Fender removal pics

[chevymotocross]

Started on the body work today with my truck. I bought 2 great used fenders, a used oem door, bed, new full rockers, and cab corners to redo the truck. Truck always looked great on the outside, but there was lots of hidden rust that the New England winters have done. Here are pics of the first fender removal.



Rusty Rocker:

Fenders looked great on the outside....






Had to use vise grips like this at times for those rust snapped bolts/clips:

Some of those bolts were in very hard spots. Most weren't even holding the fender since as you can see, it rotted away. The rocker is pretty bad. I will be taking the door off tomarrow and replacing that. Any tips would be great. I have the full rocker. My dad will be doing the welding. He welded slip-ons before with his truck. He likes these full ones since there won't be much filling work to do as they are hidden where the welds go.

[flamingbig10]

that's good that you finally got to start on the rust problems,

[80stepsideguy]

WOW!!!! I never seen a inner fender rot that bad and the outer 1 be in good shape.I guess the new england weather would do it.I`m originally from rhode island and moved to florida in 2002 so i know what its all about in the northeast.You going with a used replacement or a new fender?BTW nice truck..
thanks
pat

[chevymotocross]

Originally Posted by 80stepsideguy

WOW!!!! I never seen a inner fender rot that bad and the outer 1 be in good shape.I guess the new england weather would do it.I`m originally from rhode island and moved to florida in 2002 so i know what its all about in the northeast.You going with a used replacement or a new fender?BTW nice truck..
thanks
pat

I bought used replacements with no rust on them. I filled the badge holes since I wanted a cleaner look without the Silverado badges. thanks

[454HO]

Nice work. Please take lots of pics of the rocker and cab corner replacement. I need to do some of that on my truck too.

Oh, and just for my reference, it takes to of the 'golden' beverages to remove one fender?

[84 400]

yup yup yup. I went threw the same stuff on my 77. NE weather is horrible and the design of these parts are no better

[chevymotocross]

Installed the new rocker today. Install went smooth. With a die-grinder, air chisel, and basic sheetmetal tools and of course a welder, it wasn't too bad.

The inner rocker near where it mated with the cab mount was in somewhat bad shape. The cab mount and floor pan were solid. We just reinforced that area with some new metal. I already had the intention of replacing the cab corners at a later date, but we noticed a previous owner installed one of those small replacement corners over a rusted out inner cab corner. How hard are the inners to replace?

Door lines up nicely with the new rocker. I really did not want to cut the power door wires. The two connectors were in such a bad spot under the dash and I just could not disconnect them. I will solder/heat shrink them best I could.

[silvereagle07]

Looks good. Nice job.

[84 400]

good job man. I gotta do the same on my 77 this summer before I paint it

[ont_guy_38]

Hope you hung the door back on and see how the gaps were before you welded the rocker on.Other then that it looks like your doing a great job

[chevymotocross]

Yes, I hung the door after I just tacked in the rocker and it fit perfectly.

Well, on to the door. Not so happy with this one. I found an ad in the local paper a few months back stating "Pair of power doors rust free $250 for the pair)". Well, I ended up buying the doors. The passenger side door truly was all original and never re-worked. Good news because my passenger side door is not re-workable.

My drivers side door I figured I could re-work with little effort, but this guy was selling a door that looked good with no work needed. There was primer on the lower skin. He said "no rust, just filled a few minor dents, this door is ready to go." Yea.... right. My father from the beginning was pissed I bought this door and he said I better grind down the repaired areas to see how well they were actually repaired. Boy was he right!

Rust holes started popping up as I was grinding away. The complete lower lip was actually filled to give it a straight look. As you can see, this covered completely rotted away sections! Door is useless to me. Maybe in the hands of a very good bodyman, a lower skin can be welded but I'm not doing it.

So, I start grinding the small rusted sections on my door and come to realize the sections aren't bad at all. With can weld a small patch and fill.

It's amazing how straight the door I bought looked with all that filler.... untill I started grinding. Stinks because I could have saved that money and put it towards supplies to fix my not so bad door.

Moral of story, don't assume fixed pieces are actually fixed correctly!

Here are pics of the door I bought and what I found after grinding. Also, pics of my black door, and the small amount of work needed.

Bought door:









My door:

[ont_guy_38]

Sorry guess i should have read more indepth .Yes a little bondo and primer can make something bad look good and people out there know that.Had you thought to look at the seams you probably would have noticed something not quite right but i think all of us that work on stuff has learned something the hard way but it does make a person smarter because it,s something that you will always remember for the next time

[mainermikeyd]

Did you replace that cab support mount, when you welded in the new rocker??? Seen that same support rust away in a winter on mine this winter, an it spells bad news fast!!!! Mine pushed up through my floor when I hit a frost heave this week!!! NOT GOOD, just lettin ya know Brothers sells the best out there an its easier to replace now than later!!! Just my 2 cents worth

[scotty101]

I would be interested in more details on how you did those doors. I have the same thing with mine and was wondering the best way to go about fixing them.

[chevymotocross]

Originally Posted by scotty101

I would be interested in more details on how you did those doors. I have the same thing with mine and was wondering the best way to go about fixing them.

Sorry, I read the message after I already repaired it and filled it. Very easy though, just cut out a good square section in the area of the rot. Cut out a piece of sheet metal, welded it in, grinded it down, and filled it with filler.

Got the fender on. Pretty happy with it for a tawian fender. All the bolt holes lined up nicely. Only thing I am not too happy with, but really the pic makes it look worse, is how the fender meets at the cab, cowl, and door. The lines are somewhat off but oh well.

The door looks horrible in that pic. That was just temporary and I didn't even fill the repaired sections yet in that pic. I just shot some primer on the bare metal to keep it from rusting until I had time to fill, which I did today.

Ordered a new rocker for the right side, and hopefully next week I will be doing the same exact thing all over again! Luckily, the door for the right side required no patch or filling work so it should be a little easier. Then I will swap the bed. While bed is off, I'm sanding down the frame and Zero Rusting it. Also while the bed is off, a 2/4 lowering kit and a new right side tank if I can find tank support brackets for it (raybuck is too expensive I think).