Front fender removal

[hampstead38]

I was going to pop off the front fenders. After pulling all of the bolts I could find, they are still hung up. Do I have to take out the radiator and the front mounting metal? There are a couple of nut/bolts I'm going to have to "hot wrench" if I do. The fenders are loose, particularly towards the front, but they are hanging onto the cab somehow. Any hints are appreciated.

[Boons]

Mine were an abosulte B*tch to get off.Towards the bottom of the firewall there are some more bolts that I had to crawl under the truck to reach, check there.
I took mine off without removing the core support due to I couldn't reach the bolts because of the hack job on the winch.

[Hobcobble]

I was going to pop off the front fenders. After pulling all of the bolts I could find, they are still hung up. Do I have to take out the radiator and the front mounting metal? There are a couple of nut/bolts I'm going to have to "hot wrench" if I do. The fenders are loose, particularly towards the front, but they are hanging onto the cab somehow. Any hints are appreciated.

There is a kept nut at the top rear of the fender that you get to through a
hole in the upper kick panels. This hole is covered by a caplug. Pop the
caplug off and I believe its a 1/2" nut. It'll likely break loose from its
moorings due to age and corrosion. You don't have to remove the front
core support to get the fenders off..... they can be carefully "swung"
outward and worked off the truck.
John

[Oldguy]

If needed I can post a couple of pics. Just happen to have one in the yard with a fender off. Mike

[hampstead38]

I'm not much of a mechanic to begin with, but the I was starting the fender was going to kick my @#%. I know the cap you're talking about. I'll pull it and take a peek. I know she's kicked free towards the grill. It's towards the cab where she's hung up.

[soopernaut]

If it is still attached at the cab and it appears that all bolts are out then it is the hidden bolt John mentioned. You can either pull the plug or remove the doors. I've always removed the doors to get to them. Sometimes you just need to loosen the bolts a bit and the fenders will come off.

[hampstead38]

The front fenders are off. The hardest part was grinding off the bolt heads on the bottom of the fenders near the cab. I'm thinking about having them bead blasted, then hitting them with POR-15 and then some kind of bed liner. I guess it couldn't hurt on the road noise front.

The doors were off already.

[vetto]

Can one of you guys post pics of the inside of the fenders where the cab is? Mine are completely gone and need to know sorta what they looked like in there.
Also if your fenders came off (like it sounds like they did) can you shoot a couple of pics of the mount points on the truck and on the fenders?

I know that might be alot to ask for from a newbie, but I would really appreciate it

[Oldguy]

Can't get to it until tomorrow morning but will get the pics asap. Have a meeting to attend in few minutes. Drat!!! LOL MIke

[hampstead38]

I'll take some pics tomorrow as well. It can't hurt to have more than a few.

[hampstead38]

This is the truck front without a fender.

[hampstead38]

This is a front fender on its side.

[hampstead38]

This is the same fender on its side, but looking at it from the opposite direction. Note the double bolt hole in the bottom right corner of the picture. This is the double bolt that connects the bottom of the fender to the cab.

[hampstead38]

This is the core support, passenger side. Note the bolt holes where the fender attaches.

[hampstead38]

I'm going to have the fenders bead blasted. I'll take some photos when they are in primer.

[vetto]

Those are great! I think it will do perfectly for my re-fab of the mounts.

Can you get a closer shot of what the rear of the fender mounts to?

I look under mine and there ain't nothing there anymore.

[hampstead38]

I'll see what I can do.

[hampstead38]

I used my lunch to take a few more pics. This is looking down at where the top of the fender mounts to the cab near the firewall.

[hampstead38]

This is a side view showing the rubber gasket between the cab and the fender.

[hampstead38]

This is the same view if you step back a bit.