Front fender removal (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Dec 29, 2008
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Missoula, MT
How hard is it to remove the actual metal front fenders? (not the plastic flare) It looks like 4 bolts under the edge of the hood, and then numerous bolts in the edge of the wheel well. Just comes off after that?

Also, there is some sort of light rubberized spray/insulation in the wheel well that I would be breaking through, is this an OEM coating?

Just weighing this out, trying to save a friend some hassle when they weld up the holes left from the flare removal (assuming it would just be easier if they were off the vehicle). Cheers!
 
There is a bolt hidden under the cowl, just take the wipers off and a few screws to get to it. Two more on the bottom of the fender and one or two you can get with the door open at the rear of the fender. It's a fairly easy job.
 
X2. Much easier than you would think
 
The bolts along the wheel opening lip go into plastic clips (with a metal insert so they don't strip).. if they are very old those plastic clips can break and spin.. I had to remove the intake snorkel plumbing in the fender and put vise-grips on a couple of them.

But yes, remove corner lamp, headlight, turn sigal, mud flap if present, open door for access to screw below cowl, and get the ones along the edge of the hood, wheel well lip, the two below the a-pillar (keep track of these.. longer than the rest, also the plastic spacer there is important) and the ones behind the corner lamp/edge of the turn signal.
 
This wasn't too difficult, thanks @bloc for the list of items to unbolt. I managed to get away without removing the headlight. Swapped my fender for an non-dented one, took three hours including some fender flare repairs with plastic epoxy!
 
It's a little more difficult if they're mangled...

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Not sure if there are other ways to reach 'em, but seems there are some bolts behind the corner light.
 
Pulled my DS fender yesterday. Pretty much as @bloc stated. I had no mudflap to worry about, and the bottom of my fender was very rotten, so two of the bottom bolts just stayed with the inner fender. Stripped the other bottom bolt and the one under the vent cowl. Also, al, the bolts connecting it the wheel well were already gone. One thing I think was missed was the grill removal. I believe it is necessary to remove the grill to to allow the headlight assembly to come out. There is also a chrome plastic trim piece above the headlight assembly, and a third bolts holding it behind the turn signal light. There is one Philips head screw holding the turn signal light assembly to the headlight assembly at the top. You need to pull the headlight and signal light assemblies to access the three bolts that secure the fender to the radiator cross ,ember suppport. These can bey very rusty and very difficult to remove.. luckily for me, they came out without issue.

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