Hi there, before I ask another question, I would like to thank for the replys of advice and knowledge. Being a restore rookie this site has help me alot!
I'm hoping to buy new steel fenders for my 51 M100(f100) truck. Does anyone have any ideas? I have fiberglass ones with star type cracks and the bodyman dude says no matter what I do, they soon will return.
I would rather not go back to glass.
Thanx eh!

 

Steel fenders for 51/52 aren't repro'd; stock ones without rust are very rare and very pricey. I don't understand why your bodyman can't grind out the stars and re-glass them? It's a common repair, and if done right, shouldn't recur. Are the stars from rocks or bumps?

 

The previous $#%*head owner who put these fenders on, never protected the underside of the fender with anyithing! These stars are about 1/4in at the largest and I would say alot of them. If this is the case I'm probley going to either buy new fibreglass ones. Don't think I will find good fenders without loading them up with some kind of filler. I see blue oval sells fenders or at least their catalogue shows them. Do you know anyone else that sells these?

 

Hi,

Try: www.fairlanecompanymi.com
Phone: 248-676-9293
Fax 248-676-9295

Chuck

 

Rock stars will return if not fixed properly. The impact has separated the laminate layers, you can't just sand them out. A hole will need to be drilled thru each one of a size a little larger than the legs of the star to remove the damaged glass. To repair you need to be sure the laminate is stable past the drill hole by impregnating the edges of the hole with thinned laminating resin, then tape over the underside of the hole and pack it full of "kitty hair" filler. Sand it down and finish as normal. I would suggest reducing the possibility of stars in the repaired or new fenders by coating the underside with a heavy application of a rubberized coating such as Rhinohide or Gater skin.

 

thanksssssssssssssssss

 

If you are running "street" fiberglas, most people don't protect the underside with anything. "Racing" fiberglas is very thin (for weight reduction) and rocks will damage it. Of course, you don't really want to be driving down gravel roads a lot in either case, it sounds like your PO was?

Repairs like AX describes are easy to do, that's why I'm surprised a body man would balk at doing it.

I don't believe Blue Oval or anyone else sells steel repro '51/'52 fenders, if you see they do, please let use know! Bebops sells excellent 'glass fenders for F-1's.

 

Today most bodymen are "replace the damaged panel" types. If you want a bodyshop to fix the fenders, try to find someone who repairs Corvettes, but the shop rates to hire someone to fix it are likely to be more expensive than replacing them.

 

I don't think any of the roads are paved in AB? If they need a new road they just plow a path in the snow.

 

I worked in a truck body shop for about 3 years and made the mistake of becoming pretty good at repairing fiberglass front ends of the big rigs. I say "mistake" because it's a diry, itchy job although pretty easy. I repaired front clips that had holes you could almost crawl through.

The way I did it was to sandblast the interior of the repair area (talk about nasty). We usually sandblasted the repair area because there were a lot of contours under the clip, this way we were able to get into every dip and bend. I then take a piece of cardboard and line one side with duct tape (resin won't stick to duct tape). I then taped it to the out side of the repair area, duct tape facing the hole. Then from the back side I applied several layers of fiberglass cloth saturated with resin, starting with a piece the size of the hole and applying bigger and bigger pieces as I went along. I applied the remaining resin to the entire area that was blasted to seal it and bind it to the repair. After the resin hardened I peeled the cardboard from the outside, ground the repair area on the outside to get some "tooth" get it level to the surrouding area. Then applied tiger hair filler and worked it so it was level with the surrounding area and finished it off with plastic filler.

Fairly simple, really. The hard part was repairing the structural damage that accured to the substructure of the clip. Also, if you read the instructions that come with the fiberglass repair it will tell you to use gloves. That's a joke, as soon as yo start the gloves will rip apart. I just did it bare handed and used a product that was called Glove Coat. After I was done I could wash the resin and fiberglass off with warm water and soap. I you don't you'll be cleaning your hand with laquer thinner, also pretty nasty.

 

Too bad that you're in Canada as I have a nice set of steel 51/52 front fenders (uppers and lowers). I'm in San Jose, CA.

Ilya

 

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