Got to paint this coming week and I'm all ready except my fender extensions don't fit? It's like if the top line is flush and tight the line running down the side spreads and conversely. Almost like it's rocking. Can i try grinding the extensions? I'm half tempted to put these in a vice at this point! Paintint my car a three stage color changing pearl and the dark cavity is gonna stick out like a sore thumb I know! Or maybe somone cane tell me where I could buy a new set?? I'll try anything at this point? After a new hood, door shells, quarters, wheel whells and inner and outer wheel housings(all from goodmark and looks great) I don't want the extension's fit to haunt me. Thanks for any and all help.

STOP, think about this, why would you need to modify or replace the EXTENSIONS? You have replaced the quarters! When replacing the quarters you need to FIT the quarters TO the extensions, NOT the other way around.

Unless you have some reason to believe the extensions were damaged in someway, THEY are the guide. They are pot metal so usually they stay in shape, if they are bent, they usually break.

Did they fit the old quarters? I'll bet they did. If this is the case, when you installed the new quarters you didn't fit the extensions and that was the mistake.

In my opinion, there is NO need to touch the exstensions other than very minor fine tuning (which is almost always needed). You fit the quarters to them, period. If you didn't do that, then you need to now. If you are ready for paint, to bad. It has to be done.

Just my question, how can something be ready for paint when parts dont fit or were not test fitted?

Fitment of parts should come before the first round of primer is even shot on the car. Not right before painting or WORSE yet after painting!

Now we talking quarter exts or fender ext and what year? If 1/4 ext, like Martin mentioned they are pot metal , pot metal doesnt bend it BREAKS. The metal fender exts on a 70 chevelle can be lightly ground for proper fitment. I did mine with some 80 grit paper to FINE TUNE the edge not fix a damaged part. Now I do have about 5 pairs of 70 exts and each one fits a TAD different but nothing major. Exts on 71-71 velle are pot metal.

Am with Martin if its the quarter ext then you HAVE NO CHOICE but to refit the quarters.

If not then you could just fill the seem with paintable seem sealer and forget about it graemlins/thumbsup.gif

ok totally my bad here....its a 71 chevelle and its the fender ext. that is causing me prob. Naturally started and the quarters and worked to doors, feners then hood. The car was primered in two steps the chasis/deck lid and doors....now the fenders and hood. Doesn't really matter how the fenders fit..they could be sitting on my work bench.....the fender ext. just doesn't seat right. Maybe it's just the new fenders. I have been rushing on the car alittle cause the best painter my body guy has ever had is leaving this week! Very tricky paint job for most. I thought the fender ext. was gonna be a no brainer...little did i know. To reiterate it's not how they fit in relation to the hood or grill, its how they set on the flat (front) of the fender.

Saint, your new information doesn't change what Eric or I said one single bit. Only that you are working on the other end of the car. smile.gif

You have new fenders right? The extensions fit the old ones right? Well, the problem is the fenders NOT the extensions. Other than some minor fine tuning the the extensions, the fitting lies with the fenders.

Now, this brings up a whole new issue. If you have not fit those fenders, COMPLETELY assembling the front end, hood, fenders, extensions, grille, headlamps, if you have not COMPLETELY / TOTALLY fit these parts, you are seriously screwing yourself over.

I mean COMPLETLEY BOLTED UP not "mocked" up with a friend holding it. I mean COMPLETELY JUST AS IT WILL BE WHEN THE CAR IS DONE bolted up.

Have you ever read my write up on choosing color and buying paint? In there I mention how these lessons are VERY hard learned, how you don't want to learn them yourself, let me do it for you.

This subject is even more serious in that regard. You must fit ALL body parts, along with any mouldings and trim to ANY AND ALL "different" parts installed on the car. This could be new, repro, NOS, good used, ALL OF THEM . For that matter, you need to fit parts that were even on the car before it was disassembled. EVERYTHING needs completely bolted on fitting.


Now, I have just re-read your first post and another MONSTEROUSLY HUGE issue has came to my attention. DON'T EVEN DREAM of shooting this car with the "color changing" three stage paint in pieces!!!!!!!

Pieces that have not been fit no less. You are headed for one of the biggest disasters ever seen in the history of this site. :eek:

If you were to paint this car appart, without fitting the parts, with a three stage paint. It is VERY make that VERY likely you will have a 10 color car with panels that look like they came from Mustangs and Cutlesses bolted on.

If your painter says he can shoot this three stage paint with the car in pieces, he MAY be right. There are painters that "can" do it. But in 25 years I have been doing this work, few actually could. I have seen the best painters end up with multi colors when doing something like this.

That mid coat in the three stage has to be applied EXACTLY the same on every part. I don't mean just the same amount of coats. I am talking EXACTLY the same travel speed, gun distance, air pressure, EXACTLY . The EXACT film of paint in that mid coat is what CREATES your final color. The parts need to be hung or mounted to racks in the exact some orientation as they would be on the car. And then it goes way beyond that with the gun travel and so on.

I HIGHLY recommend that you forget about your star painter doing this car. Just relax and finish doing the fitting of the parts. If you still plan on using this color, REALLY think serously about jambing the car and assembling it and paint it together.

This is not the end of the world, if you were to paint it with out fitting the parts and it was 10 different colors with $1000.00 of paint on it, now THAT you would think was the end of the world, I guarantee it.

I can't agree more with the experts' comments about pre-fitting all parts. As a hobby painter for about 25 years those lessons have been learned more than once. I was pretty disgusted with myself because I sprayed primer before checking the rear 1/4 extensions (never again).

On my most recent effort I used a reproduction fender on a 69 Chevelle, this was the first time ever using a non-GM fender. It took some effort to get all my alignments correct, but the worst one was that I finally determined that the overall length of the fender was 3/16" longer than GM!!! This wouldn't have been that bad if both fenders were the same, but it really caused havoc with the header panel and hood alignment.

These guys know what they are talking about. I spent more time aligning than any other single part of my project and am happy I did. Being in a hurry will almost certainly end up in misery.

Martin brought up GREAT subject on the paint. NEVER EVER PAINT A PEARL JOB IN PIECES.

Why anyone would want a pearl paint job in the first place is beyend me, the hassle of painting and repair if need be. Last week did a pearl white on a Dodge minivan, small little ding in the middle of door :rolleyes, well ended up spraying the WHOLE FRIGGIN SIDE. Hopefully you WONT do pearl white cus I think they are the biggest PIA to paint and get to look right.

Anyway I have goodmark fenders on my 70 and the fit was great, the ONLY reason I sanded on the ext edge was to SMOOTH out the gap. I mean it wasnt constant but very close.

The WHOLE car needs to be assembled so you can see how it looks and KNOW FOR SURE what fits right and what doesnt. You cant mock up the exts to the fender laying a bench as the fender wont be in the proper shape. So if the fender isnt in the right shape to beging with how can you know whats really wrong??

When did my quarters the VERY FIRST THING I DID WAS GET THE REAR CHROMED BECAUSE THAT WAY I KNOW WHERE THE BUMPER WILL BE AT and when I fit the quarters I KNOW the bumper wont change. If I fit the quarters to a unchromed bumper then sent it out to get chromed the shape might not be the same, now am left with quarters that DONT FIT.

Hopefully you get the point...Eric

Sounds like maybe the fender edge does not have the crisp bend that it should,usual aftermarket problem.Try hammer and dolly on the edge of fender.
Sevt-chevelle I have found that on a lot of pearls the base color isn't a very good match,usually too light,causing us to put more pearl on and really screwing things up.I try to check the base somewhere there is no pearl.
Pearls and candies are a pain,spray everything at the same time,mix ALL your paint you need +some extra. Reduce all your paint in a big can,don't try and cut in inside edges with the pearl,leads to dark edges!!Nice even passes and you might get lucky!!
Just my .02 Mike

My whole car is assembled. Totally..everything..all jambs and inside of door, deck and hood painted.Everything is fit tightened primered hand blocked the works.Its done. Only the fenders ext are off because they "wobble" on the top and side edges of the new fender. I only said if the fender "was" off they wouldnt fit. There are no adjustments that can be made to the fender that will help the ext. Its not a matter of up, out, in or shim nor "when the ext. fit the fender I cant get it to line up with hood" none of that. It's like taking two pieces of cut angle iron and trying to get them "butted" to form a straight piece again with no gap. If say i was trying to do this and the angle iron had gaps in them i would grind the "high" spot to close the gap right? well I cant do that to the end of the fender without affecting the structure of it so I guess i'm asking should I try to grind the extensions? I know what you guys are saying about fitting car, and if the ext fit the fender but was not lined up with hood or whatever I could handle that. Sorry for the confusion...again.

Also I know the issues with 3 stage color changing paint (and the stripes are going to be embedded under the clear also....mmmmmmm), but my body guy is doing all this work for me as a favor and he wants to make something special that no one else around here has. Man when I saw the inside of my hood painted this color I had a smile on my face for days.......This color "flips" to blue like night and day.

Do you have a way of posting a pic of the affected area? Seeing the problem and reading about it can change ideas and might lead to fix instead of well it might be this or that.

Mike, I sure wish painting was easy as metal work smile.gif I kinda got thrown into this painting BS in June due to the old painter's health issues. Had a Great day, did a complete paint job on a 01 malibu, paint wouldnt cover, very prone to streaking,etc etc problem after problem needless to say its now beer thirty graemlins/beers.gif

Saint, i hear ya on wanting something different. Doing some custom metal work to my chevelle, some diff interior mods, etc. Well you cant have a custom car with plain jane paint so I talked my PPG rep into making a custom chrome pearl yellow. Spraying the yellow in single stage then appling the pearl. I went with SS over base/clear because of the added depth in the paint that SS has over base/clear. I sprayed some out both in base/clear and then in SS and the difference is HUGE especially when you apply the pearl. Just a different look

I would say at this point if ya can't do anything with the fender,ya gotta do what ya gotta do!! Guys here don't know you from Adam and are just trying to make sure you don't make the same mistakes we all have!! Good luck and hope all goes well.

Sevt-
It is as easy as metalwork,after 20 or so years you prolly would have run across just about every problem you could have while painting.Biggest problem I had was trying to get paid for everything on the 20 or so cars I painted this week,cause I work flatrate I should work for free?
graemlins/beers.gif Mike

Hey I thank you guys for your help. This is kind of new for me...I started late,like 35 years lol. I was just hoping someone had some experience with with this problem. I'll prob be monkeying with this all weekend, hopefully I can take some pics of the prob. If you guys know of a place where I could get some new (old) ones that would be great help....I have a feeling I'm gonna mess these up....ugh....

Once again a offer....even though I am not to swift with cars (coulda guessed huh?)i have 20 years of residential heating and cooling experience under my belt if you ever need some help. Just ask.

Originally posted by saint of killers:
Once again a offer....even though I am not to swift with cars (coulda guessed huh?)i have 20 years of residential heating and cooling experience under my belt if you ever need some help. Just ask. Yep, we all have our "thing". About all I know about residential heating and cooling is well, heating warms the house and cooling cools it. smile.gif

It is so hard to give you any guidance without seeing or being able to touch that darn extension. If could post a photo it would be a big help.

There is some "massaging" you could do, not much but some. If you were do grind some like you mentioned I am concerned that it would then be off somewhere else of the "pivoting" of the part. If you grind the high spots in the vertical portion, it will then "pivot" leaning back and pulling the extension away from the hood. So it may lead to other problems.

How about "massaging" the fender a little? That is what I would be doing first. It is after all what is "wrong" here. As I mentioned from the begining, the fender is repro, it is wrong, so you "modify" the fender to fit the extension.

wow....just wanted to let you guys know, I found the problem....the fenders!...lol. So stupid of me not to check this but it was both of the light recesses on the fender extensions hitting the corresponding "holes" of the new fenders! After cutting out the tops of both holes and raising the holes for the speed nut posts on the new fender it was like night and day. Still had to shave about a 1/16" on a small portion of one of the extensions. Has anyone else ever come across this???

Now if only I could tighten up the one side of my roof line against fender I'd be a happy man. But I'm just plain out of adjustments it seems. All the other lines look great, it's like I am gonna have a bad line "somewhere" on the car. Maybe I shouldn't complain considering all the new sheetmetal that was added??? Oh well, I have two more days to try to fix it or learn to like it......haha. Thanks for your help guys. Hopefully have some pics soon (can I post em here?).

Originally posted by saint of killers:
Has anyone else ever come across this???

Sure, as we have been saying, it is totally normal to have to "fine tune" parts like this, even when they are all original. Heck, evene when they came of the same car! That is "detailing", those little extra things you do to a car to make it as close to perfect as possible.

Saint, let me put it another way. I am a collision auto body tech. I do this work everyday. I replace quarters, rockers, rear body panels, roofs, rad supports (weld in) and so on every single day of the week. About 1999 is the AVERAGE year car I work on. Heck, I have had three 2004s with less than 5000 miles in the last few weeks that got MANY weld on parts installed.
The fitting we are talking about is done on EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE CARS.

EVERY SINGLE car needs a little "massaging" of parts to make them fit. I just finished a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix. It got a quarter, taillamp and rear bumper installed. These were all OEM parts from Pontiac. The quarter needed a LOT of work to make it fit. The shape of the top was all wrong and needed to be curved more to fit the deck lid. The area where the taillamp bolted had to be "relieved" a little to allow the lamp to fit proper against the quarter. The bumper mounting had to be "relieved" as well to allow the bumper to fit well to the quarter.

I used "normal" as a discription, that is not a good word. "Expected" would be a better word. It would be UNUSUAL to not have to do SOMETHING to these parts to make them fit.

VERY few cars have a bolt on fender that doesn't need some "massaging" as well. These are NEW cars with OEM parts (Original Equipment Manufacture). I fit EVERY SINGLE part like lamps and mouldings, fenders, deck lids, doors, hoods and so forth on EVERY SINGLE car.

Don't think you are doing something wrong, don't think the parts are junk. They are just not perfect that's all.

Have fun graemlins/thumbsup.gif