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I'd like to see what he started with because, even as little as I know, I see hours of work bringing that beltline back to a crisp, straight feature...
My body guy repaired my damaged lips on my stock rear fenders. The glass work never wrapped to the outside surface as shown above. All glass was on inside to restore the damaged lip due to oversized tires. Seems like he clamped a piece of sheet metal to the original lip to lay up against. If it's real bad look at a fender replacement from Sermershiem (Bumb).
The above looks like far more than a lip repair. Must have been some serious cracks. For me, if that much repaired required, I'd buy a new fender.
He needed a big blow up photo of an unmolested fender, to grind by. And a cardboard template of the other side fender opening to check shape
That type of repair could have been OK, and certainly less work than replacing a fender, but he needed to spend a couple more hours on it. That is actually the way they do things in the ST-12. They don't replace fender for every little crack and ding back then, like they do now.
Edit: Looking at the first pic again, he had the body off the frame. I woudl ahve replaced the lower fender if the car was that far apart.
It is definitely not a good repair. Looking at the finished picture look at the body line it is way off from the factory spec. It’s good if he was going for the flared wheel well look.
Last edited by 65 Pro Vette; 06-05-2019 at 02:49 PM.
Just for giggles, i went and googled up a bunch of '63 Corvette photos.
Fender belt line profiles are many times different on nice looking cars, so its hard to say what an original fender line looks like, the big variation was in 'droop" going past the fender well, but there were other differences in height above the wheel well opening. Obviously, a lot of cars, have had a lot of work done on the front ends, some probably as original, others not so much.
Just for giggles, i went and googled up a bunch of '63 Corvette photos.
Fender belt line profiles are many times different on nice looking cars, so its hard to say what an original fender line looks like, the big variation was in 'droop" going past the fender well, but there were other differences in height above the wheel well opening. Obviously, a lot of cars, have had a lot of work done on the front ends, some probably as original, others not so much.
Doug
There is a detail drawing in the 63 shop manual that shows the exact measurements of where the droop begins at the parking light panel. And how much of a drupe it should be. Photographs of a lot of Corvettes are kind of useless because you don’t know what repairs were done.
The first pic of the repaired car in post #4 is deceptive -- taken from above it disguises how badly the ridge line above the fender lip is shaped - this is the pic that will be in the eBay ad...
The second pic clearly shows the same ridge line that looks like a kiddee's roller coaster ride - this pic will NOT be in the eBay ad...
Last edited by Frankie the Fink; 06-06-2019 at 07:10 AM.
Apparently, fender lip repairs require a lot of skill and time. The photos below are before and after shots of my recent little repair job. It cost $3,000 and took 27 hours of labor.
The repair work was done by Burke’s Corvette in Maitland, Florida and the cost was covered by NCM insurance without batting an eye. I questioned my I insurance adjuster about the high cost and he said it’s pretty normal and the shop I picked is well-known by NCM. I should add that there was previous repair work behind the fender that was poorly done and had to be dealt with.
Those belt and peak lines take a fine touch and a decent eye to make them look GM OEM - but it's not rocket science - more a deft touch and eye for shape and contour. Depending on how he started the repair and how much material he had laid on that belt line area over and behind the wheel, that would have been a pretty easy finishing operation to get looking correct. If you haven't worked on a repair like that - you would probably be amazed how easily and quickly it is to influence the position of that crease with a guide coat, some appropriate block sanding, and a good fender on the other side or a reference car to go by. There is really no excuse for it being finished out like that except complete inexperience or lack of interest of the body man in repair finishing.
06-05-2019, 12:34 PM
C2 Fender Lip Repair
