Thread: Fiberglass skin on steel fender?

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had a blow-out tire at speed and pretty well mangled my passenger fender on my 1934 Ford 2 Door (purchased last week!).
When talking to a buddy, he mentioned that I may have to replace the "skin" on the fender. When questioning him, he told me that the fenders are coated with fiberglass. ( I see a thick layer of material between the paint and underlying steel.)
Is this normal, necessary, &/or easily repaired by my usual paint/body man?
Links to the pictures are below. I would appreciate some comments/reassurance/guidance.

http://s157.photobucket.com/albums/t...ut%2001292010/

Looks like the fender has a bunch of filler on it, not too unusual if they were stock steel fenders and fairly well hammered... Good body man should be able to fix ya right up!

I'm with Dave on this one ....... you pic is detailed enough to see the 1/4 mud the body guy did to "straighten" the fender.

Pull the fender & remove all that trash. Spend some cash & have a REAL old school pick & file guy bring it back to life. A THIN layer of plastic is kinda OK but what they did with yours is a bit much .... in my opinion.

REGS

looks like they used abit of glass filler like mar glass then a body filler looks to be 1/4 .here is the deal the fender is over 70 years old hard to say whats going on need to strip it to steel were hurt and i would NOT strip the hole fender less its failing .you may get in to alot of work and time .less the insurance gives you a open check? i been there and dance with the insurance were you can put 20+ hours of body work in the fender with no paint time. i do know over the years the lips get bent and rip getting them to look good takes time if you do not want much filler. but i have and would put a thin coat over a body panle many times then 6 coats of primer and a skin coat of putty or the primer them more primer

I'm glad you guys saw what I thought I was seeing. I couldn't quite figure out what was on there but it looked like a very thick coat of body filler to me. I wonder how much of the rest of the body is done that way? Might be time to get a magnet out and run it over the whole car.

Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

I'm glad you guys saw what I thought I was seeing. I couldn't quite figure out what was on there but it looked like a very thick coat of body filler to me. I wonder how much of the rest of the body is done that way? Might be time to get a magnet out and run it over the whole car.

Don

why ? to late now if it looks good and your going to keep it get ready to spend alot of money down the line to fix it . i not saying it great to have filler that thick but how many time s have you taken a magnet to a car show fender s by the beads are all ways going to have a bit more filler on old cars less they were in great shape. you do not need a magnet just run your fingers in the outer and inner that will tell you how thick the body man in the can is on the fender lips

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

why ? to late now if it looks good and your going to keep it get ready to spend alot of money down the line to fix it . i not saying it great to have filler that thick but how many time s have you taken a magnet to a car show fender s by the beads are all ways going to have a bit more filler on old cars less they were in great shape. you do not need a magnet just run your fingers in the outer and inner that will tell you how thick the body man in the can is on the fender lips

Pat, those were my thoughts, too. Btsave bought a car that he's happy with, and if you're going to run a magnet over the whole car to check for filler the time to do that is before you write the check. This is one of the issues with buying a finished car - you are at the mercy of the owner to understand what's under that shiny paint, unless he's showing you a build book of photos documenting the process start to finish. At this point I'd fix the fender, buy some good tires and be done, unless you're ready to strip the whole car down to bare metal and do it back "your way" anyway. Just my $0.02, others may disagree.

Originally Posted by rspears

Pat, those were my thoughts, too. Btsave bought a car that he's happy with, and if you're going to run a magnet over the whole car to check for filler the time to do that is before you write the check. This is one of the issues with buying a finished car - you are at the mercy of the owner to understand what's under that shiny paint, unless he's showing you a build book of photos documenting the process start to finish. At this point I'd fix the fender, buy some good tires and be done, unless you're ready to strip the whole car down to bare metal and do it back "your way" anyway. Just my $0.02, others may disagree.

I think that this is the route I'm going to take. This is meant to be a fun driver, not a show car. As body problems come up over time, I'll have my man tackle them in an appropriate manner. I'd rather spend my $$$ on the drive train, brakes, etc. than redo a body which, at least to me, looks acceptable to good. Now, if I ever hit the jackpot.... who knows! Oh, I replaced all 4 tires this morning In terms of filler, it does hide problems, but once the problem shows itself, it can be corrected... though with more cost? is that the case? I noticed a few rust "bubbles" on the door skin, especially where they shaved the handles off and am having my body guy attack those as well. I agree, I would prefer an all metal repair, but this car would just cost too much to strip down and completely redo... plus, I'l probably be too old to enjoy it by the time it's done!

Originally Posted by btsave

I think that this is the route I'm going to take. This is meant to be a fun driver, not a show car. As body problems come up over time, I'll have my man tackle them in an appropriate manner. I'd rather spend my $$$ on the drive train, brakes, etc. than redo a body which, at least to me, looks acceptable to good. Now, if I ever hit the jackpot.... who knows! Oh, I replaced all 4 tires this morning In terms of filler, it does hide problems, but once the problem shows itself, it can be corrected... though with more cost? is that the case? I noticed a few rust "bubbles" on the door skin, especially where they shaved the handles off and am having my body guy attack those as well. I agree, I would prefer an all metal repair, but this car would just cost too much to strip down and completely redo... plus, I'l probably be too old to enjoy it by the time it's done!

well you want steel under the filler and that look to be so .its is one of them deals were the guy did not work the steel out much hard to saying why? i have work on many old cars . some guys think it better to pick and file .well i seen fenders from the pick n file days were they are so thin you can not work them much other then tap them in shape and fill them hard to say how many times over the years they been re work . it was never hard for me to fix a body panle that had been fix before and work it out with less filler or to steel with no filler if there was some steel to work with .the big deal with old bodys is the old time body guys did was to bust the old paint off and they did that with sanders with 36 grit or less with a hard backer after a time or to of that they get thin .i like to work the steel up with a doly by tapping it up then a finsh hammer then some slap file lite sand with 80 grit guide coat lite picking up if needed with a pick hammer the a lite file then da with 80 grit .i fixed alot of new steel this way .it came in the body shop hurt after you took it out of the box new .it was faster for me then waiting for body filler to dry i put many door skins on this way to i work with steel more then some it was faster for me to work the steel out to no filler or one coat of filler .some guys do not know how to work steel or care to .they are what we call cave and pavers or body man n the can

Originally Posted by REGs

I'm with Dave on this one ....... you pic is detailed enough to see the 1/4 mud the body guy did to "straighten" the fender.

Pull the fender & remove all that trash. Spend some cash & have a REAL old school pick & file guy bring it back to life. A THIN layer of plastic is kinda OK but what they did with yours is a bit much .... in my opinion.

REGS

Well, I brought the '34 down to my body guy and we spent a great deal of time going over it, We found one or two areas with fiberglass fill, but the vast majority of the car looks okay. I asked him about the 1/4 of mud, which looks that way in the pictures, and he measured it for me. It is actually a very thin amount, he said it looked like between 1/16 & 1/8". Obviously, I took the pics when I was waiting on the side of the road for a spare to be dropped off and it looked much worst to me... now, in the light of day and with my body guy there, it wasn't as much "mud" as we thought! Looking again at the pics, part of the issue is shadow under the "flap" and what looks to be multiple coats of paint on top of it... Insurance adjuster comes Tuesday, work should start on Thursday...

Sounds like nothing more then a glaze coat to get everything nice, flat, and smoothed.... I get a kick out of the "don't want any filler used on my car" crowd.... They're usually quite adamant about it till you explain that metal finishing the entire car vs. a glaze coat of filler usually triples the labor!!!!! Today's fillers are very high quality, offer excellent adhesion, and is a whole lot less labor intensive then filing and shaping the metal.... From 1/16" to a max of 1/8" isn't even an issue, IMO,,,,,.