Fender - repair or replace?

[Travis72]

All,

See the attached pictures of one of my front fenders. They both have a lot of body damage and body filler in the front (you can see all the dents because there is still body filler in the dents, plus it has holes drilled in it for a old school slide hammer).  There is also a rip in the lower front where the valance attaches.  Is it worth it to try and repair this or just wait until the Goodmark fenders come out and replace it?

Keep in mind this might be beyond my limited body work skills to repair, in which case I would have to pay someone to repair it.

Thanks,
Travis

[ksierens]

If it were mine I would try to fix it.  If nothing else, it will give you more experience.

[Tropicalcats]

I would always try to fix it first and see how it come out. No substitute for the real steel.

[NoMope Greg]

I would always try to fix it first and see how it come out. No substitue for the real steel.

   What do you have to lose but a little time?

[ChallengerHK]

And with all the trouble making repop parts fit, there's going to be labor involved one way or another.

[mopardave]

if it is solid fix it, it doesn't look bad at all. A stud gun would definetly help.

[gkring]

If that is the extent of your damage then I would fix it or pay someone to fix it. Doesn't look that bad. if you do decide to sell yours I would do it now before the repros come out so you get maximum dollar for yours.

[Challenger6pak]

Repair.  It got hit in the front and folded in.  Someone banged it out enough to throw some mud on it and get it out the door.  When you repair damage such as this you need to try to do the opposite of what happened.  You can't quite do this since someone has reworked it improperly.  You will need to dolly out each dent one at a time.  Start at the end where you have it still painted and work your way to the headlight area.  This will move the metal back out toward the headlight area and help to reverse the damage.

[72bluNblu]

Definitely repair it! I've seen, and fixed, much worse. Aftermarket fenders will never fit as well as those do, and its pretty minor damage you've got there (IMO). Spend a little time with the hammer and dolly and you'll be great shape in no time...

[ntstlgl1970]

Another vote for repair. 
I would only repair this while it is on the car, when the fender is bolted on, there is stress and tension applied to the metal that you can't duplicate on a stand. You could make it look good on the stand, then bolt it on the car and have it not fit/look right. Also having it on the car makes it easier to move the metal around.

[IMNCARN82]

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.    I'd fix 'em     

[Travis72]

Thanks all for the advice and encouragement.  I'm going to give it a shot.  I'll update this thread as I work on it to get advice from everyone.

I did go ahead and weld up the 2 tears in the front of the fender.  From the pictures, it's probably pretty obvious that I'm a rookie welder as well.     But after lots of grinding I don't think it looks too bad.  The other thing I did was poke out all the body filler in the holes and spray on some black spray paint as a guide coat just to see what I was dealing with.

After some hammer and dolly work today, I have to agree with ntstlgl1970, that it will be easier to work on with it on the car.  It's a pain to handle on the saw horses.  My car is actually at a chassis shop right now, so the rest of the repair will have to wait a while.  Once I get the car back I'll get back to work on the fender.

Does anyone have any good pictures of what the very front edge of the fender should look like?  Both of mine have damage in the front, so I'm having a hard time visualizing what the final shape should be.

Thanks,
Travis
72 Cuda

[ntstlgl1970]

I have some pics in this thread that might help even though it's a 70. I think the general shape is the same, the best detail pics I think are near the bottom.
http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=37642.30