Dennis Carpenter Fenders hit and miss

Just a heads up......Blue Oval Industries? Box has a blue oval and in the ovals has printed "Oval Industries" in it.

I ordered a left side fender some months back and the fit was good overall. Just needed some minor tweaking as you would expect.

SO I ordered a right side fender expecting the same......LOL Guess again.

The right fender is going to need a total disassembly and re-spotwelded correctly. The upper lip is not even close to being correct. The lip is welded 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch too low so the fender sits too high and will not lineup at the door. The front of the fender lines up perfectly with the grill.

The good news is I have the tools and can do it but for anyone that doesn't have the tools, "watch out"

I'm sure I'm not the only one that's had this issue....just looking out for my brothers....

Tim

interesting, I am going to get a new right front fender before too long. good to know

Further test fitting has revealed I'll need to reweld the bracket that fits along the door post as well. It does not lay against the door post at the top. 1/4 to 1/2 inch gap.

The same issue with the left side as well just not as bad.

Guess I have a full day ahead of me tomorrow.

Tim

Interesting. I'm in the market for new fenders, are there other options out there?

guidoverduci said:

Interesting. I'm in the market for new fenders, are there other options out there?

Click to expand...

All the vendors sell replacement fenders. All of them say about the same thing in the description
New & Improved Tooling and or Ford tooling
Factory Fit & OEM Quality
.003 thicker than OEM thickness
Emblem holes are NOT drilled
Side marker light not cut

I can only assume they all come from the same manufacturer but you know what they say about assuming. I went with the DC fenders because they're $194 shipped and I have to work off a budget. Every dollar counts.

So I tackled the right fender this AM and after removing 5 spotwelds the fender fits MUCH better. By much better I mean it's almost dead on. I was correct in the fact the inner lip was welded in the wrong spot up near the cab.

I will NOT have to remove the bracket long the door post and reweld it. It fits very nicely now and the fender to rocker mating is very nice now. All the holes line up. The top hole is still not sitting flush on the door post but I still have a bit of work to do on the top lip so that might clear that area up.

The issues I see are not with the tooling or the shape of the fender. It's the location of the upper fender mounting bracket that gets welded on. If it's not welded in the correct location things will not line up. So human error not tooling is the issue. I'm sure they use a jig and the jig is just off a bit 1/4 to 1/2 inch at the top near the cab.

Tim

Be interesting to hear if others have had the same left-vs-right issues, or if it's more of an individual part problem. Maybe there are multiple stations at the factory, with multiple jig setups, but not all are the same?

Of course, there are going to be variations with individual EB's as well I would imagine, but it'll be hard to quantify a problem being with the new part or the underlying vehicle.

Paul

Same problem with my right fender. Had to cut the spot welds and shift the lip UP 1/2 inch the first 6 or so welds. The rest were ok. It's like they had the lip on crooked. I compared it to the left fender and the spacing was definitely too low. Left fender fit OK but was stamped incorrectly in the front and had a crack were it transitions from the hood to the bump, and the corner where it meets the hood/grill was stamped at about 45 degrees, not 90. Re-bent as much as I could and had to add welding beads and hand file to make it right.

http://classicbroncos.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=407556&d=1479502783

http://classicbroncos.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=407557&d=1479502783

DirtDonk said:

Of course, there are going to be variations with individual EB's as well I would imagine, but it'll be hard to quantify a problem being with the new part or the underlying vehicle.

Paul

Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more with this. My rig has seen some hard times and had had the rockers replaced by me already. No two Broncos are the same for sure.

I'm still fighting the fender just a little bit. Ended up grinding out one additional spotweld. Did a small bit of grinding on the lower fender where it fits between the rocker and the door post. Also some bending and tapping on the bracket that attaches to the door post. It is welded on about 1/8 to 1/4 inch too high but the holes still line up so I'm good with that.

It fits very nicely now. I've bolted it up once (ok 50 times) and this last time the body lines, door, grill and hood all line up. Just need to lock it in place and put a few tack welds on it then remove it and weld it all up.

I'm not bitching at all as with any body part on these trucks, you have to do some massaging to get them right. Just doing this as an FYI to those that might order them so they understand the issues they might see.

Tim