I think I finally found a body shop to paint my car. My plan is to strip the old paint myself. I stripped my driver's side front fender to a find that it was patched before. It looks like some one beat it into shape, hence the dimples with filler. The shop suggested buying a repro fender. He said by the time he finished stripping the fender and fixing the patch, it would cost less to buy a new fender. I was kind of bummed because I want to keep the original body panels. I am no body man, but it seems like a waste to ditch this fender. The rest of the fender is solid and straight. He mainly does collision work and resto on the side. I think he just doesn't want to mess it. On the other hand, there is a 69 Chevelle on his rotisserie now that he had to do put in new floors, trunk floor, quarters and outer wheel houses. What do you guys think?
patch (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/70Z15/MyCar036.jpg)

Get a new fender and save the old fender just in case.

I agree that to replace the fender might be cost effectiveand I have done quite a bit of body work hope this helps.

Thanks, I wasn't sure if the repros fit well.

same exact place mines gone at.. im just making a patch because i dont have 250-300.00 for a new fender.


aaron

my fenders are wayyyyyyyy worse then that.. im 18 on a budget so i will be patching mine.. i have the lower patches for both sides.. id definitely patch yours...... well good luck.. by the way that patch looks preety bad... i beat out some patches for my floor out of an old hood from my honda and it looks a lot better

Strip the fender yourself and buy a new lower fender patch for him to install. Save your original sheetmetal at all cost or buy a new GM fender.Repro can be a lot of work to make it fit right.

I think that patch warped because it was brazed on at a high flame temp. Than using a body hammer was tapped in below the highest panel surface than filled. If you want to use your fender just replace the lower patch. About $55 for the patch and 1 hour labor rate.
http://hstrial-lmcmanus.homestead.com/files/chevelle/1970_panel.jpg

One hour is a little on the low side.I would say at least 3-4 for a quality job,welded,smoothed with filler,seam sealed and undercoated on the backside.The door should be removed to do a clean job around the bend into where it meets up to the door. If it where my car i would remove the fender instead of the door after welding,sandblast or wire wheel the backside of the lower fender and put a protective coating on it. He does not even have to install the full lower section,just cut what he needs out of the patch and butt weld it in. If i were doing the job i would rather do that than wrestle an aftermarket fender. smile.gif

boomhauer....Sorry i didn't mean one hour labor for the whole job. I meant it should only take around an hour to cut the old section off,prep that general area and weld the new panel on. Of coarse the fender must be off the car already.

Than i would glass bead or sandblast the whole fender inside and out etc...

I've done a few fenders for other people just like that.

Good luck
Car looks great on the track

Another vote for patching, looks like the fender is already off. Clean up the brace with a sandblaster before welding the patch in. Only use as much of the patch as you need. And prime and rustproof the inside well before you install it. JMO smile.gif

Thanks guys. That's what I wanted to hear. I'd like to use this original fender.

A word of caution about the patch panels,the radius of the corners is not as sharp as the original and will take alot of time to rework to make it look rite.
I patched both of mine and fabed my parts out of sheet metal.
It souldnt be that hard for a real body man to fix.
Yours isnt that bad, I bet if you cut that patch off it's covering the old sheet metal. :eek:
I vote to fix it! graemlins/thumbsup.gif
T.C.