Driver Side Front Fender

 I took a little time off from the project to learn and practice some welding and bodywork skills.  Mostly because, this front fender was the biggest repair challenge so far.  I've looked far and wide for replacement fenders for a ' 70 Lemans.  There are none.  Basically, there's no front end body replacement products for this car, in this year, including the grill, fenders, or bumper.  There are plenty of parts to make a GTO clone, but that's not the goal.  I was lucky enough to find a guy selling an original front bumper which is rare since that's where most of the collisions took place.  Ya, I grabbed it.

So, here was the problem...

There had been a small collision on the corner of the driver side front bumper.  It had pushed the bumper up into the fender.  Now you can see why I grabbed the bumper when I found it.  I'm not sure I could straighten out the old one.

You can really see the damage with the bumper removed.

 Not having any fancy (expensive) body work equipment, I made do with what I had; a tow hook off an old Jeep, a ratcheting come-along and an iron pry bar wedged into the basement stairwell.

  

 The Hospital Rig held long enough for me to pull and pound out the majority of the kink.  Then, I took the fender off before I pulled the engine.  It has been sitting in the garage for the last couple of years.

I then began the work of pounding out the rest of the dent.

I worked the shape and contour until I was pretty sure I would only need about 1/16th of an inch of filler.  It was really close.

I had to do some welding on the back where the bracing had bent away and been damaged, so I started with the short strand fiberglass infused filler to prevent moisture from coming through any pin holes I missed.

After sanding down the short strand, the body filler went on.

The final filler result.

After finishing the body work, the fender got a coat of glazing putty.

It amazes me how the tiny little imperfections stand out with glazing putty.  All these little imperfections had to have come from the factory because there was no body work on that part of the car, just factory paint.  In the picture it appears to be pretty major.  In reality those white glazing putty spots are about as thick as a coat of interior latex paint.

Then the fender got its first coat of epoxy primer.  I know it's going to be a beast to scuff that stuff up when I shoot the final paint, but until then (which will be a while) I've stopped the rust.

As an extra rust conversion and prevention, I coated the inside of both fenders with POR-15.  I love that stuff.  I've been using it for a few years now and if the directions are followed it converts the rust and the coating dries, almost like a ceramic.  I just wish it could be exposed to UV rays without a top coat.