My wife is my best friend and a great partner. She enjoys being well taken care of and returns the support, is very adventurous and fiercely loyal. If I’m ever in a firefight she’s the one person I’d want next to me.
Here’s another upload batch:
The front fenders on our truck had typical rust through in the lower rear corners, and the right front fender got clobbered near the grille by an uninsured motorist right before we left California. Since I don’t have welding skills, I bought a pair of brand new steel replacement fenders which had recently come on the market.
After 3 months of waiting and numerous inquiries, they finally showed up. What a disappointment. The front seam on each fender was deformed beyond repair, and as shown in the photo below the upper rear was damaged by heavy handed, indifferent spot welding. Sadly the area was visible just below the fender extension when installed on the truck, which I didn’t realize until after everything was painted and bolted together. In order to make the fenders usable the deformed front seams were sandblasted and filled with JB Weld.
After removing the original fenders, a casual glance confirmed why they all rust out. Apparently the GM marketing philosophy of designed obsolescence included self-destructing front fenders. By design, debris was encouraged to pack up in the fender brace and rust out. There is a convenient gaping hole at the top for leaves and debris to enter, shown in the first photo. The entire area is open to the channel below:
To prevent the new fenders from ending up looking like the old ones, I decided to plug up all the openings so nothing could enter the channel. First up was making a cap to block the upper opening as seen in this photo. This was sealed in place with urethane windshield adhesive. They’ve been on the truck for over 10 years and no one has ever noticed them. This plate blocks the upper entrance.
In addition to the opening at the top, the forward vertical edge of the fender brace is open, so the tire may easily pack it full of more crud thrown directly in from the tire. There is also a horizontal channel at the top of the tire, with an opening on the forward end about the size of a quarter, for yet more corrosion causing materials to easily enter. This is a really bad photo, but it’s the only one I have showing the bare fender. As indicated there are a lot of openings for crud to enter the support brace:
I made another filler panel, pop riveted to the horizontal channel above the tire, and a plug for the forward end of the channel (both shown in the 2nd photo). Then “everything” was sealed with either urethane windshield adhesive, or urethane seam sealer.
For a final level of protection the entire area was sprayed with 3M Body Schutz. The result is a fender that allows moisture out at the bottom, and no entrance anywhere for debris to get in to begin with.
For anyone mounting new fenders or adding patch panels, I would highly recommend taking a couple of extra steps to seal the openings to prevent repeating the process a few years in the future.
And finally here’s a shot of the front of the driver side fender after filling the seam:
A smaller project was coming up with a clever solution for routing speaker wires into the doors. These are shots of the passenger door with a hinged piece of steel tubing, formed in a shape to move freely with the door carrying the speaker wires safety from the cab to the door speakers. The tubing slid on a grommet mounted on the door, with another grommet permanently mounted to the tubing to act as a seal when the door was closed. It was a novel solution, but over time it either rattled or squeaked (I can’t remember which) and was removed. About this time I swapped the radio into my wife’s truck and never replaced it.
