Replacement Front Fender Panel

[David M Patrick]

Working on a 63 T6 and have some repair panels for the rear of the front fenders that do not match the profile of the front of the door. Does anyone know if any of the vendors may have a panel that matches the door profile better? The parts I have are old parts from Restoration Design so maybe they have improved this panel? Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[Martin Benade]

Those panels tend to look pretty unlikely until they are getting installed. Mine were from Stoddard and fit quite nicely, although off the car I was worried.

[Phil Planck]

Or you can make your own using Ron Roland's technique described in his book.

[David M Patrick]

Thank you Martin and Phil. I'll pull out Ron's book and go from there. I appreciate the response.

[Martin Benade]

Restoration design would probably give you a straight answer about older parts from them. I understand they are good to deal with, and it used to have different ownership, meaning that older parts may be different quality from the good parts they supply now.

[Jim Hohensee]

Most 356 doors have some lead filling on the leading edge of the door, cowl, and fender to custom fit each car. I have seen it as much as a 1/4" thick. This can be removed or added to bring things into spec. I agree that things look bad when you first get started but improve as you go along. Mike and his guys at Restoration Design are very dedicated to helping and getting things right. No one panel is going to be a perfect fit on every car. "Made buy hand"
Good luck,
Jim

[Jim Wayman]

I have had better success in having them made up from scratch to match the door. Make a pattern of the leading edge of the door and have the fabricator make the fender panel to match. Better than messing with the old lead.

[Trevor Gates]

Here’s how you make it starting with a flat piece of sheet metal. Fender Repair 101: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=40193&hilit=Fender+repair+101

Besides making my own from scratch I’ve also used Simonsen’s panel. Reasonably good fit with exception of the tight spot, but this is NOT the manufacturer’s fault (whether it be Simonsen, Restoration Design, Stoddard, etc). All the doors are different, therefore the best we can hope for is a reasonable fit.

A20A2F53-00F1-422F-B287-4F3E245387D4.png (4.42 MiB) Viewed 1330 times

[David M Patrick]

Thanks for the information. I'll try to start tackling it this week using the panels I have and working them to fit.

[ScottBerry]

Trevor great article. As a general rule what should be the gap around these cars be in metal stage to shoot for (with primer ) but prior to paint?

[Martin Benade]

I think 3mm with paint is what people consider correct. The front edge (ledge) of the door often had about 6mm of lead to fit it to the fender edge. This can be duplicated with an aluminum-filled polyester filler with good results, or with lead. Or fit the new edge to meet perfectly with the unleaded door, but that’s more difficult and not exactly original. I would say leading that is not done by an expert is probably inferior to polyester filler. I have done non-expert leading a couple of times. It takes skills I don’t possess.

[Spencer Harris]

I think 3mm with paint is what people consider correct. The front edge (ledge) of the door often had about 6mm of lead to fit it to the fender edge. This can be duplicated with an aluminum-filled polyester filler with good results, or with lead. Or fit the new edge to meet perfectly with the unleaded door, but that’s more difficult and not exactly original. I would say leading that is not done by an expert is probably inferior to polyester filler. I have done non-expert leading a couple of times. It takes skills I don’t possess.

From the '56 workshop manual, page B54:

56 Shop 3mm Gaps.JPG (117.62 KiB) Viewed 1223 times

[Jim Hohensee]

You have received some great advice from the members so far. I have done several of these repairs over the last 35 years and have found it to be the most challenging area of the car. The most critical and difficult part of the job is where the door transitions from swinging out to swinging in. Even with the 3mm gap it actually closes as the door opens. The thickness of the fender lip is very important. As you know it is 3 layers of metal crimped together and it has to be hammer and dollyed together very tight. Depending on the types of primer and paint that you are using you will want to leave an appropriate amount of clearance especially in this area. I can't tell you exactly what that is so you will have to do some test painting to tell. Don't want to scare you into not trying this but be carefull.
Best of luck,
Jim

[Trevor Gates]

This is the area Jim is referring to. I had to make a modification, however this is absolutely to be expected and not a negative on the Simonsen panel.

[David M Patrick]

Thanks for all the help. Everyone had some great ideas and advice. Like stated by several the Restoration Design panel was good once I started working with it. It took some modifications but overall I could not expect much more. Pretty stoked to be adding new metal instead of cutting out rust.