reproduction Fenders

[Gene Sharp]

I am putting together a 56 Chevy pickup using mostlynew sheetmetal
the front fenders do not fit well at the bottom
has anyone else had this problem
and what did you do

Gene Sharp

[blackdiesel]

one of my buddes is building a 58. Bought nearly every new peice of sheet metal they make. Even replaced the whole entire cab corner (installed the piece they shipped him with out cutting it down) with out the door on! Thats another story...

Anyways his fenders dont line up at the bottom either. I'm not sure how he is going to fix it, but if it was me i would throw the aftermarket stuff in the trash, and repair and fix the original sheetmetal. It is much much much higher quality and will acutally line up with a little work.

Just my experience and JMO, of course

[cajundragger]

yeah honestly, kick it down the street.


or pull out the brake line and start welding it in all the gaps.

[1956cameo]

As I always say; until the quality of repro sheet metal goes waaaaaay up from where it is now, clean original sheetmetal is THE only way to go!!

[hotrodsbyray]

Gene,
I am in a similar predicament, sort of. I kept the original metal hood and front inner and outer fenders. I had to replace inner and outer pockets, rockers, step area and rear corners due to rust - I could not find clean original metal here locally. I replaced them with meticulous attention to measurements both on my truck and on a couple reference trucks.
I put a camaro subframe and the fitting problems have gotten worse. The front fender bottoms sit below the rockers and alignment with the cowl is off. I am currently trying to adjust the radiator mount to align better.
Just a long winded way of saying I empathize with you, man.
Hopefully I can get a bunch of personal stuff taken care of and begin my build thread. I have a ton of photos to post. I will try to let you know if I figure out a fix. I am probably going to section the lower rear front fender and get the edges to align.
Now, if only those new doors will fit! My old ones were trash. Looking at this long exhausting post - why did I buy this rust bucket in the first place?

[Gene Sharp]

OK we are started on the fix
the hole in the fender sheet metal and the back brace in the fender were out of line at the top so I had to take a grinder to the fender flange and now they are perfectly in line at the top
at the botom pressed in on fender with a double sheet of paper betweeen it and the cab in door packet bulge area found where the contact area is
will cut out a little of brace with plasma cutter or body cutting wheel tomorrow then bolt up
part of the problem may be the lack of curve in new fender and the flange at bottom of fender needing to be bent up
maybe a little jack up with porta - power

Gene Sharp

[OrrieG]

Do you have the hood on while adjusting so you can make sure you don't warp the top of the fender/hood gap?? Just a thought...

[bondobob]

I ran into the same thing on my '57. With the new fenders lined up with the door tops and cowl I realised if you sighted down the body line from back to front the front fender was going up hill 3/4"! I had the frame, cab and door body line perfectly level. No matter how I measured, straight edge, bubble level, or string level. the front of the fender needed to come down 3/4" and this was without any rubber under the radiator support. I tried raising the body but then the bottom of the "rocker panel" wouldn't line up with the step on the bed. So I took a deep breath and cut off the frame just behind the rad support and dropped it down1 1/2" and now the body line is perfect. Next problem was the back of the fender over-lapped the door so I trimmed off the front edge of the door and it looks great. This was after cutting the rear supports on the fender to get the curves to match the doors. Yes, it does line up with the hood. Definate PIA! My replacement rear fenders fit perfectly.

[Gene Sharp]

When you have this problem with the Radiator support first thing to search for is a bent frame ,,,,maybe from hauling loads too heavy or the "jumping Truck" trick
Either way front of frame bent up or middle down .

Gene Sharp