Scout 800 Front Inner Fender Help

[pack53scouter]

I've recently started taking a part my 1968 800 (196 w/Dana 30/27 front and Dana 44 rear). My ultimate goal with this Scout is to preserve it as a weekend driver. . kill the rust, new paint, etc - make it "pretty" enough for the missus . (she's been extremely patient and understanding so far.) something to get my boys and I into some fun backwoods camping locations . no rock crawling or extreme four wheeling . it's pretty complete, but I don't feel the need to go back all original . poor man's resto-mod might be more accurate .

the body seems to be in good shape except for the front passenger side inner fender . (see pics) . it looks like it got hit on that side and a po just pulled it out and put a replacement fender on it . the front of the fender well is also wrinkled (and rusty) and the battery box is a complete mess .

my question is how should I go about fixing this ? can I just cut out the front parts that are bent and replace with new sheet metal ? or do I have to replace the entire side piece back to the firewall ? I don't think I have the skills to go that far .

are there pre-fab patch panels available ? or is there a template I could use ? I guess I can always make a pattern off of the driver side .

any advice you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated . thanks !

 

[That Guy]

That damage is not that bad, it could be straightened out with a hammer and dolly. Cutting it out and welding in a new panel would take way too much time, hammer and dolly work would take a couple hours, tops.

If you don't want to try it, you could put an ad on craigslist for someone that does metal work and se if they would come do it. If you were closer, I would come over and do it for you so you could see how easy it is.

 

[ScoutUnlimited]

We agree with the post above, it's not bad and it would be way faster to repair than replace!