Brendano

I had my Mustang GT 1989 parked out in the street for some garage cleaning and left it parked outside overnight. While it was parked overnight, someone smashed into the driver side fender and drove off.

I was wondering if it is easy to remove a dented fender and install a new factory fender (planning on getting the whole car repainted later anyway, so it doesn't need to be blended) or just to get it done at a bodyshop.

No money problem, i could definitely afford to just go to a bodyshop, but i don't want to pay a professional to do work that i could possibly do myself.

So! is it easy enough to just do it myself, or should i get a porfessional?

kgrun4

I've never removed one from a mustang but I have from other cars. Its generally not that bad. Sometimes it can be a pain on some cars when they have inner wheel shields and bolts in hard to reach places that require having the door open at a particular angle, but i think thats mostly on newer cars.

A ratchet, the right size socket, possibly and extension or two and maybe a screwdriver should be all you'll need.

Thats my 2 cents anyways, good luck and sorry to hear about the damage.

nightmare90gt

pull the whole front clip easier then pulling the fender trust have tried

capri debris

No need to pull the whole front clip. I've pulled fenders off and never saw how the front clip would make it any harder. The hardest part though is going to be getting the nuts off the studs that are mounted in the front clip.... the studs are held in there by a crappy design and they rust, so when you start turning the nuts to take them off, the stud likes to break loose feom the nosecone and spin... THEN you are in some crap. The best advice is to jack up the car, remove the wheel, remove the plastic inner fender well then spray each of stud with PB Blaster the night before. Let them soak overnight, then get a small toothbrush sized wire brush and try to clean as much rust off the studs as you can, then soak them again with more PB Blaster and wait another night. Scrub with the wire brush some more the next day and soak with more PB Blaster and then attempt to take the nuts off... with all that, I still won't guarantee you will get them off without any trouble. It mostly depends on how rusted they are to begin with and how well you do at getting the studs clean before even trying to turn any of the nuts. The rest of the bolts you'll have to deal with are easy to get to... there are the ones along the top of the fender, one in the door jamb and one at the bottom by the pinch weld jack point. Depending on what year and model you have, you'll have some bolts at the front fender extension to deal with... they aren't bad either... just the fender to front clip studs are the PITA ones to deal with. Good Luck and hope I helped.

mjr46

fenders are easy, remove the inner fender liner and access to all the bolts are not to hard

Brendano

Thanks for the replies!

So what I'm getting from everybody is that it is most definitely easy to install a new fender and that i would probably be spending a lot more money at a body shop for something i could do myself?