Fender straightening
 

I have this fender to work with.
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/924/2...1413a96a_c.jpgIMG_1965 by Robert Moorman, on Flickr

It is in pretty good shape as far as rust throughs, but covered in surface rust. It has a couple of dents at the lower edges, both front and back.

My question is should I blast it or sand it or just work on it like it is?

Re: Fender straightening
 

I has one fender about like that...the really big dent I went ahead and knocked out...then blasted it and epoxy primed.....then do all the finish work....much nicer working on clean metal.....plus the blasting may show stuff you couldn't see for all the rust....

Re: Fender straightening
 

Greg, you work on the epoxy primer to beat out any other imperfections? Do you have to reapply the primer?

Re: Fender straightening
 

that epoxy is pretty tuff stuff...after blasting and epoxy, I worked the dents out,heavy sand , and put on the filler..use a guide coat to see what ive got.then when satisfied I use evercoat metal glaze to finish it out....and then prime over everything when done...some smaller dents I can get out and not even break thru the primer...but more than likely youll sand thru the primer while fixing dents...no big deal though

Re: Fender straightening
 

You Might try taking a cup brush on an angle grinder and knocking the rust down in the areas you want to do the metal work so you can work on the dents and most of the dings and after you have it pretty close sand or media blast it to get it down to nice bare metal to finish it up.
Some guys might have it sandblasted or metal stripped first and then do the metal work and prime it but they probably work faster than most of us do.
I looked at a car the other day that a guy had had sandblasted a couple of years ago and let sit in bare metal in his garage ever since and it looks almost as bad as that fender does now. Whole thing has to be redone again.

Re: Fender straightening
 

I would just blast it completely and be done with it.
Vic

Re: Fender straightening
 

Blast it, epoxy primer, metal work, body filler, reapply epoxy to areas where epoxy was removed during repairs, high build urethane primer, paint.

Some will skip the second step of epoxy, but it's best if you don't. Epoxy gives corrosion protection that other coatings simply can't.