How not to remove a fender (lessons learned, and a question)

[djmcmath]

Originally posted by ruf-porsche
Look inside the trunk (or boot if you're across the pond). There are a couple of bolts that holds the front fascia panel.

Could you please clarify -- where inside the boot ... uh, trunk? Thanks.


Some more lessons learned:
- The heat gun is a fantastic tool, though totally indifferent. It will heat your undercoating equally well as it heats your hand, your pants leg, or anything else you happen to be foolish enough to place in front of it.
- Sitting on the concrete floor of your garage gets really old. Padding makes a lot more sense after just a little while.
- If you tell your room-mate "As soon as I pull this one bolt, I'll be up for dinner," that "one bolt" will be guaranteed to take 10 times as long as any other bolt.


Dan

[JNadal]

Originally posted by ruf-porsche
Mechanic gloves?

What are you guys a bunch of sissy?

Work on all my cars bare handed all the time. Have all the scrape knuckles and scars to prove it.

Just don't stick your hand in the carb cleaner if you have an open cut. Oh, you sissy have CIS or Motronic or EFI so you never mess with carb cleaner.

Mechanic gloves, somerthing the ricers would use to reprogram their rice burners.

Cutting oneself on a rusty piece of metal or losing a fingernail isnt fun.
Also the gloves protect from heat and chemicals. I once had almost a half quart of hot oil run out of a filter in a very hard to reach position, after I removed the filter and realized that pain was kicking in, I took off the gloves and my hands were completely red, Lord knows what would have happened had I not worn the gloves...

[dickster]

wow, this sounds like hard work.

I suspect mine also has rust -- I live in the Seattle area, for crying out loud...

i may be missing something here but why rip it apart if you don't know it has rusted? can't you check before doing something so drastic? there must be signs?

i'm picturing everyone on the board running out to their cars to rip off the fenders to check for rust.........

good luck

[djmcmath]

There's really no way to know whether or not it's rusty. I mean, a Seattle-area car is more likely to rust than most other places, and an '80 is more likely to be rusty than an '89. I know that I found surface rust under my fenders, and was pretty happy to have found it before it got bad.

Dan

[TerryH]

Originally posted by djmcmath
I'm pulling the fenders to look for rust. A recent thread showed horrifying pics of somebody else's (forgive me, I've forgotten who) '84 with the fenders removed, exposing rust along the entire joint. I suspect mine also has rust -- I live in the Seattle area, for crying out loud...

Dan

Hope I never get this bored and please don't tear the walls off your house looking for termites.

[targa80]

Originally posted by dickster
wow, this sounds like hard work.



i may be missing something here but why rip it apart if you don't know it has rusted? can't you check before doing something so drastic? there must be signs?

i'm picturing everyone on the board running out to their cars to rip off the fenders to check for rust.........

good luck

Checking for rust up inside the front of the fender and the bumper shock support bracket area is impossible to do unless you are a doctor and have your own orthoscopic scope. The bumper shock support bracket has a ledge that dirt and moisture collect in and rust will eventually occur there even if the car is galvanized. Another area is at the top of the rear of the fender and the window cowling and the door frame. I had rust holes on one side of my car and rust occuring on the other side. Here are some photos of what I found on my 1980 Targa.

Yes ripping off the fenders might seem a little extreme to some but if you care about your 20+ year old car and live in a non dry climate it may not seem so extreme. I have seen pictures on this board of rust damage on a late 80's model car from Scotland with some major rust damage.

[djmcmath]

I'm right there with ya, Pat -- my next big project is ripping out the backseat to look for rust. Extreme? Maybe. But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Dan

[DanTheCat]

Tearing out the interior was pretty easy compared to what you've been describing. I had a bad leak from my rear window I had to investigate. Luckily no rust was found. Of course, I wasn't worried about reinstalling the big rubber insulation bit (or rather, bits after I was done). I don't know what they used to glue it down, but for a while I thought it was actually bolted in or something crazy like that. On my car there were two short strips of glue at the very back under the rear window that were literally impossible to pull up. I wound up tearing the rubber out and scraping the remaining rubber off with a screwdriver. A stiff putty knive would have come in handy.

Good luck with your fenders!

Dan