Fender tip help

[chevyboy55]

HELP! We were putting a pass. side fender tip on today. Both the fender & the new patch panel were cut at the body line. When we went to put the patch panel up to the fender it is 3/8" off. In the pic the patch panel is on top, it measures 12 1/18" the fender on the bottom of the pic. measures 12 1/2".
The only solution I can think of is to slice it down the center top to bottom & section it.Has anyone ran into this problem?

[mjrmn]

Is the fender flatened out or slightly bowed? Did it move when the cut was made?

[matthufham]

sadly, mine has a flat piece pie cutted to fit, and about a half inch of bondo. what mjrmn said is what i'd think, or a bad reproduction patch panel, or the patch has flexed. flex the patch in some and try to flex the fender out, then butt weld em when they match.

[krue]

That truly sucks.

[northcountry67]

I ran across the same problem and because I prefer to lap weld, I had alot of trouble sliding the patch under the fender. I ended up flexing the fender until they matched, then cut a one inch slice in the corner to slide them together. I lap welded all but one corner and had to butt weld the slice. I would venture to guess that your original fender flexed when you removed the tip. Just flex it some. 1/8 inch should not leave a bow in the fender.

[chevyboy55]

Here is another pic. of the gap. There is enough braces that the fender does not want to flex.

[mjrmn]

WOW!! after seeing that pic I'm going to have to agree with matthufham and say bad patch panel.
Where did you get it from? Don't want to do any vendor bashing just something for others to be aware of if they buy the same part.
Can/will they help with a proper replacement or a refund on "defective" merchandise?
I bought this same patch panel from Wes at Classic Heartbeat about 2 months ago and had no problems, the patch fit like it was made for it and required no filler, just spot welds and grinding.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do and keep us posted

[matthufham]

holy sh!t, where did you buy that patch from?

[chevyboy55]

It was a Tri Plus patch from a very good board vendor. Must of been made last one Friday or first one Monday. It took some doing but thanks to ebfabman's help it is now done.

[mjrmn]

Congrats on getting that thing to work--let us know exactly what it took to make it fit
Mike

[chevyboy55]

After lots of cussing, kicking, screaming, walking away coming back later we slit the back in 2 places to give it room to flex then had to slit the front.
It took lots of welding to get everything stiched back up but it looks good.
I have to give thanks to ebfabman for the help. I would of taken pics of the process but I probably would have thrown the camera against the wall in a fit of rage & been out the price of the patch panel AND a new camera.

[stllookn]

ebfabman (Earl) is one heck of a great guy and a real sheet metal artist to boot!