Removing left front fender,need advice

[jester911]

I am going to be swapping out my driver side front fender in the coming weeks. I am looking for advice on what all is involved / what all do I have to remove to replace it.
I see one of the tricky places may be around the gas nozzle.
Any help on this would be appreciatted because I am going into this blind.

[dtw]

-look in trunk and note the large rubber sleeve which is clamped to the fuel filler neck. unscrew clamps and carefully work the sleeve down over the gas tank's side of the neck. This will free the neck attached to the fender for removal.
-disconnect secondary lines tied in to fuel filler neck as necessary
-cap off fuel tank to prevent contamination, allow for vapor escapage
-unscrew rocker deco which attaches to fender
-unbolt bumper bellows and fender extension panel
-remove several bolts in the wheel well area which travel up the fender mounting flange; may be obscured by road grunge and undercoating. Helps to remove wheel.
-open driver door and remove bolts at top of door jamb area just below the windshield/cowl area
-unsnap carpeting in trunk and remove several bolts along mounting flange of fender inside trunk area.
-unclip headlight wiring harness
-disconnect fuel overrun tank under fender

Do a reality check to see if anything is still connected to the fender. Double and triple check for fasteners. Then carefully begin to work the fender off the bead, holding it securely as closely as possible to mounting points. You don't want to flex the fender too much when pulling it off. The sealing putty provides quite a fight, so you'll have to pull fairly hard to get the fender to release. If you don't feel any movement, check again for hardware you missed.

[Jim Sims]

Buy a new fender fastener hardware kit as the old sealing washers (for fastener holes in joint between fender and wheelcase or front trunk) may not be reusable. It's my experience that these fender hardware kits do not have the new fasteners for the connection at the back of the fender to the fin that projects off the body nor the hex head cap screws used to connect the fender to the body near the windshield. If you're only changing one fender there should probably be enough fasteners in the kit (aside from the hex head cap screws of which there are none). Also obtain new packing material to go between the fender and the wheelcase and fin; the old packing is likely dried and full of dirt at the edges. When you remove fasteners note which of them mount the snaps used to secure the trunk felt. You may find some rust under the fender even on the galvanized cars; I'd have some wire brushes and some rust treating paint like "Corroless" on hand. The screws at the the back of the fender attaching the to the top of the projecting fin are difficult to access with the fuel filler hardware in the way. If previously unmolested, these screw heads are likely covered with undercoating (rocker schultz). This must be scraped off to have a socket or wrench register on the flats of the screw heads. The limited access generally requires the use of the sockets with the integral universal joint (there is not room to stack a socket and regular universal joint). In addition, it is also possible that the hex head cap screws near the windshield will shear off or the welded captive nuts on the trunk inside will break their welds (been there!) if the screw threads are rusty. The broken screws can be drilled out and one can reach around and install new regular nuts on the inside of the trunk. Before removing final fender fasteners check under the fender for other items that may have connections to the body (plastic vacuum bottles, horns, lights, etc.) and dismount and disconnect as required. It was our experience that the rubber "funnel" around the filler neck was rotted and cracked from age; this rubber funnel is retained by a very stong circular wire clip. There is also another foam rubber seal around the filler pipe on the inside of the trunk. Both of these may warrant replacing. We found it easier to pre-install most of the fittings onto the fender prior to reinstalling the fender on the car. Make sure you have the filler cover release cable reattached before you close the cover! Good luck, Jim