anyone have a loose passenger front fender laying around?

I need some pics of the reinforcement on the back side so I can bang mine back into some semblance of straightness.
I had a blowout at freeway speed and it did quite a number on the bottom of my fender.

I have a fender that has the mounting holes for an OCC. It also has the antenna hole smoothed. It has been sanded and primed. I will sell it for $!40 plus shipping by Greyhound of $75 with an interior antenna, and I would like your old antenna in return.

I also have a wheelhouse for another $75 plus shipping of $75, but it will not ship with the fender.

I may also be able to get a fender from a Caprice that is good for about $120 and shipping. The fender is red.

Frederick

Unless there is damage that is not shown in the picture, I would have that fender repaired, as it doesn't look like there's that much damage, other than that bottom corner and possibly the trim.

Those black scuff marks may buff out.

Tom

silverfox103 wrote:

Frederick

Unless there is damage that is not shown in the picture, I would have that fender repaired, as it doesn't look like there's that much damage, other than that bottom corner and possibly the trim.

Those black scuff marks may buff out.

Tom

I have to do it myself, and yes I will repair this fender. I have ZERO disposable income. depending on what the inter reinforcement looks like will determine HOW I choose to fix it.
that's why I asked for pics so I can see how to best proceed.

If you are going to repair it, take a picture of the other side and flip it in your paint program. They are mirror images.

He is going to have to know where the inner bracing is at on the fender, I think that is why he wants to see photos of the backside of the fender. Sorry, I don't have any pics.

The damage does not affect much of the inner bracing, only the wheelhouse at the bottom. The brace only extends to about 3 inches from the bottom. It does not look like it damaged the brace. I will try to get him a picture in the next couple of days.

Hopefully these will help you. The bottom of this fender is damaged a little but the inner portions are good.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z0vq1qpojd5f27y/AAD06oMHIZTuam9MZbvRaN0Xa?dl=0

Mike

DBeaSSt wrote:

Hopefully these will help you.  The bottom of this fender is damaged a little but the inner portions are good.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z0vq1qpojd5f27y/AAD06oMHIZTuam9MZbvRaN0Xa?dl=0

Mike

thanks, that is exactly what I wanted and it explains A LOT! I could not understand why the fender was pushed in so far. there is nothing behind it. older GM B body's have a lot of structural metal right there. nothing to worry about.

as Fred said the inter fender is going to be more problematic.

Once you get it off, the wheelhouse should take about 15 minutes with a hammer and dolly to straighten out. I have fixed them with a good stomp of a rubber heel shoe. They are thin sheetmetal, and easy to manipulate.

Fredrick, I also know about tight cash flow though a word of advice on your tires try to find the date code on the inside sidewall it will give you the week and year of manufacture.
If they are over eight years old I would not trust them check the spare you have on the front now also. Most tubeless tires when punctured will deflate slowly yours let go catastrophically and may be due simply to age. Jeff

bamalongroof wrote:

Fredrick, I also know about tight cash flow though a word of advice on your tires try to find the date code on the inside sidewall it will give you the week and year of manufacture.
If they are over eight years old I would not trust them check the spare you have on the front now also. Most tubeless tires when punctured will deflate slowly yours let go catastrophically and may be due simply to age. Jeff

Yeah the fronts were on loan from my 75 LeSabre and chances are they are well over 8 years old.
The spare is original to the car and had never seen the ground.

I ordered two new front tires Sunday and they should be here by Friday.

My guess is the recent prolonged freeway speeds the car is seeing was detrimental to marginal tires.

I have never had luck finding or decoding date codes on tires. I REALLY need new tires on my jeep and I feel uneasy driving it.

when I bought the wagon it had two new front tires and I will put them on the LeSabre once I put them on the road wheels.

I have learned my tire lessons the hard way.

bamalongroof wrote:

I have learned my tire lessons the hard way.

yes I understand.

nothing more humiliating then driving a vehicle you just purchased home and have a blowout. that happened on my 77 LeSabre.

I have a nice truck I cant really afford to drive much. I was still unemployed at the time but drove it to a local garage sale to pick up stuff I bought. it had new tires on the rear but used ones I had put on the front. the wheel was turned just so and in a position that I was able to look down at the tire and see to my horror that a tennis ball sized flap of tread was pealing away from the center of the tire. $325 later I had 2 new tires. I have put less than 2,000 miles on the truck since but now my low millage tires are 3+ and 5+ years old.

I was more fortunate...I thought my DS front tire was starting to come apart, because it made a "shoop, shoop" sound when I drove the car. I bought new tires, and the sound was still there...turned out to be a bad bearing race. Thirty dollars later, and no more "shoop, shoop". The tires were junk yard specials, and looked really bad anyway, so it was not a big reach to replace them.

I finally got the LeSabre out of the shop and put the RMW on the hoist. did a fair amount of straightening without removing the fender. I will definitely need rocker trim for the fender (gone) and the bottom of the door (severely dented) 95% of the tire marks buffed out with little effort.

I am giving serious consideration to going to wagon fest and maybe somebody has some spares.

The body color rocker panel trim can be painted to match if you can not find white. I may have a couple of pieces that are black or green. the rocker panels are usually aluminum, so realistically you can paint almost any of them.

so for $164 I could have avoided all the hassle and the still slightly dinged up fender on the car.
2 new p235-75/15 tires are now on the front of the wagon and she was silky smooth up to triple digits.

And the saying is....."you can pay me NOW or pay me LATER". I have always found that trying to save a medium amount of money now always leads to paying a big chunk of money later, but I still try to get away with it!

just me wrote:

And the saying is....."you can pay me NOW or pay me LATER". I have always found that trying to save a medium amount of money now always leads to paying a big chunk of money later, but I still try to get away with it!

yeah the sucky thing was new fronts were on the addenda for this month or next. if the last two digits on the DOT code are the year of manufacture then it was made in 1979