[joefrantz]

Todd

I admire your desire to do it right and keep it narrow bodied. Long hoods are getting too scare to be cutting up.

A couple of thoughts:

If you haven't already, take off the conversion bumper and bellows to see what's under there. I recently saw a post where someone found the original fenders intact under the conversion bumper.

Check with the major used parts suppliers for availability and pricing of used long hood fenders and hood. That should give you a realistic upper limit on used prices. You can probably also get a breakdown by condition. I would start with EASY. Jim is great to work with.

As to the newly available factory fenders, I think $1100 sounds vary attractive. Unless you are doing your own bodywork you can easily sink that much into a decent used fender that needs patch work and metal finishing. However, don't assume that the new fenders won't need metal work to get a proper fit. There was a lot of custom fitting done by the factory on the panel gaps - plus there is no guarantee that the new fenders will fit as well as the originals.

Good luck.

Joe