Help! 59 FENDER REPAIR

[lou3606]

;help I'M SCRATCHING MY HEAD TRYING TO WORK OUT HOW TO APPROACH THIS REPAIR TO MY FENDERS.
I have a 59 Vette which has a perfect body but had some rust in frame and this could have caused this sag in the front and put a slight kink or crease to the side of the front fenders just above wheel, check pics the white mark indicates problem area. I have had the frame all fixed up and now sitting sqare the crease seems to be getting better but still there. HAS ANYONE HAD THIS PROBLEM
Regards to all Lou.

 

[JohnZ]

Vertical stress cracks in that area are frequently the result of a "splice" repair (partial front clip) for front end damage; are the original bonding strips intact?

 

[lou3606]

Hi John thank you for reply and yes the molding strips are in place and the car seems like it has never had a repair or an accident

 

[mpellowski]

59 Fender

Lou - I have a bulge in the same place on my 1960 and a guy told me this is caused by the front bumpers pulling it in and it should be shimmed properly to prevent this.

Mark

 

[lou3606]

hi Mark yes this is caused by the fromt body mount being adjusted too low or if the frame has had rust and it could sag in the front area.
I have learned a lot in the last month and with lots of help and advice from Tom Bryant he is a legend and he is a membet too, so if you get stuck I am sure Tom will give you some very wise advice.
Mark how I rectified my major problem here was by gently unsticking the bonding strip behind the fender just above the wheel using a flat wide blade like a scraper and gently tapping it with a hammer only about 6 / 10" on eather side of bulge, as long as it is not broken there or had a bad repair previously this should work. Then I made sure the front mount was spaced correctly till the bulge looked 70%-80% better and then I placed a low heat lamp on eather side to de stress all the f/glass and then I hooked some heavy wire on a bolt that was sticking out in the inner side of fender and ran the other end of wire through the body mould holes on the edge of fender just where the bulge was and pulled the bulge inn and placed a 4" long by 5/16 dia. rod to the outside of fender edge with the wire twisted over to hold it all in place and even pulled inn 1/2" past so now the bulge was the other way to the inside towards the engine and let it sit in the sun for a day here in Australia now is very hot, when I released the wire it looked good then I bonded the strips back to the inside after cleaning the area and placed the wire jigs back and let it dry overnight and again the next day was in the hot sun, but dont forget to adjust and torque the front body mount before all this.
my car come out nice just at the painters now will post some pics later
Good Luck and happy new year to all Lou.

 

[firstgear]

wow...great work!!!!