[Old57]

I had time to work on my front fenders today. I'm using the driver side 57 GMC fender that was on the truck, but the passenger side GMC fender was in bad shape and not worth fixing, so I found a 55-56 Chevy passenger side fender a long time ago to use, which I'm changing to a 55-56 Chevy front clip anyway. I knew this 55-56 fender would need to be re-repaired from poor previous work.

My GMC driver side fender had rust in the headlight eyebrow and rear lower bottom. It also had the holes for the GMC mustache trim, which had been cut out a lot bigger for some reason. The other issue to fix is the grill mount notch that 57 fenders have. I got all of the areas in the driver side fender marked, cut out, and prepped for repairs. I used a new repair piece for the eyebrow, and made a patch for the rear bottom. I used a wrecked donor fender for the other pieces, and also welded in the GMC emblem holes. So the end result is a 57 GMC fender converted to a 55-56 Chevy fender, and now rust free.

After that, I used a wire cup on a grinder to remove all the body filler and inspect what needs done on the 55-56 passenger side fender. It will need a little work in the eyebrow area, and needs the poor quality bottom patch redone, and a new lower inner brace to replace the hacked up one in there now. I'll be able to re-use the previous lower rear patch, just cutting it out where some one lap-welded it so I can properly butt-weld it together and fit it right... and not need 1/4" think body filler then!

So after I get this passenger fender fixed, I'll have a rust free truck... finally! Then I can take all 4 fenders, inner fenders, hood, core support, and doors to get media blasted and sprayed in primer. I'll get the bed blasted and sprayed in primer sometime after that. I still need to come up with a good 73-87 long bed floor to weld into my 57 long bed, which will also have the bed cross rails to mount directly on this K20 frame.