marooned

I was noticing the other day that my front fenders seem to be made of maybe fiberglass and metal? I was knocking on them because I discovered from a body shop that the front hood had been repainted at some time. I stupidly didn't have a claims check done on the car previous to purchasing it. I guess what I'm wondering is, are the fenders supposed to be "hollow" sounding in some places? They seem to be solid towards the door, and then in the middle "hollow". If this doesn't make sense let me know guys. Thanks a lot in advance for any info.

Dave

Pull the plastic wheel well liner, and hope you don't find anything thats not supposed to be there.

marooned

excuse my igonorance but what/where is the plastic wheel well liner? thanks

Dave

If you jack up the car, and remove the wheel, you will find a large plastic molded piece that seals off the space around the wheel, It is held in place by a handful of screws and large washers IIRC. By removing this panel, you will get a look at the back side of the fender. Most likely if bodywork has been done on the panel you will see it here. AFAIK there is no fiberglass in a stock fender, it is all sheetmetal. A quick test would be trying to stick a small magnet to any questionable areas, if it falls off, there is probably bondo there.

The shape of the fender does cause a change in pitch as you tap in different areas (more hollow sound in flatter areas). Hopefully thats all you are hearing. Do left and right sides sound the same? HTH

marooned

Yeah both sides sound the same... I also had the body shop guy look underneath the hood at the strut towers because I thought that they had been painted or something. He didn't notice any damage so that's good. I just thought it weird that the fenders sounded different in certain spots. Thanks for all your help Dave.

jim968

The fenders are die stamped from flat sheets. The stretching is not totally even, so there's a tiny bit of variation in thickness & degree of cold warking from one area to another. This and the mentioned difference in contour will cause some difference in the sound you hear.

And yes the magnet trick will work to spot body filler; just put a couple of layers of plactic food wrap around the magnet to protect your paint.

Jim, "Ping!"

Jon Eismond

Get a small (i.e., not very strong) magnet. Run over the area(s) you are concerned. A lot of fill would be nonmagnetic. You will qucikly notice the difference.