Inner Fender Replacement

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73dart_swinger

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I have a damaged inner fender on my 73 dart. How hard is it to replace this? Is it just a matter of drilling out spot welds and welding it back in? Only the passenger inner fender is damaged so I don't need to replace both as seen in the other post going right now. I have a friend who does body work and painting but I'm not sure if he's ever undertook anything like this before. I appreciate any help. Thank you.
 
I agree with Mrmopartech, depending on the location and severity of the damage. Drilling out spot welds sounds easy - believe me, it isn't! If there's any way to more easily replace the damaged section, that's the way I would go.
Sid
 
I realize that drilling out spot welds isn't easy or fun.

The fender is bent in the front corner, near where it attaches to the radiator support. It's up in that corner and i don't think it's possible to fix it without replacing the whole inner fender.

But this is a possible option to fix the car?
 
To the best of my knowledge there are no repo inner fenders available. You're stuck with finding a parts car and getting it from there. Can you post a picture of the inner fender so we can get a good look at the damage involved? Also, is there any damage to the frame rail or to the rad support in that area?
 
How bad is the damage? How did it get damaged? It might not be the only piece that has damage. I used to be a body man and I have never seen a just an innfer fender damage unless something came up from under the car and in that case you would have suspension and / or frame damage. If it was a frontal collision then you could have damage to the raditor support, inner fender, frame rails, suspension and even possibly firewall damage. We need to know what how this happened to access what the out come would be.

To remove the inner fender then you have remove the spot welds from the firewall / door pillar and remove the spot welds from the raditor support. You also need to know what the correct dimentions are, if not then nothing would line up correctly when putting everything back together.

As far as I know there are no aftermarket companies that make inner fenders. Your best best would be find someone that is parting out a Duster and try to find an inner fender from that.

Hope that helps.

BTW I find doing body work a lot easier then say rebuilding an engine which I find intimidating. LOL!!!
 
blackace said:
To remove the inner fender then you have remove the spot welds from the firewall / door pillar and remove the spot welds from the raditor support. You also need to know what the correct dimentions are, if not then nothing would line up correctly when putting everything back together.
Click to expand...

The inner fenders are also spotwelded to the shock tower. I removed a set and did not want to drill through the welds in the shock tower. I took a ball joint remover and pushed it down the round hole on the inner fender from above the shock tower. Then you can bank the remover down the side of the shock tower. The inner fender will tear some but you will be doing welding work anyway and it is an easy cleanup.
 
I hit a parked trailer with the car. It was parked going the wrong direction on the street. I turned a dark corner and I saw it at the last second and swerved to miss it. The front corner of the trailer caught the very corner of the fender, beside the headlight. It bent the front nose piece and bent my hood up. The inner fender was pushed back and is wrinkled right behind where it is spot welded in the front. The fender just peeled back like a lid on an aluminum can.

I'll try and get some pictures in the next couple of days. It's making me sick seeing my car like it is. It has a brand new motor and trans in it that only had about 1000 miles on it when the accident happened. If the repairs turn out to be too much, I'll start to look for another car for my drivetrain.
 
Your best bet would be to try and get a frame chart and measure it to make sure no other damage may have occured. You might be able to find one on Ebay but I would go to a local Body Shop and see if they have one laying around they might be able to make a copy of. If everything measures ok then you can either pull it out or cut it out and replace it.

How is the gap between the passenger side door and right front fender (the Door pillar area)? That would be place the look to see if there was any real damage done.
 
The fender bent in half right at the center line of the tire, it took the brunt of the hit. It pushed back into the door and then the tongue of the trailer swung into the door and bashed it in. So, there is not way to check the gaps. I'm still trying to get a few pictures snapped of it. There is no damage to the inner fender after the front 6-8 inches. The driver side fender was knocked out of alignment. I believe this was done by the hood and the hinges because there is a small dent in the fender where the hood buckled.

I'm no expert, but I don't see how there could have been any damage done to the frame of anything like that. I was only going 15-20 mph when it happened. And the trailer didn't hit my bumper, just the front corner of the car where it is all sheetmetal.

I'm still looking for a likely donor for parts so if anyone has a lead for an a-body near ft.worth, waco, abilene or dallas, I'd appreciate any help.
 
You don't state whether the damage occured on the right or left side of the vehicle. If the collision was on the left side check the gaps on the right side. If the collion was on the right etc...

If hit just right you can cause frame damage, and with speeds of 15 - 20 mph has an impact of 30 to 40 mph. Air bags are designed to deflate at about a 10 mph collision. A 10 mph collision can cause frame damage to unibody vehicles. A 73 Dart is a unibody vehicle.

Any damage that occured that caused an inner fender to buckle I would make sure the measurements are where they are supposed to be. But that's just me.
 
I got an inner fender from someone on FABO. It was a driverside and the spotwelds were cutout already. I just tacked a peice that I needed in and just kept spot- tacking until all of the gaps were filled. Then I ground all of the hi spots off and went down to Eastwood and ledded er in. I would def try to only replace whats needed, but if you are patient you'll find a donor fender for your Dart. If you decide to replace the whole Inner fender be careful cutting the spot-welds and make sure whoever you get your donor fender from is too. Then you'll be able to plug-weld everything together real easily. (trust me there is nothing easy about this job) :salut:
 
The damage occured on the right side of the car. I can't check the gaps on the driver side because the fender was knocked out of alignment by the hood (I believe this is how it happened). I have driven the car since the accident and it seems to drive straight and not pull. I know this is no substitute for actual measurements, but at least it is driving straight.
 
Your best bet would be to take off the damaged fender an take it to a body shop to have the inner fender an core support straightened then you can install a good fender an door to get it back in shape.

MVC-003S.JPG
 
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