1981-88 Cutlass 2dr fender removal

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maxi426

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Sep 20, 2018
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Is it possible to remove just the outer fender, and leave the inner fender and wheel well on the car? It would eliminate finding a extra set of hands to remove the hood. It looks like I can if I unbolt the header panel and bumper cover from the outer fender, and move them forward a half inch or so. Wondering if there are any bolts that are hidden until you take the whole assembly off of the car. Need to do some paintless dent repair on my 87 442
 

DROLDS84

Master Mechanic
Feb 15, 2015
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Sometimes you just have to do it I'm sure your capable. Looking forward to watching this post. How about some pics of your progress when you get into it. I have 2 84' Hursts with inoperable power antennas to remove and have rebuilt.
 

ck80

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Feb 18, 2014
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It's possible, but, some of the bolts are a pain to get at and the passenger side is complicated by the antenna. You've also got to remove some brackets and braces, etc. And you may find yourself
Is it possible to remove just the outer fender, and leave the inner fender and wheel well on the car? It would eliminate finding a extra set of hands to remove the hood. It looks like I can if I unbolt the header panel and bumper cover from the outer fender, and move them forward a half inch or so. Wondering if there are any bolts that are hidden until you take the whole assembly off of the car. Need to do some paintless dent repair on my 87 442
If your goal is to eliminate some of the time on alignment... well...

Here's the thing. To get the fender skin off you STILL need to unbolt the hood hinge as it bolts on top of the fender near the windshield/cowl end of things. So you still need to support the hood, and still need to align it after the fact. You can avoid unbolting the spring, but, that doesn't keep everything aligned. The hinge end does that.

Meanwhile, you also need to remove/have issues with braces including the ones that connect to the core support, and, I'm trying to remember if part of the skin wraps over behind the header panel between the inner steel fender and the core support. (Others can chime in on that, I know it does on some gbodies.)

Meanwhile, for your trouble, you get lots of tough to access bolts in the door jamb and elsewhere, and risks of scratching paint, etc.

Plenty of people just pull one fender, but usually its because it needs to get done. It's not much of a shortcut IMO
 
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maxi426

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Sep 20, 2018
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I was away from the car when I posted this. Clearly, the hood needs to be removed no matter what. Pretty sure I can get at all of the bolts. The problem I see is that the top of the fender is hooked over the inner fender, and also hooked around at the wheel opening. If it looks like I can't do this without paint damage, I'll just pull the whole assembly. I'll report how I made out
 

69hurstolds

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Jan 2, 2006
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Due to personal experience, you will risk damage to the paint on your fender by just trying to remove the skin. I did this on my old, gray 1987 442 when the antenna cable snapped. And it was only 3 years old at the time. 1990.

As stated, the hood hinge must be removed from the fender on that side, no way around it.

Can it be done? YES. Is it a risky operation? YES. If the fender was damaged and you didn't care, so be it. But oh, the tape you will use. The header panel will need to be unbolted over on that end and pulled out slightly and I believe I still needed to loosen the inner fender rear mounting bolts to get the fender out far enough to get to the bolts inside the rear of the fender skin. The door opening gets deep quick in that area and you'll need extensions and swivels and again, lots of tape. With the door in the way, it is NOT fun because you can't get the fender out far enough without whacking into the door to really make it easy back there.

Prepare on going slow. Paint damaging hazards are everywhere.
 
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maxi426

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Sep 20, 2018
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Well, I successfully removed and reinstalled the outer fender without any paint damage. A couple of thoughts. As said, lots of masking tape. A 1/4 inch air ratchet will be your friend. A second set of hands at the front of the fender will be necessary to avoid paint damage as the rear is a bit tricky. Start all of the bolts, then first tighten the the vertical row of bolts in front of the door, and the hood hinge bolts slowly and evenly as these will affect the way the fender fits at the door. DO NOT attempt to close the door until the hood hinge and fender end bolts are tight. Also, remove most of the header attaching hardware (bumper cover hardware can stay), and loosen the nuts at the opposite fender. You need to pull the end you're working on forward at least an inch.
 
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