My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble

[rgunlock]

Its done now - ordered both fenders from supporting vendor Classic Heartbeat Pickup Parts.

[mjensen]

I think that was the right call! Good luck!

[srt6]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

Its done now - ordered both fenders from supporting vendor Classic Heartbeat Pickup Parts.

It's great that's you did everything to get them to work! Unfortunate you have to order new but I'm sure they'll be great!

[Jaredchevyk20]

sweet truck!!!!!!

[rgunlock]

Thanks guys! I'm anxious to see how they'll fit, but for now just trying to make sure the order went through as I didn't get a confirmation email, tracking info, etc.

[y5mgisi]

Good luck! I think they will be acceptable.

[Mustard72]

Nice work on the tailgate, Rick. You mentioned that if you did bodywork for a living, you wouldn't eat as well as you do. Most of us out here are in that same boat! If you did bodywork for a living, though, you probably would've gone the route on the tailgate that you did on the fenders.

I think the tailgate looks good.

[rgunlock]

Thanks y5mgisi! Fenders should arrive in a couple more days and then we'll see.

Actually Nick, if I did bodywork for a living I wouldn't have put probably 20 hours into those fenders before deciding they were scrap Thanks for checking in.

[srt6]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

Thanks y5mgisi! Fenders should arrive in a couple more days and then we'll see.

Actually Nick, if I did bodywork for a living I wouldn't have put probably 20 hours into those fenders before deciding they were scrap Thanks for checking in.

Well no matter what you do everyday is a new lesson. I'm dying to see some pic oncenter you get the fenders

[rgunlock]

Tracking shows I should get the fenders tomorrow. In the meanwhile I got the inner fenders ready to go. I got these a couple years ago from LMC. Pretty straightforward; hardest part was getting off all the damn stickers! Then scuffed the black coating, shot in epoxy primer and used 3M undercoating from a can on the undersides.

Over time, I'll get to see what holds up best. Eastwood rubberized undercoating on the cab bottom, U-Pol Raptor liner on the bed bottom, or 3M undercoating in the front fenderwells.

I did have to make me a new square nut out of 1/4" stock, drilled and tapped then welded to the radiator support in order to bolt up the inner fender.

Now its on to one of my favorite jobs - stripping paint. Time for the hood. NOT looking forward to this

[mjensen]

Uh oh! It's starting to look like a truck again!

Good work Rick!

[quadzero]

What a gold mine of info here. Keep up the great work.

[y5mgisi]

Cant wait to see what you think of the fenders!

[rgunlock]

Thanks for keeping an eye on my thread Mike, quadzero and y5mgisi.

Fenders did arrive today. Had to get them shipped to a friend of a friend that had a small business somewhat near me because the shipper wanted an extra $100 to ship to a residential address - what total crap! Just made it a hassle for everyone concerned.

Any case, they arrived in reasonably good shape. Wound up that they came from 2 different Taiwanese manufacturers, Key Parts (passenger side fender) and TRIPLUS (driver side) so I'll get to compare. Packaging was about the same for both. Each came with one ding (that I've noticed so far) that is not big enough to deal with the hassle of exchanging and shouldn't be a big deal to fix.

[rgunlock]

I'll reserve comments for fit until I have time to spend with them, plus have to put on the hood, grill, etc. to really know. For now, just kind of hung them up on the truck. Definitely going to need to do some shimming, but the ones that came on the truck had plenty of that. For my inexperienced eye, the stamping and body lines, etc. look pretty good. As long as I can get them lined up and the bolt holes line up, I'm pretty sure I'll be satisfied.

Didn't notice that the metal was significantly thinner than what came on the truck, but to be honest on a 37 year old truck I'm not sure that the ones that came on the truck were OE fenders either. May pull out the bathroom scale and see how the weight compares to what I had.

[y5mgisi]

Well at least they arent garbage! Im sure they will be just fine. There has got to be so many show trucks out there with those exact fenders on them.

[srt6]

Starting to look good! I wish I had the time to do this!

[y5mgisi]

I kinda think that for getting cheap fenders, i would just get the cheapest ones i could find. I saw ones on ebay that were new for $130ea with free shipping. The flip side is its always good to support a vendor on here!

[rgunlock]

These were just $139.95 each, but cost nearly that much again for shipping.

[y5mgisi]

Interesting. I would like to see how people like the aftermarket doors. Those are fairly cheap also.

[rgunlock]

Well, no pictures yet but I made a little progress over the weekend. Finished stripping the paint from the hood, scuffed the new fenders and got them all shot in epoxy primer on Saturday. Sunday I attempted to get them all mounted up on the truck. Took almost 2 hours I think, but I did manage to get the passenger side fender on and lined up to where I'm happy with it. Couple more hours on the driver side and I am NOT happy with it. The contour on the back end of the fender (that lines up with the door) seems too flat. Makes the fender too tall and leaves the edge of the door sticking out almost 1/4" further than the fender edge, even with 3 shims holding the fender out. Think its going to have to come back off and I'm going to have to figure out how to bend the mounting bracket (the one that sticks into the upper doorframe) so it holds the fender out further.

My plan has been to get the truck back together, do the featherfill & block sanding, pull it all apart to paint, and then reassemble. Well, just trying to get these fenders mounted I've buggered up the primer on the fenders and doors. Too much prying involved to get things lined up and no reason to believe that it will go together any smoother the second time. Think I'm going to have to paint jams and backside of panels, reassemble, then paint the parts that show. At this point, I'm just hoping that once I'm happy with the fenders the hood will go on right

[y5mgisi]

That's frustrating! I think you probably would be best off doing as you said and get everything back painted and then shoot it all assembled. Masking will be more difficult. But doable. I have heard that guys will get various types of foam like you use for installing a window air conditioning unit. And use that to eliminate hard tape lines. I have never tried it but it sounds intriguing.

[rgunlock]

Ok, 99% done with fitting. Passenger side came out pretty good on gaps, and only one spot on lower half of the door where the contours could match better. Well, if I was a perfectionist there are a couple spots but I'll have to pull the fender and door to fix the one spot and not sure I will bother

[rgunlock]

The driver side was a bear! Had to pull the fender and bend it over a post to get it concave enough to come close to matching the door contour. You can see where I had to beat on the upper door to get it to match the fender. Needed 4 shims in the door frame fender mount, and 2 shims at the bottom to get it out far enough. I think I got the contour nearly perfect now, but the door to fender gap tapers to nothing at the bottom. The door does open without binding, so maybe good enough???

[rgunlock]

Hood lines up pretty well (big sigh of relief!). Not sure what the funky corner is on driver side just where the gap meets the grill area. Its in the aftermarket fender. Not sure if it is going to interfere with the hood closing all the way, or what to do to straighten it out.