Bowed out fenders

[boogieman77]

Hey guys and gals. I have a 94 ford explorer and my wife had the kid do a brake pad replacement on it. When jacking up the front of the vehicle with the facotry jack in the spot your not suppose to. It was the corners where the front of the door and the fender come together. In doing so, he pushed the bottom of the fender corner up in the body and caused the fenders to bow out, but not bend. It made the back of the fender raise up a bit, so now the pin strip is noticeably not in line. My question is how would a person get the fender to pull back down? It only needs to come down about 1/8 inch and try to get the wooo out of the fender and back flush with the door. Right now, if u stand towards the back of the truck u can see that its not flush with the door. Any suggestions? Don't really have the money to take it to a body shop but i know some people that have shops with lift or anything that may be needed. Thx

 

[slravene]

wait...he put the jack on the body of the car? If so you might have a few more problems than just a bowed fender.

Anyways, try removing the fender and looking for any problems underneath the panel. If there is none visible (which is doubtful if the jack was on the body) then try to either bend the fenders back straight...or buy a new one (they arent too $$$) I suspect you have a few more problems than just a bent fender though.

Can you get some pictures? This might help.

Good Luck!

 

[boogieman77]

yes he jacked it up on the body. Basically it push the body undercarriage up and starting bowing in out like a recurve bow kinda. srry no camera for pics. It push and bent the screws that are down there to. I think if could get a hold of something there and a slide hammer or something to pull pull it back down.

 

[jimbo74]

a lot of the tire shops lift everything by the fenders, on unibody cars, that is where you are supposd to lift them from, the kid probably didnt think the explorer was actually a truck as most suvs these days arent truck based anymore....

 

[boogieman77]

so how do i fix this problem? Where he jacked up at, u say that the right spot? then why did the fenders bow out?

 

[section525]

It is not the correct spot. Have you tried loosening the two bolts down where he placed the jack?

 

[boogieman77]

no, but thats where im at now is gonna try and see if i can loosen fender bolts and hopefully if falls back down.

 

[410Fortune]

it likely wont fall back down but depending on the severity of the bend it might be able to simply be pushed back into position and then the lower bolts for the fender tightened back up with it in the correct position.

 

[Bill Kemp]

So, how are the brakes now?

 

[boogieman77]

ahahah yea brakes are great.