Front Fender Adventures

9-1-2012  As Dan cleaned up the front fenders, it became evident that they required a fair amount of work.  The right front fender appeared to have been damaged at the factory, crudely repaired, and leaded over to cover up the damage.  It was in the area of complex curvature on the innermost side of the edge where the fender bolts to the running board.  The design of that end of the fender is very poor.  Looking at the underside of the fender, you can see an ell-shaped flange that was welded to the sheet metal.  The problem is that it is fabricated in such a way that it creates a pocket within which dirt and moisture will naturally accumulate.  It was an invitation to rust.  I had noticed that as I found front fenders over the years, they were always rusty in this area (usually rusted through).  And if you look at this picture, it's clear why that happens:

And the whole area near the flange that bolts to the running board had been malformed and required "major surgery."  Here, you can see that Dan has cut the fender in a couple of areas and welded a proper patch.  He is shrinking the area marked by X's and will subsequently weld the cuts back together.  The objective is to have the fender fit the frame accurately where it fastens, fit the running board and align with it, and be free of crude patches and gobs of lead.

You can click on the image to see it in more detail.

And here the fender is finished and remounted on the car.  The vertical joint now lines up perfectly with the splash apron and the horizontal flange on the rear of the fender fits exactly to the running board.

In the meantime, Dan has started working on the left front fender to smooth out a few wrinkles.  He covers the entire surface with felt tipped magic marker dye.  Then, very patiently, he goes over every millimeter of the surface with a flat file or a sanding sheet fastened to a hard flat surface.  This reveals any low spots, even those that you wouldn't see until you got a glossy finish on the metal, and then it's too late to fix.  Here you can see the left front fender in progress: