Major Surgery On my D/S Fender

[B5 Charger]

I've started taking all my removeable body parts to the media blasters to be stripped this week.  I've got to do some major surgery to my D/S fender before it will be ready to go.  Somehow the inner fender gasket got removed and over the years mud and debris flew up into the fender rotting out the front edge.  I've got a scrap donor fender that I will be using to graft in some good metal.  As you can see by the pics the rot goes all the way through to the underside and along the side too.  Stay tuned for more pics as I make progress on this repair.

[OttawaCharger]

Good luck.  You'll do fine!
if it helps any, I feel your pain. 

[terrible one]

Hey OttawaCharger,

Did you get your '68 off of Ebay? That looks just like a car I saw there a couple of times. White with green Landy style stripes and a green painted top, right?

[OttawaCharger]

Yes - I picked this one up off of Ebay. It was only my second thing ever purchased on Ebay so it was an interesting experience to say the least.
The paint job is rather... um.. unique.  I don't think I'll repaint it that colour. 

[B5 Charger]

Well I decided that it would be best to take the fender to the media blasters to have it stripped before I did anything.  That way I would know what I was dealing with before I started cutting on my fender.  Below are some pics of what it looked like after blasting.  Looks like sometime in the past somebody tried to patch it by brazing in a smaller piece of sheetmetal.  Too bad they didn't replace the seal that was the root of all the problems to begin with.   

[B5 Charger]

Here is my first cut.  I decided it would be best to remove the bad pieces in sections taking out only what needed to be removed and leaving the rest.  I started with the outer skin.  I used a spot weld cutter to drill out the welds along the side and underneath then a cutting wheel to remove the bad section.  Here is a pic of the section removed and what the fender looked like after the cut.

[B5 Charger]

Next came the underside sheet metal.  Again I drilled out the spot welds along the brace edge and the fender flange so it could be removed as a section.  Then I used a cutting wheel the make a final cut and free it from the fender.  Pics are below.

[B5 Charger]

Finally I had to remove the edge.  Again more spot weld drilling and a cutting wheel to make a tricky cut to free the bad section.  I will be posting pictures of the sheetmatal replacement soon.

[MOPARHOUND!]

Cool thread, B5.  Will be watching this one.  Have a driver's side fender dinged hard in that area.  Will be interesting to see how you fix it. 

[Silver R/T]

youre doing great so far

[Todd Wilson]

I am interested in hearing how you made your new pieces to patch in. I have a feeling I am going to have to do something similair on my 69 in the future.



Todd

[OttawaCharger]

I like your plan of approach.  It looks to be well thought out and I think you're going to have good results. 

[B5 Charger]

As far as patch panels I picked up an old '69 fender that was thrashed a few years ago to use as a donor for the new pieces.  So hopefully the replacement should be fairly easy.

[tan top]

looks good , never looks as bad when all the rot is cut out ,   keep us updated with progress  pictures 

[mopar_madman]

good luck, my 73 was similiar, not as rotted but dented also. had to cut out the headlight frame straighten everything, path a hole and reinstall.

[terrible one]

Looks like you are doing some really nice work man. Good luck!