I have been looking for a front p***enger fender for my '57 Chevy truck and am running out of patience. I am starting to think about buying a USA made reproduction steel fender. Has anybody had and luck with these? What's the fitment like? Would I regret this? My original fender is not terribly banged up but I don't want bondo or filler in it so I don't know if the cost and results of having a metal guy reshape the original fender would be worth the time and money. Any thoughts? If there is a really good metal guy who sees this and could get the original fender back to original shape without any filler please contact me. Cheers.
I have never had that specific fender, but I have used lots of reproduction sheetmetal, with varying quality. Some are excellent, some need work, but all are going to need at least a little filler. That fender you have looks fairly solid, I would straighten it and just get it as close as you're going to get and be willing to use a small amount of filler to get it straight. There's nothing wrong with body filler used at an appropriate thickness and over a clean, properly prepped surface. Body filler gets a bad name because it's been abused a lot, but there are virtually 0 cars with nice paint jobs built without it. New cars have it on the lot. Don't be afraid of it, just use it properly.
That fender is pretty much junk. Yes there are guys on here that could fix it, but it is warped front to back. I would guess the headlight is down nearly an inch from correct location. As to replacement fenders I can't help you about fit. Think about it this way a good tin knocker can get in excess of $100/hr. You can figure at least 5 hours to get it near straight. I have no idea how many hours to get it to filler free shape.
I've been scouring CL all over the US. No luck. I'm close to just buying one from a repop co. Now which one to buy…..
I doubt you would get a perfect set of repo fenders that dont require filler as well. I agree with Squablow, nothing wrong with filler if applied right. And if you want completely straight, you have to use filler.
Go to Harbor freight and get their cheap body and hammer set and watch some video's on U Tube about metal bumping. Start on a small dent , It's not that hard and you have nothing to loose, your not going to hurt it.
Unless you are will to spend lots of time learning body work (years, probably, to get to a no filler repair skill) or lots of money paying a good metal man to redo your almost 60 year old tin, then you are probably looking at a repro. I suspect that there are as many, or more, suppliers for '57's than even for Deuces and Model A's. I think you'll need to hang out on some '57 sites to really get a good read on whose repro parts are best. Great knowledge on the HAMB, but limited numbers of traditional hotrodding guys are into '57's to that level of detail. Just to get you started, Eckler's lists a 1957 Chevy 3100 right fright front truck fender for under $400 plus shipping. Figure $500, which doesn't get you much metal man time at the shop. Just a thought. Keep us posted. http://www.ecklerstrucks.com/chevy-truck-front-fender-right-1957.html
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