I am contemplating removing the driver side front fender on my 69 XR7. I’m told that the bumper, the valance, & the fender extension have to be removed to accomplish this. Can anyone verify this. I would love it if I did not have to remove these parts prior to removing the fender. Any advice is appreciated.
Best wishes, Tim
The information that you have is accurate if you don’t want to scratch the paint on everything. The factory shop manual gives detailed instructions. It’s maybe a 15 minute job with power tools.
You will also have to remove the Hidden Headlight Vacuum Storage container ( “reservoir” ) and the brackets, as well as, at least, loosening the bolts securing the left hand side of the grille ( those bolts behind the headlamp bucket portion of the grille ). That will allow you to slide the fender out from between the grille and the radiator support ( if you don’t want to completely remove that side of the grille as well ).
The one part that might be problematic is the small body fastener ( a type of ‘captive nut’ ) under the middle of the lower edge of the fender ( attaches the fender at that point to the rocker panel ) - often corroded, or the bolt is rusted into the nut, or it’s little ‘ears’ get broken off, or the opening into the rocker panel is distorted in trying to get the captive nut out. Lots of penetrating oil in this area, before attempting the job is well advised. Have a look here for an explanation and some good images :
http://joshlizer.blogspot.com/2013/09/installing-rocker-nut-for-fender-to.html
Good Luck, not hard, just requires care so as not to scratch or damage components.
I had to do it on mine as the door wasnt aligned perfect. Yep you have to take all that off. Another thing I did was tape off all edges on the front of the door hood edge and any other edge the could get chipped with autobody paint masking tape. Can’t be too careful.
Thank you for info. Very helpful.
I fail to see why the fender extension needs to be removed in order to do this job.
True, I didn’t take off the fender extension. But if I can recall there is a bolt somewhere behind there, I think I took my headlight door off which gave me access. My memory is a bit foggy as its been 2 years lol. I do know I didn’t take the fender extension off though.