Ready to start my metalwork and I've been searching for a thread w/ specific front fender removal info but haven't found any with details. The fender was mangled the last time the original owner drove this car, around '96. It's been parked since then and we've stipped the car of everything, now time to start cutting out the bad. Mild hellhole work, very mild sail panel rust, minor trunk rust, and lots of surface rust all over. Must have been parked in a moist shed to get the rust haze on everything but its basically solid. I've never taken a fender off before, have a donor front clip in good shape and need to get it right the first try. Thanks for the input. Jon

Another shot

Door jamb. Peel the sealant to find the seam? Or is it wrapped around the long vertical outside edge with the tab near the center (of vertical)?

I've been here since day one (OK, day 2) and I don't think we've ever had a good thread with a process for removing a front fender. It can be done, I've seen the end result many times, but I've never seen the operation performed or done it properly my self.

This could turn out to be a great thread. Especially if you take pics along the way.

No Doubt... It would make a great thread....as I need to do this eventually too...same with the rear quarters as well....Im using glass fenders front and rear and want to save the steel stuff for other cars...

Steve

I don't mess with the door jamb area unless absolutely necessary. I just cut partway along the fenders and seam weld it. I have pictures I'll upload in a second...

Here it is ready to start work.
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Drill out a ton of spot welds to get it free.
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And cut along the back.
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Fitting up the replacement fender.
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Then after multiple test fit, trim, test fit, trim, test fit, trim.
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All welded and ground flush.
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Don't have any pix of the fender being removed, but here are some of one just after removal. Perhaps it will show you where we cut it. Of course you may need to adjust based on your damaged area.

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back side
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Thats looks like it works well. This fender is deflected out near the door but the gaps looked fine and the door worked great before it was removed. I'll drill spots and cut it tomorrow like you have, McMark and post the cutout results then. What about cutting the donor car?
If the resto one comes out clean just cut the donor a little larger and shave to fit?

I'll try drilling the spotwelds and seperating because I need to save the "LE" status w/ the wheelwell VIN stamp on our resto car.

Jon, start cutting the left fender from the donor...that way if you screw up.....

I know there was a thread with great pictures about the rear quarter...
Was it the fire damaged one?

If there isn't about the front, then take lots of pictures and create one...

I know that there is a lot of steel at the door jam and bulkhead. I am not too sure how it comes out.

enjoy the tub...I still have to clean out the garage...thanks for your help!!
herb

Are most of these cuts sawzall? Some w/ a disc?

Hi Crash! I will start w/ the left fender, and try to actually get it out whole. Does any have a pic or the door end of the fender OEM to see where it Should end? Herb, Thanks for the tub! If you get a chance would you post the pics of it on the trailer. TY!! Jon

sure, I did not get the total side shot..





all thats left..

Thanks Herb, I really wanted these for my resto docs and forgot to bring a camera along. Hated to cut up a car but these shots don't show how bad this car really was, TOTAL rail, supension, firewall, and floor rot. Good fenders and drivetrain. I'll post some shots of the rot tomorrow. Looks like those cars in Red Lion for sale on Samba right now. Would take five cars and $1,500 bucks in new metal to make one good one.

Some progress today, forward, backward, and sideways, but progress. Step one, get the car up the mtn.

It stood up to the test well. Herb and I couldn't have planned to cut it like this, but it was so freakin nice to work on standing up and took all the scrapping, prying, and banging I threw at it.

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Wasn't quite as nice a right fender as I'd thought. But since this is the only really straight section of the orig. fender it'll just mean a little of the old... a lot of the new one. This shot is after removing all the seam sealer in the door jamb. The fender actually has 2 metal layers at the top, by the base of the windshield. There was only minor bubbling in the paint but with the sealer out you can see the lower layer of metal is almost completely gone. This isn't a problem for the repair I am doing but makes it a pain to locate the spot welds up in there.
Scraped off the undercoating and seam sealer. Light use of the heat gun, just enough to soften. Without heating the metal more than warm to the touch. My paint roller scraper was very useful here, very stiff and the shape lends itself to prying the sealer.

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Inner wheel well side of the door jamb. Remove all the seam sealer again, this stuff is the biggest pain so far, the fender is spotted vertically to a long sort of "angle iron" bracket that is spot welded to the wheel well. At least these welds are about 2 1/2" apart instead of an inch like the ones in the trunk gasket gutters. At the very top the sealer actually goes all the way through the door jamb, from the door side to the wheel well side. Again a pain, but now I've got spot welds in range of the drill bit.

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The fender is arc welded along the bottom of the door jamb, door side. Only took a few minutes to make a nice cut there.

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Started drilling the welds along the trunk gasket gutter. These are only about an inch apart. This trunk had been flat blacked so w/ just a little scraping they show up as nice black dots. Centerpunch them to hold your bit in place but the ones to close to the edge can be a pain to keep the bit centered.

Because my car has rust in the gasket gutter around the headlight bucket and damage to the front right corner, I'll be cutting out more of the bucket and bumper mount area of this car. I will post some detailed shots of where to drill the fender itself off, if that's all your after.

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Now for a cold one, shower, and some rest before our next little batch of ice comes down tomorrow.

This may be of no help..
but these are from last summer

the before cause of all of this work:

and:

and:

Just got a day to focus on this and its out! I drilled through the door jamb a few places. On the car it'll go on, I'll cut the bent fender out close then trim and grind.


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Another seam weld. Right at the top rear of the fender. This one the sawzall couldn't get to so I ground it out.

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Wound up cutting the inner fender from just in front of the VIN stamp down to the floor, out to the front, and up to the trunk opening. With the damage on ours and some rust issues on both chasis this cut gave us the most "structural" chunk of right front clip without cutting out any suspension mounts.

If you buy a new fender does it come with this bracket welded to it or is the bracket a seperate part??


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Looking good Jon....

Keep the pictures coming....

can someone pleas help me find teh thread about removing teh rear fender?