Lenz's PV544 Restoration: Working on the fenders

Front and rear fenders on this car were a particular challenge. Somewhere along the way a previous owner or body shop, had brazed the fenders directly on to the car rather than using the bolt-on and gasket system Volvo originally intended. Three of the fenders were in what I would consider to be "repairable' shape, though anyone with access to reproduction panels would have thrown them all away. There are repro panels available, but at between $500 to $1000 per corner plus shipping from Europe it's out of range for me. I did manage to pick up a very nice used front passenger side fender for a good price from Vintage Import Parts so that helped a lot.

Starting with the rear driver's side. This fender confounded me and I worked on it on and off (mostly off) for almost 3 months. The whole front edge of it had to be rebuilt. I learned a lot...

Right rear fender was quite a bit easier, but still needed some fairly major work.

I almost gave up on the left front fender. I thought about calling Olof and seeing if he had another used one, but I didn't want to give up on it too easily. Major reconstruction was required along the entire rear edge of the fender along with rust damage around the headlight area and along where the trim strip is attached on the side. In the end I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Not too bad for an amateur. I didn't get the patch around the headlight opening in quite right, but a headlight and all the associated trim will cover the ugliness up, and it should look just as good as it's almost perfect condition right side counterpart.

Before: Really bad shape.