VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 32 chevy confederate fender repair/rf

I have the right front fender on my 32 Chevy with a little damage to it. It appears that when my brother was traveling through Cinci Ohio he had to be pulled by his wife since it started to over-heat. With the manual brakes and her making a quick stop, he nailed the rear end of the 65 Impala. The impala took a major crunch but the 32 just had some not so bad damage. How can I get it straightened out and also get the dings out? Regular body tools may not work with the heavy metal.

Thanks
Al Carey

First thing you need to do is take it off the car.

The "paintless dent repair" or PDR process can do a good job on metal of this vintage. They need the fender ON the car and they need it clean and shiny. I had my NOS 1938 rear fenders gone over with PDR to handle some storage dings and they found the metal easy to work with. We get bad hail here and I've used these guys to fix hundreds of hail dents without bondo or paint. They have a lot of patience!

Well worth getting some referrals to PDR guys and letting them see the dents.

Sounds to me like the damage is more than "paintless dent repair".

I had a football size/shaped dent removed from a front fender this way and numerous battle scars and creases on my 38 body. The biggest advantage is they often know nothing about traditional bondo work but only metal shaping, so they work the stresses out of the metal to get it almost perfect, even if the paint is damaged.

Unless you can find an old school body guy, the current body guys tend to beat things "close" knowing they can hide things with polyesters that can be shaped quickly.

A good PDR tech can remove almost anything without doing more damage which is important. If paint is damaged, the fender can then have a bodyshop do finish work on it. They are also quite inexpensive.

This can easily be repaired with traditional methods (hammer dolly shrink stretch) if it’s beyond PDR methods. Curved fenders are VERY easy to successfully remove dents without the use of filler.

I own a 32 Chevy 2dr totally stock. When I purchased it last year the body etc was pristine. About two months ago I had a dumbass attack and backed my right rear fender into a pick-up tailgate that had been left in the down position. The result was a fender with several creases running in several directions along with a badly mangled lip on the fender.

I was able to find an old time body man who could do repairs without bondo etc. He looked it over and assured me that he could repair the existing fender. Price? Somewhere between $1K to $ 1.5K. He also said it would make a lot more sense to buy a new, repeat NEW fender.

So I did. Bought the fender from the Filling Station https://www.fillingstation.com/shop/?year=1932&vehtype=Car&search=radio&searchtype=FT . I have an appointment at the end of the month to finish, paint and install the fender for approx. $500. Total projected end cost including freight ($52) to be $1047.

I strongly recommend going this route if your metal has any bad creases or torn metal.

Is the metal as thick as the original? I have seen some fenders for the 32 Chevy but they were listed as fiberglass. I will check around and see if i can locate a front right fender. I just do not want a bondo set up.

Thanks
Al carey

I was wondering since the metal is very heavy, could you use the dolly and hammer? Some one mentioned to me to find an older body shop with an english wheel. The fender is very solid.

Thanks
al Carey

The metal is Not very heavy and yes very workable with simple tools. I would NOT even consider my English wheel. The plan of attack is to put the steel back to its original position and Not stretch it beyond form.