Fender apron repair ('71 left)

[ajsmolik]

Sorry so many questions!

I bought the left fender apron repair (top section) for my '71 f100. I thought I'd just cut the top off the old one and weld this on, but it looks like this patch was oversized enough just to bolt on. And besides that (of course) there are no pre-punched holes, and no reinforced panels for the hood hinge.

I need advice. Anybody else made this repair before? I'd really rather scrap all the rust, but didn't figure that I'd really need to re-engineer the whole piece.

[DuckRyder]

Whole inner fenders are available stamped from OE tooling. IMHO they are inexpensive enough that the patch panels are not worth the trouble.

They do include the reinforced area for the hinge as well.

[ajsmolik]

Most places that I've looked offer the right, but I've only seen the partial for the left. (Including NPD) Do you know where to find the left?

[flyboy2610]

I think JC Whitney has them.

[DuckRyder]

http://www.dennis-carpenter.com/

Has them.

I ordered the right side NOS one from NPD but they said that they could not get the left. I suspect that if you pushed it they would find they can get the left since Dennis Carpenter is their supplier, but none the less.

The NOS (which came in a Dennis Carpenter box) and the repop from OE tooling are indistinguishable with one exception. The NOS is bare oiled metal, the repop is modern E-Coat. If I had it to do over I would get 2 repo form Ford tooling.

This is in no way a slight on NPD they are a great bunch and have always been very helpful, but in this instance if they still tell you they can't get the left one just order it from D-C directly. They also have the gaskets that staple to the back of it.

Any one got a really big staple gun?

HTH.