Interest for High rise(pre-runner style?) Fenders Fiberglass

[Mordachai]

I do need help from the best truck forum anywhere.
Please I really need the front edge of a chevy 69-72 fender.
What I need looks like this: circled in red:


That pic is just a mirror image of my driver's fender, I need that front edge for the passenger fender( right now I have the 67-68 chevy style pass fender)

I still haven't been able to get ahold of this part. Do I need to just buy a repop fender and hope that it's 'close enough'? Do I need to buy a full fender? Anyone have any ideas why I can't seem to get this piece? Does anyone make a patch panel for this area? A few people have either tried to help out and were just not able to, or said they could and just disappeared.
What gives?

got some suggestions for me?

[Mordachai]

Well, in between working on the second mold and doing a few small odd jobs here and there, I made the first glass fender, just pulled it from the mold yesterday!!!!!

Fresh out of the mold:




And then I trimmed it up and sanded down the parting lines. I used some white gelcoat that I had leftover from some repairs I made to my dad's boat awhile ago. It had kind of gummed up a bit, and was too thick to spray(I don't like thinning gelcoat - and gummed up it might not have helped anyways) So I brushed it on, not ideal, but for the first run it's ok.







and the inside of the fender




not too bad huh? Frankly I'm impressed with how strong this darn thing is. I think it weighs around 20# or so, I need to get a scale to weight it on. (BTW- does anyone know what a stock fender weighs?)

I made it with only chopped strand mat too! so when I make a 'real deal' fender with some cloth instead of the mat, it will be even stronger, and a tad lighter(CSM has a higher resin:fiber ratio than cloth)
Also, I now realize I need to build the parting lines up with more gelcoat, so when I sand down the seams, I can down to a nice gelcoat, instead of having to sand to resin/glass like I did. Nothing wrong with that per say, but I'd like to have a better surface for painting, so I'll be sure to build the gelcoat in those areas. Also I brushed it on, so up close you can see a few thin areas in the gel in the form of a brush stroke. I did have some little bubbles in the rear edge of the fender too, if you look close you can see them. I think this was also because of the old gelcoat and it was at the very edge of the lay-up.
I also laid down some of the white gel on a fiberglass plate, and it cured very slowly and then lifted in some areas when I tried to glass over it. I've taken to always doing a test with old material for just this reason.
The next one should be flawless.

I need to take my weights and stack them on the fender so you guys can see how strong they are. Unfortunately pictures don't really give you an idea of how strong they are. Somewhere somebody said something about 50# of mud being a problem, well I can guarantee that it will hold 50# of mud, that is if you can get 50#of mud to stick to it!!!


So I'm getting ready to have the second mold finished, and about to make the drivers side for the GMC and 68 chevy fender style. Since I don't have the passenger 69-72 fender front it looks like the GMC style will be the first matching pairs I can sell.

I should be able to sell them in the very near future. (August stimulus money?) I will start a list soon of who wants which style and when etc.
more soon.

[sandking]

You thought about a price tag yet?

[Mordachai]

yes, I'm working on it. I've kept track of the materials and time used to make that fender so far. I still have to finish making the inner support and bond it in the fender to provide the stock mount to the lower rear corner, I also have to bond in the front supports.

I am going to try to get it somewhere around $350-/+, but might end up around $450-/+. It will depend on the materials needed and time involved.

Also I'll be building them to order, so if you want specific materials in the way of resins and fabrics could affect the cost.

Also, these will all be top quality pieces, I simply wouldn't ship a fender with any inherent problems. These should be ready to scuff and spray, no pinholes or any patches or problems.

I will do a group buy/offering here shortly, with the GMC, 67/68 chevy style first. I say 67 and 68 chevy because the shape fits, except for 67's lacking of a sidemarker. This can easily be shaved in the glass. I will have 69-72 chevy fenders as soon as I can get a passenger front to graft in and make a mold. The more people I can get to commit, the more I can lower the price due to lower material costs when buying in bulk.

if anyone can help with sourcing that part, they can be the first to get fenders...(what a tease right?)


I've mentioned before selling different versions of the fender, for now it will be 2 versions.
The first will simply be the outer skin, that you would have to bond to the 'skeleton' or frame of your existing steel fender as others have mentioned doing. This could end up being a full bonded skin, or just a larger bonded wheel arch. How much or how little is cut/bonded would be up to you.

The second version will be like the fender I posted above, with the inner structure bonded in, allowing you to mount it to the stock mounts. This version will require you to add some bracing from the firewall/cab to the radiator support, in order to support all the weight and stress on the rad. support. Also you would have to use a different way of mounting the hood[hinge]. You could use firewall/cowl mounted hinges, I've seen a number of trucks with this done(usually lowered trucks- due to clearance of the stock hinge). or if you placed the support tubing in the 'right' spot you could fab mounts for the stock hood off of that.

As an example, the supports I made for the rad. support for my front end actually line up almost perfectly with the stock hinge location. if you were to weld a plate to the inner side of the tubing you could make a great hinge mount... see the pics below:


Something similar could be fabbed with a mount for the stock hinge.
Those are 1.5"x1.5" heavy wall tubing with some 1/4" place welded on with holes for the bolts on the rad support and the cowl. I did have to use a bfh on the cowl a bit to allow the tubing to bolt in there and have the stock cowl cover bolt over the tubing. but hey, if a bfh isn't involved, then you must be doing it wrong Seriously, I drove the truck with those for my supports for over a year with no issue whatsoever. 4 core rad,trans. cooler, oil cooler, electric fans and controls, hid ballasts, 4 lights and the battery all on the core support. Only thing holding it is those top bars, When building I intended to triangulate it to the frame, but ended up not needing to. Now if you're doing some serious wheeling, you might need to, or already have some additional support up there.

I want to make a fender that uses all factory mounts, but that will require a jig-formed piece of steel to be laminated in the mold from the upper front mount to the upper rear mount. I think it would be needed to support the weight of the radiator, battery, hood and anything else normally mounted to the inner fender, as well as the force of opening and closing the hood.

so um, yeah I've been thinking about the pricing...

Right now I'm about 2 weeks from being able to make a pass. side fender, and about 3 weeks from being able to pull Matching GMC 67-68 chevy style fenders. Yep, I'm excited to pull the first matching pair!

Oh and check this out:

8-03-2008 :Almost exactly a year from when I started this thread.(I had another thread with virtually no interest 2+ years ago)
10-2008 I started cutting on the fender
8-01-2009 have the first fender out of the mold!

^ Just thought that was kinda cool, a year later and 'just an idea' is a solid fender right in front of me!

[Mordachai]

From the very first post in the thread a year ago:

Originally Posted by Mordachai

...........................................
I'm estimating that finished fenders would be anywhere from $250-400 per fender depending on opening and flare.
Add $100 roughly for Kevlar reinforcement .................

looks like a pure guesstimate for an estimation it was pretty darn close

it will be a little higher than my estimation, but not by much.
I always seem to underestimate this kind of thing....

[Richard8971]

Mordachi, I have to give you props on this thread. Nice fiberglass work and beautiful workmanship. Keep us posted on the results.

D

[sleepertruck72]

Mordachai,
Very cool work ! I like those fenders, and I dont even have a 4x4. Do you still need the passenger side fender ? I have one here from a '72 Chevy that I could cut and send to you. Let me know

[Mordachai]

^ thanks for the kind words. PM sent....

[the_goat]

I realize this is way old but whatever came of this? Any pictures on a truck?

[JohnOstuff]

Any news on the fenders? - I'm building a Baja Tribute truck

[thor]

ping for a cool idea

[67GMC3/4]

nice work man,

[1972RedNeck]

Any Updates?

[72blazer_mud_bogger]

whats the good word on these being done and ready for us to buy

[1972RedNeck]

I would love to get my hands on a set of these for my "new" '72 K20.

[1972RedNeck]

Nothing?

[1972RedNeck]

Still nothing out there?

[K20chevy]

Any updates on those fenders? And would you be willing to do a matching set of besides???

Thanks!

[scotzilla]

bump

[K20chevy]

bump

[71 TopCat]

My hats off to ya Mordachai ! thier looking really good and cant wait to bolt on a set.