Sport Trac fender replacement

[ncyrider]

Have never had to deal with body work and painting, or body shops, on one of my own vehicles before. My '01 Explorer Sport Trac has some work that needs to be done, the main thing is the front left fender with a huge dent. Looks way too difficult/expensive to have repaired correctly, so I ordered a new fender for cheap from "Evan Fisher" and was quoted $350 from a local body/paint shop to get that fender painted (separate from vehicle). Is that a good price? this shop doesnt look very nice or clean, but they do good work and have a good rep. so I'm not sure if I should look for nicer/bigger shops and try to get the same quote.
Is there anything I should know about before removing the old fender, and installing/aligning the new painted one? The shop said it will need to be aligned, and I don't see any reason to pay someone to do that part. Ordered a new fender splash liner just in case, because it looks like the fender dent on my ST smashed it a bit.

 

[429CJ-3X2]

$350 seems awfully high just to paint a fender, but I haven't had any body work done in years. If it's going to need some smoothing/straightening, which wouldn't be unheard of, that's a little different. But still, those fenders aren't that big. Maybe they're adding the markup they would have pocketed if you had bought the fender through them.

I haven't installed a fender on one of these (or anything else for that matter), but I have taken a pair off to keep as spares. It's pretty straight forward. There are the bolts you see along the top, a couple behind the corner light, and one or two bolts toward the front you have to access from below. Not bad to get to once you get under there where you can see them. And there are a couple more under the bottom rear edge. Rust might be the biggest problem. Aligning it should be a matter of taking your time and being patient. It's not like aligning a door. The dent in your inner liner will probably disappear or pop back out once you get the fender off. The liners are not rigid.

 

[MONMIX]

$350.00 sounds about right.
Paint materials are very expensive.

I have swapped 1,000's of fenders in my life. I can't recall off hand if I have ever done a sport-trac though.

If you are going to try the swap yourself here are some tips.
Run a few strips of masking tape down the front edge of the door to protect the paint on the door. There are tabs on the fender that go behind the door that could really scratch the door when the new fender goes on.

A five minute short cut is not worth ten minuets of frustration. Go ahead and take the bumper cover all the way off. Take the rocker cover all the way off. Take the headlight all the way off.

When you go back on with the new. Put all the bolts in loosely. Find a tiny flat head screwdriver. Go to the good side of the truck and put the tip of the screwdriver between the door and the fender. Note how far it goes in, use that as your gauge to make the gap on both sides match.
Start with the fender bolt behind the door at the top. Get the gap at the top between the top of the door and the fender right first. Next do the gap at the bottom of the door and fender. The top might have moved, go recheck it. Recheck the bottom gap.
Got them even top to bottom and matching the right side? Is the in and out even with the fender to the door? Good job !!

Verify you can open the door with out it contacting the fender.

When doing the hood to fender gap I prefer to remove the latch so I don't have to walk back and forth to keep popping the hood.
Start at the very back and match the gap there first. Tighten the very back bolt only.
Now match the very front. Tighten the front bolt. The gap in the middle should be just right if it is, tighten the middle bolt. If it is not then loosen the front bolt. Set the middle gap, tighten the middle bolt, then do the front again.
Tighten all your bolts.

Have a lemonade.

Now to reset the hood latch.
Verify your gaps and height adjustment. Adjust if needed.
Bolt the latch in the all the way up and centered position.
Close and latch the hood.
Using a long extension, crack all the latch bolts loose a few turns. Make sure the latch is latched and you can jiggle it a little bit.
Put your hand on the hood right above the latch and push down just a little bit.
Tighten the latch bolts.
Go test pop it. Hold the hood about six or eight inches up, and drop it. It should latch with no issue.
Put everything else back on as you took it off.

Do note: Unless your Trac is black, the odds are going to be slim you are going to have an exact color match. That is a consequence of painting the fender off the vehicle and not blending the door panel.

Good luck and please don't forget to post and let me know how it went.
Don't hesitate to ask me any more questions either. I am glad to help.