70-72 Top of fender repair

I have been helping with the fenders for RyansGSX's new project.

Trying figure out a solution to the flat fenders.

We have the original fender which is beyond repair. The only decent replacement we have been able to find is one of the poor fitting fenders.

Started taking some measurements of key points of the fender and inner reinforcement. The dimensions were all over the place.

Now I decided to make a template for the top of the fender. This template matched the fender on my 71 Stage1 and the replacement fender. The template was attached to the original fender at key points. The reason for the poor fitment was now obvious. Removing the spot welds and rewelding the reinforcement should make the fender fit.

















My Template installed on a Flat fender. Notice the gap between the template and top of the fender.

3/16 gap in some places.






Template installed on a third fender. The gap is low at the rear of the fender.

 

Nice job Dave. These fenders can be all over the place, especially to replacements. I would check fitment with the hood that you are using before rewelding...

 

Interesting. Even orig fenders aren't consistent. In the past, I've cut the welds and shimmed under the flange to match the hood. Cut the small seam at the back to match the hood & door. Cut the bracket at the front if needed for proper headlight bezel alignment (spotwelds there on the newer fenders are lousy). Even then I've run into otjer issues. Patience is key.

It a lot of work but worth it. The FE sheetmetal comes out perfectly aligned. This is one I did.

 

Great work Dave, as usual.

Just as a side note,
The original Driver side fender alignment between the fender and the door was never perfect to begin with. One day before we started judging the Concours class at the GSCA, I showed this to Ritchie. I had previously "walked the line" and from a certain angle you could see the larger gap at the top. I grabbed Ritchie and showed him this.

As we walked down the line every 70-72 car had this gap except for one car. We approached the owner, let him know that whatever he said would not affect his score in the slightest, and then I proceeded to ask him how long it took to fix the fender. He smiled and admitted they had to cut the fender skin and then weld it back up to fix the gap. It was something that we "as owners" could appreciate, and we "as judges" would consider as an "over restoration item", which would receive no deductions for that class.

I know the owner was impressed with our knowledge of those cars that day, and the fact that we knew the amount of work required to restore his car to that level.
Duane

 

Way way back in 1988 or so I bought NOS fenders for my Stage 1 from GM before we painted it in 1989. I was a teenager, I remember they had to order fenders several times for me as the first set showed up and they had been stood on their ends and were curled over despite the cardboard protective wraps. Second set one had a big ding in it and I refused it so they ordered another one for that side. Man we FOUGHT with those fenders to get them to an average alignment (drivers side was especially bad), of course no idea what was going on...car was painted and then discovered the gap over the drivers side headlight bezel was out of whack (another lesson learned, test fit first! LOL) ...went so far as to slot the rad support hole a bit to get it better. Of course today I know exactly what is going on with these fenders..., and if I ever go through car again will correct all that. Still has that same paint on it and looks great so not touching it for now. That car has a rocker to quarter mis-match too from factory so its a real study on quality control of those years. Over the years I did notice several cars with larger gaps over drivers bezels and always figured those guys used NOS fenders too...LOL Of course back then the idea was to get some color on it and go street racing....

 

Don’t have this problem on the original sheet metal on the Reynolds car. But! I have a problem with the hood being raised in the back when I shut it. I can push it down a little after being open then shut but still raised to much for my liking. I do this every time. Frustrating.
When I restored it, sent the hood hinges to Jim W here. While he had them he called and said these required massive modifications to get them to be “unsprung” before sending them out to be plated.
Thought that was odd since the car had 1,676 miles. I wanted my originals back when done. So now I lived with it.
Thought about it some more and came to the conclusion that being a test car for Buick then KB’s car to test there parts they sold, it lived on the drag strip. Can imagine the hood was opened and closed a lot more times than road cars with 100K miles.
So excepted that.
So now the question is, how can I fix this? Or better yet not fix them. As that could show as a war wound to what the car went through.
Thoughts???
I left the frame alone from the massaging they did to get bigger, wider drag tires to fit. But that’s kinda cool, as they took a sludgehammer to it. Btw rolled lips as well. There’s a story there too.

 

I've contributed that to weak springs,...changed them out to tighter hinges and it pulls the hood down tighter

 

Guy,

There is a trick to lowering the rear of the hood that Kleiner taught me. It takes two people. With the hood open, one guy needs to push up on the hood like he’s trying to open it further while the other guy loosens all six bolts that holds the hood hinges to the fenders. Once they are all loose, have him push up on the hood as far as it will go and it should rock the hinges back slightly and then tighten all six bolts. Hopefully that will lower the back edge of the hood down a little closer to top of the cowl. It’s worked for me several times on different cars.

Good luck!

 

Thanks James, mine does this too, will try it and see!!

 

I've used this a lot and it works great, it is right in the chassis manual. Also, you can try a shim under the front bolt positions of the hood (if necessary nobody wants shims there of course)...its counter intuitive but it makes the aft section travel further which drops the rear of the hood more. That too is in the chassis manual. Don't forget to remove the aft bumpers screwed into the cowl when doing all this so you aren't fighting them. The last one is ugly, but it works....if you look at hood hinges the holes are not sized to the bolts thats why pushing up on the hood works so well, you can also oblong those aft holes with a die grinder to get even more movement out of the hinges when you push up on the hood. Its hack but does work in extreme cases. Just throwing it out there

 

"I've used this a lot and it works great, it is right in the chassis manual"

Thanks, Tim.

This is why it's important to follow the PROCEDURE outlined in the Chassis Service Manual. It's not more work, but, rather time well spent.

 

Its who I am mostly due to the nature of my work, always hounding people to get the manuals out and follow them (electronic of course)...sorry...you do something and it goes sideways and you weren't referencing the manuals you can be in a world of hurt (others too). They are produced by the people who make the products, they are the authority on them. Of course always tips and techniques learned too but the heart of anything is the manufacturer.

 

Back in April 2001, when we were completion of somerestoratio restoration on my '72 GS and reinstalling the hood, we had the same problem as stated above in earlier thread. Your solution today, was familiar to me in 2001, & we used it to align the rear fitment of the hood. Worked great.

 

Jeez, with all the in and out I’ve been doing here lately, somehow missed this till Gerry just brought it back up.
Eager to try this now!