Yesterday I finished working on my truck (for now). I took the old fender off and put another fender on. The fender had had a line of rust showing thru the paint like the right fender in the last picture below. The other year a deer ran into the side of my truck and hit the fender just behind the front wheel and knocked the rust lose which then accelerated the deterioration of the fender.
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| Old fender showing rust damage. |
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| Closer look at the rust. |
The above picture shows how bad the rust had become. I got a fender from a junkyard (or is it a salvage yard) in Hot-Lanta before we moved back UP on the Tundra last year. It was too late in the year to replace the fender by the time we got things sorted out then as I don't have a garage and do my mechanicing outside.
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| Replacement fender installed. |
This is the replacement fender in place (did a pretty good job of matching paint, don't you think??). Still need some kind of supervisor tape (that two-faced shit) to attach the F-150 emblem and the lower trim piece. Didn't bother putting the chrome trim piece around the wheel opening as it isn't in that good shape and all it would do is attract rust.
While the fender was off, I replaced the emergency brake cable. The end had pulled off the cable where it hooks up to the pedal mechanism. When I took the fender off in the junkyard, I also took the brake cable off and figured the easiest time to replace it was when the fender was off. It was a lot easier than it would have been if the fender was still in place. The total at the junkyard for fender and cable was less than $50. Not a bad deal!!
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| Right front fender with some rust showing thru the paint. |
This is the right fender. The other fender looked like this before the deer hit it. Looking at the truck now, I'm wishing I'd got both fenders. The truck I got the fender from only had the one, would have had to find another truck for the right fender.
Did you spray the inside of the replacement fender with bed liner before installing it to keep that from happening again?
ReplyDeleteNo, other parts of the truck are rusting, so it wouldn't do any good to be left with one fender while the rest of it fell apart. The truck is 17yrs old or 18 if you consider the 2013 model cars are out now. I bought it in Nebraska in 2004 and it looked pretty good then (other than the hail damage). But they used salt on the streets in Omaha and here UP on the Tundra they use a lot of salt on the roads in winter.
ReplyDeleteI have two old trucks that were "Ziebarted" and they are rusted out hulks. I think all the undercoating did was hold in the rust. Some places the metal is all rusted away and only the undercoating is left.
My truck is twelve years old - but it is paid for - and it is in good shape. I get 12 miles to the gallon but I can buy a lot of gas for the price of a newer vehicle payment.
ReplyDeletethe Ol'Buzzard
At best my truck gets 16-17mpg. I only use it when I need to haul stuff or tow my boat (which I've only done once this year, maybe again once more soon.) What's handy about my truck is it has an eight foot box so I can haul a full sheet of plywood if I want. The Old Lady's car gets around 35mpg so we drive that most of the time.
ReplyDelete