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I'm looking into replacing a badly rusted through fender on my 89 pickup. Has anyone had any experience with aftermarket body parts like these? I thought this would be easier & less time consuming than trying to Bondo mine. I also have no experience using Bondo. http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/sk...FQiUaQodT9gNsQ
Check the shipping before you go too far. (I ran my address on the getallparts fender you picked, and shipping was twice the cost of the fender.) Auto body parts have much thinner sheet metal than you think (most of the strength comes from the way the are mounted), so they have to be packed carefully. When I replaced a fender like you are, I found a "local" wrecker who sold me the fender at about twice the online price, but since I could pick it up I came out ahead.
I ordered two new front fenders from Discount body parts. They were both ~$70 shipped to my door. $25 a piece plus shipping! They were thinner than factory but fit nice. I painted them and you can't even tell! One did have a small ding in it I applied spot putty to but other than that you can't complain!
Looks like Discount body parts have raised their prices since you ordered yours SilentBounty. It would be about $61 including S&H for the fender I need from them now. Do you know if your fenders were CAPA certified? Was removing the old fenders & installing the new ones difficult?
It does look like they raised their prices! Im not sure if they're CAPA certified or not. I doubt it honestly. For some reason the 4WD fenders are cheaper than the 2WD ones. Mine is a 4x4.
The installation and removal wasn't very hard. The worst part was getting the splash guard off of the rust. It's just a few 10mm bolts scattered all over and it'll come right off. Just don't tighten it completley down until you get it adjusted correctly.
Also, if yours is a 2WD the 4X4 ones will fit on it if you were wondering. But then you'll need new corner lights. Maybe something else I'm forgetting but I think that's it. Just a thought! Haha
I juster ordered a passenger side fender for my 88 4X4 from rockauto.com. The fender itself cost $42 dollars + $30 dollars to ship it. Overall the fender looks nice but the initial fitting was tricky (I think it may have gotten tweaked during shipping), I had to really put some force on it to get some of the bolt holes to line up.
I can't comment on thickness of metal or accuracy of forming. But one thing to consider is that the salvage part is likely to have been removed in a "group," with some smaller support parts. In my case, the apron stay had been bent, and I was planning to bend it back out (which would have been a hard job). The salvage fender I found had the stay with it, and the yard included it at no extra cost. (and a hub cover, but that was just a bonus!)
Replacement parts come primed, but the salvage piece is completely painted. You're not going to match color, but with the salvage piece you have the chance to put off repainting for as long as you like.
I also purchased an aftermarket bumper. It did not come with the rubber isolators, and it turned out I was missing two on the wrecked bumper, and had to buy them from the dealer. A salvage bumper would have had the rubber on it, in all likelihood.
I got a fender for my 1st gen off of eBay with shipping included it was a couple of dollars cheaper than RockAuto at the time. If you are replacing a right fender there will not be a hole for the antenna. I'm going to get a hidden antenna when I replace the radio.
the one i got from rockauto had an antenna hole. Im not planning on putting a stereo in this thing so I patched it. you can see the epoxy i used in one of the before pocs
03-17-2016, 09:12 AM
