Rear Fender Damage?
 

Hello everyone,

My beautiful, light blue '79 300TD was hit today while parked on the street. :( The driver didn't leave a note.

The driver's side tail-light and fender are a bit smashed up. I'm wondering if anyone has fixed the sheetmetal here themselves or if the fender is replaceable? It looks like it would have to be welded to the roof or something which is maybe infeasible (though not impossible). Do you think this could be hammered out?

There is rust building up under that rear window sill that would be good to deal with at the same time. I attached a pic.

It's a sad day for 'cupcake'.

B

The TD I'm having redone took a pretty good hit in the rear quarter on the filler (pass) side. bad enough that the fuel door itself was destroyed. Got a replacement door from vstech and they hammered out the rest at the body shop. saw it today and you can't even tell.

Very repairable by a bodyman of average skills.

I'd say that that was fixable. You might have trouble fixing the trim though.

I don't know much about the estates / wagons - is the access from inside good?

If for some reason or other you can't get at it from the inside, try and find some people who use those gucci new spot welded puller tools - pretty cool stuff - I first "saw" one on wheeler dealers

Autókeresked

Skip to about 12 mins in

In the terms of the body trade, that is a minor fix, the only challenge would be the fact that it's the corner and somewhat of a compound curve. As Army noted the trim is toast, however.

Absolutely no need for a fender replacement. A qualified body tech can hammer that back out to a rough profile then use metal filler to smooth it back to like new. A crackerjack panel beater, a really skilled bodyman (very rare now) would be able to do so with little or no filler, just with bodyhammer(s) a file, and probably heat.

I'm afraid that your bigger issue will be matching the paint, which looks dull in the pic (or perhaps it's just the seasonal look). You will need to ask any shops you consider for the job how well they can 'blend' or whether they'll insist on spraying the whole panel. If the rest of the car is dulled from UV, then you may need to consider having it professionally buffed so the repair doesn't stand out. The bodyshop may be able to do that for you as well.

Sorry to see that. Real bummer....

that dent MAY just be light enough to get a paintless dent removal company to fix it. it's pretty minor.

... the tail light lens however, will require a LOT of superglue...

I would actually be more worried about that rust I see under the rear quarter glass rubber... that can get really nasty really fast. You need to pop out to quarter glasses and address that asap.

Given your location and the rust I can see, along with the faded paint, it doesn't make any sense to repair it at the body shop. It will never look right.

Get someone who is very good at PDR to smooth the rear quarter out the best they can. With the holes for the trim piece, it makes it a very easy pull out point for them.

I bought an 83 300D from a junkyard with a large dent on the front quarter.

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/IMG_0226.jpg

PDR man worked on it for less than 5 minutes, I replaced the trim piece, and it looked 95% better.

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/DSC02199.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/DSC02204.jpg

By the way, those wire wheels looked hideous on a W123, but once cleaned up looked great on a R107

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/g...mentaspx-1.jpg

Hi Everyone, thanks for the advice. I'm glad to hear you all think this should turn out okay.

I definitely do need to address that rust under the window. Any ideas how that trim comes off under there? I've been meaning to get at that for a while now... There is also some rust underneath where a sunroof cowl USED to be. I wanted to do all that at the same time...

PDR would be great but the paint is all chipped up around the dent - I don't need an obsessively perfect paint job right there. The paint isn't actually too faded (just dirty) so as long as the color matches I'll be happy.

Thanks again guys.

I don't know about the trim on a wagon - someone else will have to chime in.

To treat the rust you need to remove the rust and then see what's left. Then something like POR15 the appropriate primer blah blah blah... lots of work for a good job I'm sorry to say. If this area isn't treated properly expect to see rust coming back within a few months...

Expect to have the whole of that panel re-sprayed - I can't see anyone being bothered with the amount of fiddling it would take to blend in each patch...

As far as matching the paint, most parts suppliers (NOT autozoo or pupboys type stores, the real folks who supply the garages and such) that do autobody and paint supplies may have a scanner to 'read' the paint and spit out a mix code ( for me, it is the local UAP / Napa store ).
They claim this can compensate for age and fade.
Just make the area you want checked as good as possible, to get as close a match as possible. Buff, claybar, whatever.