Fender Repair

[elshadow001]

I have a story to share!Within a week of the day that I bought my truck, I had an accident.Nope not vehicle! It was my truck verses a shopping cart at Walmart!As the wife and I were leaving a Walmart store a shopping cart came out from between two cars and Pow hit my right rear fender.Well I was moving about 15 miles per hour and it was moving at a unknown speed.It broke my fender! -- split it --- split was almost the whole length of fender running up and down to the bottomI went imediatley to the manager and we took pictures. Then I went to a body shop and got an estimateThe price of the fender alone was like over a thousand dollars I gave the estimate to walmart.total bill was like around $1,800 if i remember correctly.Believe it or not they paid me. Sent a check.Ok thats not the story yet!I went to the paint store and got a pint of matching paint and thinner etc.They asked me why don't you repair it yourself! and then they said we sell a plastic repair thay you mix up like body filler. They said it is mainly used on bumper repairs, but would work on the fender.Ok I bought some, not very costly. I went home and took out the rear fender well and it was very easy.on the inside it was very clean. So i worked the fender back into what was near the original postion, and put some air conditioning aluminum tape on the inside of the fender to hold it in place.Mind you this tape you cant get at lowes or home depot or wherever. This tape is made of pure aluminum with sticky on one side. Just peel and stick. It is some tuff stuff. Ok after putting the tape on it was almost like it had never been hit.Now I took my dremel tool with a small rotary file in it and sat down and slowly ground out the crack so it was almost all the way through. It is very easy to tell when your almost through you can see the broken area.. I did that all the way down the fender top to bottom, and then mixed up the plastic repair putty and smeared it in the crack, leaving it slightly higher then the fender.Now I used a rotary sander -- my wood sander -- sanded it smooth and put some primer on it.Off to the body shop! payed them $100 to spray paint the fender with my paint.That was in 2003 here it is 2010 and it still is holding great and can't be seen.So for me I had a net income of about $1500 for a days work!That is my story and maybee it might come in handy for someone else here that has a broken fender on the rear of their dodge truck

[Mopar1973Man]

Not bad... We need to see pics of this wonder work of yours...

[AH64ID]

Thats pretty impressive!By fender are you talking the bedside, or wheel well liner? I am having a hard time imagining a bedside cracking!

[elshadow001]

This is the rear bolt on plastic fender on my 3500 duallyIt is the outside dually fender on the right rear of the bedI went out and took these shots, if you look real close you can detect where the break was now after what like 8 years, not to bad i guess not perfect

[AH64ID]

Gotcha.. wasn't thinking the pickups with Hips

[ISX]

I can't see any trace of a crack anywhere. Definitely a good job on the repair! Truck is in excellent shape too

[Mopar1973Man]

Nice truck and good repair job too!

[tly02]

good job man!!! looks very clean

[smokeythedodge]

This is the rear bolt on plastic fender on my 3500 dually It is the outside dually fender on the right rear of the bed I went out and took these shots, if you look real close you can detect where the break was now after what like 8 years, not to bad i guess not perfect

shooot that is a clean truck.

[LT smoke]

HHMMMMM looks like i found my next project for my fat bottom girl...my left fender was busted when i got her....didnt really want to buy a new one ..or a new bed so now that i know its its an easy fix i guess i will try it myself ....heck i just replaced the track bar today myself .dont figure it will b much harder than that

[smokeythedodge]

HHMMMMM looks like i found my next project for my fat bottom girl...my left fender was busted when i got her....didnt really want to buy a new one ..or a new bed so now that i know its its an easy fix i guess i will try it myself ....heck i just replaced the track bar today myself .dont figure it will b much harder than that

:lmao: hahahaha duallys make the rockin' world go round!!!!

[elshadow001]

HHMMMMM looks like i found my next project for my fat bottom girl...my left fender was busted when i got her....didnt really want to buy a new one ..or a new bed so now that i know its its an easy fix i guess i will try it myself ....heck i just replaced the track bar today myself .dont figure it will b much harder than that

Just make sure you have patience when grinding out the crack. I have a old dremel, and it still works good. I actually have a chuck on the end of mine that tightens up like a drill chuck so it hold different sizes of shafts. I have some dental grinding burrs that the local dentist didn't want because they were dull. Hey dull grinder bits in a dental office work super great on plastic. Get the heavy duty aluminum foil at your hardware store its cheap like about $6 a roll and goes a long ways You can put a couple layers on the inside if you feel inscure about it holding the fender. Like I said Mine was clean on the inside of the fender so not much was done as far as cleaning. The tape stuck very good all i did was peel the plastic off to expose the sticky part of the tape, and then I ground out the crack big enough to hold the plastic filler. I don't think the crack was any bigger then about a quarter of an inch in the widest place. You can tell when your almost through as you grin the crack will open and expose the broken ends on the inside of the crack. Fill it up with the mix alowing it to be above the crack so you have enough to sand down almost smooth. Good luck! if I can share any other of my experiences just ask

[flagmanruss]

OK, you guys are not gonna wanna hear the right way to fix fiberglass... just like a boat, except there's really no pressure on it. I've patched lots of F-glass. Scuff up the inside, slap on a bandaid of cloth soaked in resin. Grind out the crack the same way as described & patch with autobody putty. If the crack won't lay flat, you might have to grind some of the cracks first but it's better to let the unit align itself than cut it free & then have to hold in that way while you repair it.Russ

[elshadow001]

Only one problem! the fenders are made of plastic! Not fiberglass!I worked for douglass aircraft in the 60's and was certified as a fiberglass aircraft repair person.I have repaired lots of aircraft parts made of fiberglass up to and including filament wound parts.These fenders are a whole differnt ball game, they are real cheap mold injection parts.No offense intended

[flagmanruss]

I've patched an acrylic tub with FG. Worked fine. After 5 years, cracked someplace else. Patching plastic parts is indeed trial & error. Glad it worked for you.Russ

[KOYOTE]

Only one problem! the fenders are made of plastic! Not fiberglass! I worked for douglass aircraft in the 60's and was certified as a fiberglass aircraft repair person. I have repaired lots of aircraft parts made of fiberglass up to and including filament wound parts. These fenders are a whole differnt ball game, they are real cheap mold injection parts. No offense intended

no offense taken cheap plastic parts are the future man!!!

[LT smoke]

lol i dont think i will have a problem on the grind part mine has a hole clear thru it ....as for the foil tape i have about forty rolls from when i worked at a heating and air conditioning sales service shop ....i will do some before and after photos this week

[Prowelder]

Hey,Looks very nice man!!!! I want you to come repair all the dents on my truck.... But they are steel... Well thin steel!!:lmao:Later,Winslow