My son and I were glad to find a matching front fender today and a wrecking yard. We got it off with ease and brought it home. While putting it on the track, it will go where it supposed to, but then when we open the front door it crunches under it, is there a trick for installing it and having the front door not interact with it?

My son, and I finding a good fender at the wrecking yard.

 

Is your 1988 Toyota truck 2WD?

 

There is no way to slide the fender forward to open up the gap between the fender and door?

 

Yes. Our truck and the found truck are both 2WD

 

And that works! But then the holes don’t line up.

 

check your door alignment also, you may need to or be able to move the door slightly rearward to help with the gap.
It can take a lot of fiddling to make 1/4 panels and door line up properly especially if the vehicle has been hit in the past either the donor or recipient.
shim or adjust the panel out instead of forward if that helps.

 

Yep, that makes sense. It had a previous crunch and that is why we were getting a "new" fender.

 

It's installed! My son put the bolts in loose, then used a screwdriver wedged between the fender and door to nudge the fender forward, while tightening the bolts. It rubs a teeny tiny bit, but it's very usable. Now he can install the replacement marker light. Thanks for the ideas and help!



The "new" fender installed and looks perfect with the rest of the truck.

 

A good tool to use for gapping is a wooden paint stir stick. You can use it without fear of chipping the paint. Good luck with your truck!

 

If you still want more clearance, you can elongate the mounting holes back toward the door with a good round file to allow a bit more forward movement to clear the door edge.

 

If the screw that is on top and you have to open the door to get to, could be tighter, it would lift the panel up enough not to rub. But it’s a bit stripped and just won’t hold it tight enough. The file is a good idea. I will ask him if he’d like to try it.

 

Lift that panel high enough to clear, mark a line where it is, and the drill a small 1/8" hole. Then, screw into that hole a sheet metal screw to stop the panel from slipping downward. As for that top bolt, I have wrapped Teflon tap several times around bolt threads to tighten them down even more in a semi-stripped hole. Between the two, that panel should stay in place.

If you want you can add a flat washer to that support screw so it over laps the sheet metal edge to hold the panel flush to the body panel. It's hidden by the door anyways.

 

Thank you! Those are very good ideas. It would be great if it would stay up in place. I'll show this to him.