Bought new fenders and inner fenders (steel) for a 71 from Restoration World. My question is when installing these should I install the inner fenders first or attach them and put them on as one unit? I did read in this forum to attach the fender extensions, so all three and then install and adjust?

In case you're still wrestling with your fenders, any way you like will work. However, I find it best to install and align the fenders, then the inners will slide in from the wheel opening, fit to outers, then bolt up to firewall, rad support, etc. Good luck.

Thanks, I have another question. I did kinda of dry fit to get the gaps set and when I put on the fender extentsions they are not lining up properly. Is there any kind of trick to working this into place? What im talking about is say on the passenger side I get the outside to line up but the top is about 1/8 to 1/4 out going towards where the fender bolts up to the core support. Shims don't seem to budge this? Should the fender come back off and be bent a little?

I'm not quite sure what you mean. The front face of the fender to extension gap? Aftermarket parts aren't always the best fit and sometimes do need to be messed with a bit. Perhaps you could explain better.

talking about north south? For instance if your looking at the front of the fender you have almost a right angle (side of the fender with the top of the fender) The side of the fender lines up with the extension but the top, with the nearest part to the hood needs to come up 1/8 to a 1/4 and shims arent doing it? Hope that explains it ??? So does the fender need to come off and be kind of worked open a little?

I really hate to bring out the die grinder, but if you feel one or more mounting holes are not where they should be you may have to resort to this. Let me know if we're on the same page before you make any moves. Sometimes the piece with the extension mounting holes aren't welded where they should be onto the fender.

Not on the same page I believe. The fender where it meets the exten. and corner of the hood.... the fender needs to come up to be level with the exten. because the side of the fender and the exten. are perfect. Shimming the fender does not raise the fender, it seems like the fender needs to be bent up a little? Hope that explains it a little better

It sounds like the front of the fender may be bent down like you say, maybe due to shipping. Sometimes you may have to bend it up as you say. Is the fit along the hood edge look good or does the fender edge drop down near the front?

haven't checked the hood yet, thought I shoud adjust the extentions first. I will check the hood tomorrow morning and post the results.

Yes, I believe I know what you're saying now. I have come across this problem before, maybe on a different vehicle. Anyway, my thoughts right now are that the fender "skin" may not be welded to the inner brace correctly, in which case you would have to drill out the spot welds back as far as neccessary and plug weld it back together. You don't really know until you can check it against the hood edge. Will wait to see your progress after tomorrow.

Aftermarket sheet metal usually need a ton of work.

every piece seems different

Hope you have or can get your hands on a mig.

I just spent an entire day getting a 69 door to fit properly.

Good Luck

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r199/supersport502/DSC_dd6.jpg

Ouch! Yes you're right Hunter, sometimes they're good and sometimes not. It's a shame when you spend all that time and find out you have to do what you have to do. Reminds me of the F150 I restored a while back, the door skins weren't even welded to the shell. I had a heck of a time trying to figure out why they fit so bad, they kept flexing out of shape every time I closed the door. Oh well.

We have bought two sets of fenders from the place you mentioned and both sets had the same issue. We just had to live with it. The body shop that painted my 69 said they had to chop half of a repo fender off and weld it to an original to get the lines at the top. I know we had to grind the headlight extensions to match contour on one of them.

I did end up taking the spot welds out on the front and re-positioning the angle, worked fine. New problem thought. On the passenger side the fender is back (toward the rear of the car) as far as it can go, but yet there is too much of a gap between the hood and the fender extention. Its just on that side? Any suggestions? I have already adjusted the door back as far as I can?

Glad to hear you're making progress. My thoughts at this time:
Get your door gap where it looks good at the quarter panel and rocker panel; then line up your fender's rear edge gaps to the doors, top and bottom; then line up your hood's gap to extensions by adjusting the hood forward or back as neccessary (you may have to adjust fenders in or out at the front an back, or even loosen the rad support and move right or left to get the gap along hood even; from there you may have to adjust things a little here and a little there to get an acceptable fit.
I don't know if you may be dealing with previous or current collision damage, but remember that you are dealing with aftermarket parts and have to consider poor fitting parts. Photos would be a big help in dealing with your situation.
Keep it up!

well getting there slowly..... now the issue is the hood shuts but I need to have more of a gap on both sides to the fenders? How do I get that gap without having the fender stick out further than the doors?

Hey Tom, can you tell me a little more about the fit you've got now?
Is the gap even on both sides of the hood to fender, is it even at the extensions?
Are your doors flush all the way along the quarter panels, are the fenders flush with the rockers?
I know it must sound strange that I keep referring to the door fit but, dealing with aftermarket parts you may have to juggle things around to compensate for the new fenders.
Also, how tight are the gaps at the hood to fenders?

The door gap to quarter is as good as it can be which enabled me to get the correct gap at the fender extentions. But the problem now is I only have about a 1/16 of an inch if that, between the fenders and hood. I don't see how Im going to be able to get any more without the fender sticking out more than the door? I did loosen all of the fender bolts and tried to open the gap but with no success.

The reason I asked about how flush (level, not the gap) the doors are to the quarters is to see how much wiggle room you've got to adjust the doors in or out. The doors can be flush or slightly inboard to the fenders, I think this has more to do with the door not hanging up on the fender when you open the door. Anyways, what I'm getting at is (now that I know how tight the hood to fender gaps are) that you may want to move the fenders out as necessary to give you an acceptable gap. GM's Chassis Service Manual allows for as small as 3/32" to 1/4" gap (.06" to .20") at the hood to fender gap, same at the extensions. So if you would move the top of your door out a bit (without upsetting things, glass fit, etc. too much) this might help to give you some room at the hood to fender gap.
I myself spent a lot of time lining up all gaps on a '67 Chevelle recently to get them near perfect, knowing that there are acceptable allowances and inconsistancies from the factory. The better you can get everything the better the car will look and you'll be more pleased.
Don't give up, the best bodyman that I ever worked with was the only one who never said "that's good enough"!

thanks for the help. Im not at home now so will have to mess with tonight. Is there an UNexceptable gap you should have for the bolt holding the fender behind the door? I currently have 3 shims there about 1/4 to 3/8? Is this normal for aftermarket fenders? Will I need to cut and re-weld?

Hope I am helping. Any amount of shims on any GM vehicle at any location is pretty much accepted. I've seen some situations that I just shake my head.
What you've got at that bolt, I think is good and I've seen worst from the factory. Yes, you could spend a great deal of time eliminating all shims, but then you wouldn't have a REAL classic car.

gotcha and if I could figure out how to post a picture I will.

Yes, pictures really do help. Anyway gotta get back to work, my boss is nagging me (I'm self-employed). And, he never gives me a day off. Will watch for post this evening.

ive got a couple of pictures but can't figure out how to paste them like the door in this post??

Tying to post a picture

"http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv342/tthrush/chevelllefenders004.jpg"

"http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv342/tthrush/chevelllefenders005.jpg"

have you tried loosing the fender to radiator support bolts and pushing the fender out?you should be able to get about a 1/16" to increase the gap.

Tom, from what I can see in the two photos posted, it seems that you can move the passenger side fender out a bit, maybe even so the gap at the extension and hood are a little wide at the end of the extension. Same thing on the driver side, but don't move as much.
The fit of the fender to extension at the belt line is another matter, so don't worry about that for now.
How's the gap along the fender to hood? pics?

I will post more pictures this evening. Thanks

Tom, if you can get pictures from farther away, it would give a better idea for fitting.
Rather than such close up shots, I can zoom in to specific areas as necessary.
Also, a straight on shot from the front at about hood level, would give an idea of grille, hood, fender and extensions fit. Ron.

I put my inners on first

I will get the pictures posted tonight. The reason I took the pictures so close was because its so hard to see the gap with the black fenders.

Yeah, I can see what you're saying. if that makes sense.

I put my inners on first

Same here

Here are the door to fender gaps.


http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv342/tthrush/chevelllefenders017.jpg" http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv342/tthrush/chevelllefenders018.jpg"

Hey Tom, from what I can make out:
On the driver's side, maybe move just the top of the fender forward, it seems a little tight at the horizontal surface of the fender to door. Once that's done, maybe you could pry or shim the back of the fender up a bit where it meets the hood.
On the passenger side, leave the bolts on the firewall tight and loosen the bolt at the top of the fender (when you open the door) and the bolt at the bottom by the rocker and pull down with your hand at the belt line and tighten lower bolt, to line up the belt and mid-body lines. If that doesn't work too well, loosen all the rear fender bolts, adjust down, tighten bolt at the rocker and the one behind the door, then pry or lift (shim) the edge at the hood back up.
It looks like the bottom of the door could come out a bit to be flush with the rocker panel (loosen lower hinge bolts on the door and pull or push out).
Hope this helps you.
How are the hood gaps and is it flush to the fenders?
A bit of shuffling around and you should get it looking good. Later, Ron.

I will try your suggestions either tonight or this weekend. As far at the gap on the hood to fender. I was able to get a little bit of a gap but they are uneven. Driver side has about 3/8 and the passenger has about an 1/8. Is there a way to center this? Also the hood when laying in the closed position sits flush on the driver side but is about a 1/2 high on the entire (front to back) passenger side.

Tom, lining up the hood is not much of a problem if the gaps along the fenders are even.
Just loosen the front bolts on the hinges to hood, then with the hood fully open, push or pull the hood left or right from the side of the hood. This will center the hood. You may want to remove the hood latch while you're doing this, this will give you a true centering when the hood is closed.
Then reinstall the latch, you may have to adjust the pin on the hood or the latch itself to get your hood to open and close properly.
To get the hood flush to the fender, loosen the hinge bolts at the fender and adjust up or down as needed. Also, adjust the hood bumpers at the front corners up or down to get flush. It's probably better to do this first before centering the hood.

The gap im talking about on the hood to fender is the same 1/8 from front to back one side and the other is 3/8 from front to back on the other. Is there a way to adjust it so there is a 1/4 on both sides without moving the fenders?

By doing what I posted above your last post, you will move the hood left or right parallel with the fenders without upsetting the even gaps that you have now (that's why I kinda wanted to see your hood fender gaps). By just loosening one hood bolt on each hinge, you won't upset the even gaps. A lot of times when there is just a little left/right adjustment needed, the hinges will flex enough to give you your gaps, without loosening these bolts. Good Luck, later, Ron.

Ron, Thanks for all your help. I have got everything as close as I can for a beginner. I will let the bodyshop do final adjustments when it goes in for paint. The problem area's seem to be on the passenger side. The gap on the fender extention is about 1/8 to 3/16 larger than the drivers side with the fender not being able to be moved any further back. Also on the passenger side the hood is about 1/4 higher than the fender in the middle? Both the rear and front are flush with the fender.

Hey Tom, good to hear you've had some success. Your bodyshop should be able to center your hood without too much trouble. The passenger side fender sounds like it may be a little "flat" along the edge, probably from manufacturing. Good luck, glad I was some help, later, Ron.