Driver fender is a hot mess...

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jcmeyer5

jcmeyer5

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Little background... dad bought this 1969 Dart Swinger 340 car 20+ years ago. We knew this particular fender would need help. We thought it was a dent that had been (poorly) filled with bondo… yes and no. It appears to have been wrecked, and then the bottom rear section was cut off, and BRAZED back onto the rest of the fender. Photos don't do the mess justice... but here they are. I think this is beyond my skills. If I could easily get the brazing out, I might be able to make it work... but then I still have to straighten everything. Anyone got any tips for removing brazing?

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jcmeyer5 said:
Little background... dad bought this 1969 Dart Swinger 340 car 20+ years ago. We knew this particular fender would need help. We thought it was a dent that had been (poorly) filled with bondo… yes and no. It appears to have been wrecked, and then the bottom rear section was cut off, and BRAZED back onto the rest of the fender. Photos don't do the mess justice... but here they are. I think this is beyond my skills. If I could easily get the brazing out, I might be able to make it work... but then I still have to straighten everything. Anyone got any tips for removing brazing?

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You can grind it to level with 24 grit on a body grinder to level the high spots on the brass. Make sure things are below grade with a straight edge and then fill it again.

You would be surprised how much bondo is in show cars to get them straight.
 
Option 1 Direct interchange would be any 1969 dart.

Option 2 You can use a 68 dart fender but need to weld up the round light hole, and graft in the rectangular reflector flange from your original 69 fender. You will also need to remove the spotwelds on your 69 headlight bucket support mount out of your 69 fender and transfer that to the 68 fender.

Option 3 A 67 dart fender would need the same mods as the 68 fender with one exception. You wont need to fill a light hole, just add graft in the 69 rectangular reflector hole, swap 69 fender light bucket housing to the 67.

Option 4 and prob best option if you cant find a good used 69 fender is to buy a new AMD steel full 69 dart front fender, and not complain about price
 
That fender is savable.
Take it off and evaluate, it was most likely a straight fender off a parts car that the bottom was rusted, somebody brazed and non rotted fender bottom on it.
If you really want to remove the brass, you will have to heat it up.
With no torches propane MAP gas will get hot enough to remove it. But then what do you have, a fender that is not usable.
Take it off, hammer and dolly it straighter, and move on.
Or find a nicer fender.
 
I have a stud welder and slide hammer, hammer and dollies, and a lot of time this winter. I think it is a "get it straight enough to not need an embarrassing amount of filler and make it work" situation. $300 for a unknown used fender and $600 for new... I'm thinking dance with the one you brung. I am just worried about getting the body lines back, because right now they are obliterated.

PS: Heat is an awesome way to get body filler off!
 
jcmeyer5 said:
I have a stud welder and slide hammer, hammer and dollies, and a lot of time this winter. I think it is a "get it straight enough to not need an embarrassing amount of filler and make it work" situation. $300 for a unknown used fender and $600 for new... I'm thinking dance with the one you brung. I am just worried about getting the body lines back, because right now they are obliterated.

PS: Heat is an awesome way to get body filler off!
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That is what I would do.
I bought two sets of fenders, 4 in total before I got a really nice set for my Duster, both of the ones I ended up using I had to put aftermarket bottoms on, but they were straight.

The other two were rust free, but beat to crap from hail damage, there would have been more filler in them, than putting the fender bottoms on the rusty ones.

All these fenders fooled me when I bought them, they looked good, had paint on them and looked straight, until stripped to bare metal.
 
I own a welding company.
Light grind the braze. Or torch heat to remove the braze, but take a chance of warpage.
Brazing was the normal body work procedure back when because mig welders were not even a thing back then for body repairs. Now a days you can buy them for a couple of a hundred bucks and find them everywhere.
 
If you buy a fender, buy one without the side trim holes. Otherwise you'll be welding up those holes and warping it.
 
I’ll work on it some more tomorrow... maybe it’s not as bad as I think. I will have to weld the interior structure... the PO didn’t do that.

I could cut that strip where it is brazed out and weld in fresh... then I’d only have the body lines to shape. Anyone got any ideas on that one?
 
For the body lines after you get things as straight as you can. Put a couple layers or 3/4" body painting tape just at the body line you are trying to shape. Then fill down to the tape from the top with bondo. Peel the tape just as the bondo is setting. Now do the reverse on the top side of the body line and fill it up from the bottom.

Keep going back and forth like this until you get your body lines up to grade and straight.

Use the tape at the body lines as a guide as you are sanding it straight, this gives you something to follow.

Same with sanding the primer surfacer work as you are working to keep the lines straight.

Just like in this this photo below.

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I would replace it with something correct and nice.
By the time you monkey with modifying a 67 or 68 fender to have the correct marker, you're almost back to square one.

Good luck finding a good used one. They are usually overpriced and still need some work. By the time you fix it, you're almost to the cost of a new one.

A 69 swinger is a valuable car these days, having a nice one is a privilege, it ain't going to be that nice with scars of old body work from people being cheap decades ago.
69 Dart Fender LH 200 2069 L

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The left rear quarter on my 64 Valiant is similar. You don't have to get the brazing out. Who told you that? You can grind it smooth, straighten the metal and fill right over it. Mine has brass in it. That crap ain't goin anywhere. I got a lot of forming work to do as they use a bucket load of filler, but I'm going to fix it. That fender looks workable to me.
 
Yes Brazing was the standard way to do rust patching panels before the handy wire feed welders came out, and for putting the new back quarter panels on cars. Just grind it clean and don't leave any shinny areas on the brass so that your body fillers have something to stick to properly.

Good idea to put down Duroglas (fiberglass based filler) or actual fiberglass and resin as a first coat over any welding work to help make the seams way more water proof. Then go to Bondo after that for your final shaping. The "Light Weight" bondos are easy to sand and shape too.


Yes that repair patch they did there is not that bad. take a look at the nice door gap they were able to establish, that is no easy trick, They did a nice job on that. Fill it and Straighten it and it will look like new.

As stated before, the old Street Rods with 50 year old round fenders on them are bondo from front to rear to get the paint jobs to look nice on them. So would not feel bad about a little bondo.
 
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That fender isn't that bad, take the time and work it until it looks reasonable, then use filler as others have suggested, and yes, show cars often have filler on them.
 
I know that show cars can have filler... almost any car that has been restored will have filler... its the embarassing, 1" thick filler that I wish to avoid.

As luck would have it, I found a guy with a good (not perfect, but far better than what I had) 1967 fender... and it was on the way to another pickup I had to do for work today. So I have a nice used fender in the back of my truck right now that I will play with later tonight.
 
Got the fenders back. I think I’m only going to use the driver. Cut off some parts from the old fender to install on the new one. I see what you guys were saying about the headlight bucket. Drilled the spot welds out on that one.

So the tear down is done on the old (not original BTW) fender. Found no collision damage underneath.

Obviously the headlamp bucket is different. There is also a bracket that does from the fender lip to the top of the fender. It is spot welded on. Took that off too to use.
 
So I’m nearly done with the fender. To recap, I took an original 1967 fender, drilled out the headlight bucket to replace with the original from the original 69 fender. I also had to cut off and replace rusty mounting brackets on the rear of the fender, as well as half the inner fender mounting flange. I also have a small patch to do at the lower rear yet. So far, this is where I am...

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Oh and I have the trim holes welded shut too. The driver door front edge will need som repair as well. I am going to strip the door first though before I start so I know what I’m getting in to.
 
jcmeyer5 said:
So I’m nearly done with the fender. To recap, I took an original 1967 fender, drilled out the headlight bucket to replace with the original from the original 69 fender. I also had to cut off and replace rusty mounting brackets on the rear of the fender, as well as half the inner fender mounting flange. I also have a small patch to do at the lower rear yet. So far, this is where I am...

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Looking real nice, on track for Success . . .
 
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