April 2001 - July 2001

Restore the Fenders

The fenders were in fair shape with only a small amount of rust in the inside and typical rust out at the bottom. The right fender that was on the car was trash, victim of being hit, so I purchased a used fender locally in NC (although it has been in my crawlspace under the house for more than 2 years). A word of advice to those reading, make sure you check out a used fender completely... this one was alot of work to clean and fix rust and dents (say 30 hours of labor?).

Like the doors, the metal was stripped down, treated with anti-rust, coated with POR-15 in bad locations. Then like the doors, they were primed with PPG Wash Primer (1791/1792) and then with PPG K36

Metal was replaced on the inside reinforcement panel on the right fender, right under where the radio antenna fits (home made), and also patch panels from The Paddock were used.

Replacing the rusted out reinforcement panel (used 22 gauge metal).

Rusty metal cut out and primed with POR-15:

View of repair panel:

Fits perfectly!:

Right fender dent repair

The right fender has a nice dent in the front from a small fender-bender where it pushed the bumper into the fender. I had to get a dent puller (Harbor Freight Tools) to straighten it out, then I filled it with MIG welder material

View of dent

Here are a few shots after pulling it out

Here it is after fixing

Patch panels.

First cut out the metal, trace it out over the new panel, then fit it in.

Then seam weld it (be careful and weld it slowly... it warps real easy.

Likewise the left fender.

August 8th: Car in transit to a storage building.... I am moving to a new house without a garage, so I had to store the car.... I should have a garage built in a few months I hope

Future site of my garage...