Front Fender Removal

[PimpinPorsche]

Hey dudes,
I need to remove my 71 914's front fender on the driver's side because of a little accident. I already tried drilling through the welds but I cannot find a single one. I already have a new fender that I restored. I know how to remove the front bumper and get the drill in there to drill it out. I could take it to a body shop but that cost a lot and it is more fun this way. Please let me know of an easy way of removal. Thanks guy, Jon

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

The "easy way" means using a plasma cutter ($$$) and leaves a real mess behind. Either that, or uses a Sawz-all (much less $$$) and leaves an unbelievable mess behind.

The least-messy way to go about it is to get a spot-weld cutter (a drill bit with extras) and cut every single spot weld. You'll have to find them all, of course. This means taking off all of the undercoating and filler around the edges of the fender, and most likely the paint as well. Spot welds can be tough to see--light hitting the surface from an oblique angle can help you to see the slight surface imperfections.

If your new fender was removed from the car in the same way, you should be able to see the areas where the spot welds are. But since they were done by hand, they probably won't be in the exact same locations.

If your new fender was removed by cutting, then you'll simply have to cut the old one off and weld the new one on as best you can. Then re-finish and re-paint.

--DD

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Pelican Parts 914 Tech Support

A few pics of my car: http://www.pelicanparts.com/gallery/Dave_Darling

[captjm]

I have had good results using a die grinder and cut off wheel. I would plan your cuts and go slow. The old saying-- "measure twice cut once" applies here. Good Luck!

[KWales]

Jon,

Dremel tool with cutoff wheels do the trick. Bought a 69 piece cutoff kit at Wally Mart last week for about $11.60 and cut out my panel in front of the windshield. They now have new wide wheels that hold up a lot better better than the thin ones. Cut the horizontal flat part of the gutter on the fender next to the vertical wall. Then sand the wall with a sanding disk to find the welds. Cut there with the dremel disk or spotweld cutter. If you use the circular spotweld cutter you will still have to cut the spotweld disks off.

Ken