously stated, you can fill those holes and then metal work it with hammer, dolly, and very careful use of a metal body file. You'll never be able to tell and will need very little body filler.

It can be done without filler if you want to spend the time. There are 9 major sections of this tank. Can't use filler on a aluminum cafe racer tank.

Click to view attachment

Remember 10+ years ago when these cars were relatively cheap and when they got a dented quarter they were fixed on the cheap if at all or even totaled. Pulling the turn signal bucket out and the side marker off or reaching in the fender well would require some effort. They just drilled holes and used the slide-hammer to pull out what they could easily do and then slathered the bondo on. I would try to save the fender or if not, replace the complete fender.

I’d fix the original fender.

I think it may be easier to fix it.
I would spend way too long trying to get the hood to line up perfectly.

Exactly! And those holes were considered a good thing because the provided "key holes" for the Bondo to grip. Hence all the rust under the bondo I had to repair on mine.

Thank, everyone. To be honest, I was expecting the opposite advice (cut and splice the fender).

For now, I will work on repairing the original fender. The photo did not show it well, but in addition to the puller holes, the front part needs some serious contour restoration.

Think of it this way, start least invasive and if that doesn't work and you don't like the result, you can still cut and splice later.

Sure some work could be lost, but, skills and experience will be gained.