Chevy1925
03-02-2009, 05:58 PM
Ok so i think i have to have my thread here put into the DIY section by the admins so here it is for now
I will be giving a full description on how to install fiberglass front fenders onto your truck as well as how to pull the bed sides out further. I do FORWARN, this is not for the faint of heart and will take a weekend for the people who have never done this before. I took me 7 hours to do my fronts but i also knew exactly what to do and how to fit them. one good thing about doin this mod is if you want to fit bigger tires or allow more suspension movement w/o tire rubbing its a great way to look good and keep the factory lines
First off you will need to pick up a set of front fenders from any place that offers them. Mine are Hannamen 5" bulge w/ a 1-2" rise. I had mine painted right away but they were on another truck that had the fenders already shaped close to where they needed to be. So i suggest you guys leave them unpainted, fit them right as ill show and then have them painted.
1. Now here we start diggin into your truck (or mine in this case :D). I started by taking my hood off at the two hinge bolts that the hood rotates on, you will also have to take off the hood lift spring bolts as well. lifting the whole hood all the way up will takeall the tension out of the springs and make them safe to remove. there is no need to remove them from the fenders unless you have some junk yard fenders you are using.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01471.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01491.jpg
2. next I started taking all the things that were connected to the inner fenders off as you will be taking the complete fender off the truck. Take the plastic inner fenders wells out at this point. The things i dissconnected (starting on the pass fender) was the battery and battery tray, unbolted the coolant bottle and used a bungy cord to hold it out of the way and removed the air filter assembly and air box tray.http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01462.jpg
the driver side fender i removed the other battery and tray, unbolted the fuse block and hold tha twith a bungy cord (there are four bolts, two hold the bottom so you will have to separate the part that has all the fuses in it from the block that supports it, the other two are bolted throught the side of the fuse block into the side of the fender.) , and take the wiper fluid hoses off the side of the fender along with the hood opener cable. Also remove where teh grill sweep around into the fender. there is one clip in there and use a pair of pliers on the tab behind the fender to take it out so you dont break it.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01451.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01481.jpg
3. From there you will start unbolting the front fenders. There are seven bolts on the passenger side, two right by the hood pivot, one at the front above the head light, one below the turn signal lights. one at the very bottom behind the tire, and two in the door jam where if you open the passenger door and look through the crack you will see them.
Driverside is the same except there are four bolts that are below the hood pivot mounting the front of the firewall. You will have to take all four out. I dont have pics of these but they are not hard to find, just take your time and look around the whole fender.
4. Next remove the fenders. You may have to give a little bit of effor to pull them off but no yanking. (my buddy and i a little too hiper on monster)
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01521.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01511.jpg
5. here is where the strong hearted come in as you will not be turing back from here. Now, here i recommend you go buy a spot weld cutter from any good automotive paint store to speed the process up and for those of you that think just drill them out will be as easy, it aint. the tool is well worth getting.
Once the fenders are off you need to drill each spot weld off for the outer fender ONLY and split the pinch that is on the back of the fenders. i used a pair of dikes to help pull the pinch up, THIS IS NOT WELDED.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301422.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301431.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301451.jpg
6. Here you will be trimming the inner fender parts to fit your new fenders. you cna also discard the old outter fenders if you like or sell them to a body shop (got 50 bucks for mine :cool:). here are some pics on where i trimmed mine. Though i warn, each company makes the fenders a bit different so some you may have to cut more and some you have to cut less, they are all different. I would recommend you trim the metal off the inner steel fender and not the fiberglass outer fender as you can always weld the steel back on
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301471.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301481.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301491.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301501.jpg
7. Once you get your fiberglass to fit correctly ( one thing i for got to say, i would suggest holding the inner fender to where it bolts and then put the fiberglass to it so you know where to trim) you can mount them to the truck to find where you will need to bolt the fenders down and drill your holes. You will more than likely have to wallow the hole out a bit in the fiberglass you make everything fit right. Dont be afraid to sand down the fender edges a bit to get your door jam gaps right or anything else. jsut go slow and take your time.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301511.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301531.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301541.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301551.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301561.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301591.jpg
8. Once you get your fenders all mounted and lookin good, put your hood back on (you wont have to realign it if you onbolt it where i said) and slowly lower it to find if you need to massage the fenders to fit right. from there, get yrou fenders painted and have fun! here is mine all done. Ill be putting a different DIY for pulling the rear bedsides
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01691.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01711.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01751.jpg
Let me know if there is anything else you guys want to know. Im only 22 and have never really done any body work, just about anyone can do it. you just need to take your time
I will be giving a full description on how to install fiberglass front fenders onto your truck as well as how to pull the bed sides out further. I do FORWARN, this is not for the faint of heart and will take a weekend for the people who have never done this before. I took me 7 hours to do my fronts but i also knew exactly what to do and how to fit them. one good thing about doin this mod is if you want to fit bigger tires or allow more suspension movement w/o tire rubbing its a great way to look good and keep the factory lines
First off you will need to pick up a set of front fenders from any place that offers them. Mine are Hannamen 5" bulge w/ a 1-2" rise. I had mine painted right away but they were on another truck that had the fenders already shaped close to where they needed to be. So i suggest you guys leave them unpainted, fit them right as ill show and then have them painted.
1. Now here we start diggin into your truck (or mine in this case :D). I started by taking my hood off at the two hinge bolts that the hood rotates on, you will also have to take off the hood lift spring bolts as well. lifting the whole hood all the way up will takeall the tension out of the springs and make them safe to remove. there is no need to remove them from the fenders unless you have some junk yard fenders you are using.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01471.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01491.jpg
2. next I started taking all the things that were connected to the inner fenders off as you will be taking the complete fender off the truck. Take the plastic inner fenders wells out at this point. The things i dissconnected (starting on the pass fender) was the battery and battery tray, unbolted the coolant bottle and used a bungy cord to hold it out of the way and removed the air filter assembly and air box tray.http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01462.jpg
the driver side fender i removed the other battery and tray, unbolted the fuse block and hold tha twith a bungy cord (there are four bolts, two hold the bottom so you will have to separate the part that has all the fuses in it from the block that supports it, the other two are bolted throught the side of the fuse block into the side of the fender.) , and take the wiper fluid hoses off the side of the fender along with the hood opener cable. Also remove where teh grill sweep around into the fender. there is one clip in there and use a pair of pliers on the tab behind the fender to take it out so you dont break it.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01451.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01481.jpg
3. From there you will start unbolting the front fenders. There are seven bolts on the passenger side, two right by the hood pivot, one at the front above the head light, one below the turn signal lights. one at the very bottom behind the tire, and two in the door jam where if you open the passenger door and look through the crack you will see them.
Driverside is the same except there are four bolts that are below the hood pivot mounting the front of the firewall. You will have to take all four out. I dont have pics of these but they are not hard to find, just take your time and look around the whole fender.
4. Next remove the fenders. You may have to give a little bit of effor to pull them off but no yanking. (my buddy and i a little too hiper on monster)
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01521.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01511.jpg
5. here is where the strong hearted come in as you will not be turing back from here. Now, here i recommend you go buy a spot weld cutter from any good automotive paint store to speed the process up and for those of you that think just drill them out will be as easy, it aint. the tool is well worth getting.
Once the fenders are off you need to drill each spot weld off for the outer fender ONLY and split the pinch that is on the back of the fenders. i used a pair of dikes to help pull the pinch up, THIS IS NOT WELDED.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301422.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301431.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301451.jpg
6. Here you will be trimming the inner fender parts to fit your new fenders. you cna also discard the old outter fenders if you like or sell them to a body shop (got 50 bucks for mine :cool:). here are some pics on where i trimmed mine. Though i warn, each company makes the fenders a bit different so some you may have to cut more and some you have to cut less, they are all different. I would recommend you trim the metal off the inner steel fender and not the fiberglass outer fender as you can always weld the steel back on
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301471.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301481.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301491.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301501.jpg
7. Once you get your fiberglass to fit correctly ( one thing i for got to say, i would suggest holding the inner fender to where it bolts and then put the fiberglass to it so you know where to trim) you can mount them to the truck to find where you will need to bolt the fenders down and drill your holes. You will more than likely have to wallow the hole out a bit in the fiberglass you make everything fit right. Dont be afraid to sand down the fender edges a bit to get your door jam gaps right or anything else. jsut go slow and take your time.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301511.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301531.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301541.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301551.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301561.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/P10301591.jpg
8. Once you get your fenders all mounted and lookin good, put your hood back on (you wont have to realign it if you onbolt it where i said) and slowly lower it to find if you need to massage the fenders to fit right. from there, get yrou fenders painted and have fun! here is mine all done. Ill be putting a different DIY for pulling the rear bedsides
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01691.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01711.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f88/james450r/my%20truck/100_01751.jpg
Let me know if there is anything else you guys want to know. Im only 22 and have never really done any body work, just about anyone can do it. you just need to take your time