53 Chevy - Body Work Part 1

Fender Repair

I stripped all the old paint from the cab using Mar-Hyde Paint Stripper and lots of elbow grease. Actually, this process is a lot easier than I thought it would be. Just make sure to have good ventilation and gloves. It took several applications to remove the many layers of paint and primer on my truck (including the original Juniper Green).

Compared to the floor and bottom cab corners, I was surprised to see how good of shape the metal on the rest of the cab is. Actually everything above 2" from the botton in solid as can be. The truck must have sat in the mud for some time. Here you can see the bottom edge of the front driver's side fender was in pretty bad shape. Brand new fenders are available in either steel or fiberglass. But, in my effort to try and salvage as much of the truck as possible, I decided to try and rework these. First step, cut out all the rust.

Done.

Now, using what I removed as a pattern, I formed a piece of new sheet metal to match. After lots of hammering, trimming, grinding, and such, I got it pretty close and tack welded it into place. With a little more work and bondo, no one will ever know.

Same process on another fender. Nearly all of the repairs are needed at the bottom edges. Best I can tell, dirt and moisture must get trapped in the rolled edge. Could probably fiberglass and bondo this one. But since I am getting pretty good at welding, I elect to fix it the right way the first time.

Looks good.

For the front of the rear fender, I was actually able to buy a pre-formed patch panel. Rust in this area must be rather common because this is where the running board attaches. The patch panel only replaces the area where the running board attaches.

Patch panel is in place. I also added a another smaller patch just above it to complete the repair.

Here a picture of the truck all stripped down and patched.

Front Page