The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Fender Removal 101

I need to remove the pass fender on a 1 Ton AD truck ? No rust, have been soaking all nuts & bolts for months, every time I go past it I give everything a good shot of Blaster brand spray lube. What is the procedure to follow ? do you have to remove grill ?

GMC or Chevrolet?

What year truck? The 47-53 grill attachment is different from the 1954/55 grill attachment.

You state AD, so most likely you are referring to a 47-55 Advance-Design Chevrolet truck? However, some of your former posts are about a 1950 250 (1-ton) GMC (New Design - ND).

The site with on-line manuals is not responding. There might be instructions in a Shop Manual on that site (I'll post a link when the site is back up and we know what year you are referring to).

I'd remove the inner and outer fenders together.

In general, you will have to:

- disconnect all wires attached to the inner fender and, if appropriate, attached to the parking lamp on the fender.
- remove (slide aside) the heater hoses attached the inner fender..
- remove any screws that attach the grill parts to the fender
- remove the bolts attaching the rear of the fender the the cab.
- remove the inner-fender to firewall brace/bar.
- remove the bolts holding the inner fender to the cab.
- loosen the bolts that hold the bottom of the radiator frame from the chassis.
- remove the bolts that hold the inner fender to the radiator frame.
- slide the fender-assembly out from under the small "side-arm" near the top of the radiator assembly.

I hope that others will add, correct, and clarify anything above.

47-53 Chevrolet front fender removal - the GMC procedure would be somewhat similar:

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/shop/1948_51truck/51ctsm1110.htm

Thanks for the help guy's ! I went to the GM factory instruction book you gave a link to and found the procedure, it talks about a fender skirt & toe board ? what is a fender skirt ? Thanks again and yes I am working on a AD GMC, i figured they would be the same to remove

Imagine the cutout in the fender where the wheel goes filled with a sheetmetal panel, in effect enclosing the wheel to the bottom lines of the fender, that is a fender skirt very popular on 50's cars and trucks.

The term "fender skirts" in the third instruction at the link above (48-51/52 Truck Shop Manual) is referring to the inner fenders.

gmguy,

AD usually refers to Advance-Design (Chevrolet's name of the 1947-1955 series of Chevrolet trucks). "New Design" (ND is the name the GMC used for 1947-1955 trucks,

The major disassembly differences between most A-D Chevrolet trucks and most ND GMC trucks (the 1947-1953 models) are the way the grills attach and the locations of the parking lamps.

Gmguy,

You probably already know this but it is worth a mention anyway. Use a 6 point socket or wrench versus a 12 point to avoid rounding off the old nuts/bolts.

Thanks every one for the insight ! I am going to try to remove the fender on a ND GMC 1 ton, looking at the nuts and bolts under the fender they look easy to get at but i know they have not moved in 60 years and this will not be fun ! Thanks for the 6 point socket suggestion, I have been soaking everything often with PB Blaster I will let you know how it turns out....GMGUY

gmguy
Before you take your fender off you may want to close your hood and take note of your body gaps.

Also measure your firewall brace rod before you remove it. If your 1ton ND has them ,I’m working on a 50 AD 1/2ton

Take lots of pic’s so you can refer to them at reassembly.

Two years ago I removed my lower splash apron t paint it, next thing I knew I had the whole truck apart.
Good luck.

I learned the hard way about taking parts apart without taking pictures......Thanks for reminding me.....GMGUY