Son wrecked the Jag
 

Well, my son got in his first fender-bender and put a softball size dent in the drivers side fender on the Jag. The body shop man didn't want to touch it, but I get that a lot around here. I don't think it would hurt anything at this point to let the boy try his hand at a little body work.
If he is twice as good at body work as I am it will still end up a disaster.
Does anyone know where I could find a black front drivers-side fender for a 86 xj6 Vanden Plas?
Any advise for removing the old bumper??

No advice, but you have my commiserations.

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Wow, thats a shame and you have my sympathy......at least no one got hurt, I guess by the sound of it?

Sorry I can't help........have you posted into the correct section?

Well, if the body shop won't touch the dent repair, who is going to install the fender?

What if you stripped off the fender ... will they work on it then?

Softball size doesn't seem big. Have the boy look for instructions on how to do it. Preferably in a real book at the library. Much more reliable than some hacked together explanation on the interweb.

Depending on the type of damage, you might even be able to pop most of it out using a coat of vaseline and a toilet plunger. That usually does not damage the paint. It also leaves less volume to fill with body filler. Body filler is only meant to fill imperfections, not reshape the metal.

As a learning exercise we are going to try to remove the fender and see if we can work the dent out. A small part of it is into the headlight housing, and that's going to be the difficult part. Still, if we can get most of it straight we should be able to fill whatever wurbles are left with bondo.
Ideally, I would like to just replace the whole fender, work on a few other flaws on the drivers side, and then have the whole side repainted.

Maybe you could post a picture.

Working on the fender is going to be easier while still mounted on the car. This is because it acts like a holding fixture. Especially for bits lit the headlight surround.

The basic technique is to apply force in the reverse of the force that was applied and from the edge to center. In other words, reverse the work of the force that was applied.

replacement fender
 

Here is a rough one on ebay for cheap but wrong color.
Jaguar XJ6 Driver Side Front Fender Panel 1980 82 84 86 | eBay

And several on car-part.com some with the right color, but double check fitment. Theres a black on in Utah for $200...
Search Results

Bob

Sorry to hear , good thing your son is OK ,hope to hear good news soon

Hi Jay...

The most time consuming part of removing the fender is the bolts that are nearly hidden at the front valance. The angle is kind of strange to get at with a socket... Generally I get out the 1/4" drive set for those, with maybe a 3" extension..

The bolts at the hinge bolts are most easily taken out with a rachet wrench...

Then there are the other hidden ones, behind that shield at the front tire... Notice where the sunroof drains are in that area... Kind of crazy, eh? And they wonder why the bottoms of the wings have a tendacy to rust....

The bumper should straight forward to remove, or at least undo one side to swing it out of the way a little...

Oh, you don't have to remove all of the screws in the inner fender... just the first two forward ones near the headlamp (I think)....

After you get in there and get working on it, you'll realize it's like a half an hour job.. Not bad at all...

The biggest problem you'll get into finding a non local replacement will be the shipping charges... Packaged up, the fenders hit right at the dimensional rates for all the carriers... So depending on how it's measured, a $75 charge will go to a $150 charge instantly.. and they do bill back if you try to cheat the numbers a bit...

Good luck with your repair, I'm glad you guys are all right......

David
EverydayXJ.com

David is spot-on...but isn't the market wonderful!?! Check out Greyhound PackageXpress as you have a terminal there in Rapid City, SD:

Greyhound PackageXpress - Locations - Agency Information

I bought a (black) left front wing for my '95 from Apopka, FL on eBay for $75 w/$75 shipping; but all the wrecker yards around DFW were $150 and up, and nobody had a good, undented black one. I was VERY worried about it arriving still undented because that is not an easy item to package. "Brandi" called within a week to report that her usual "large parts" shipper had just delivered a hood to MS that was more or less folded in half, and thus didn't want to hand my fender over to them. BUT...as David said...UPS/FEDEX wanted to extract $150 from her. She then sheepishly asked if I might be willing to hie myself down to the local bus station, as Greyhound was quite reasonable; And it arrived in a few days - one end of the box pretty-well collapsed but wing very much intact and undamaged.

I'm totally unfamiliar with the '86, but on my '95, the "problem" fasteners were the two at the bottom front, behind the bumper. I didn't remove the bumper. Popped into Harbor Freight in FTW and purchased a box-end ratchet wrench and made short work of both - though starting the forward one on re-install was still quite the challenge.

These wings (fenders) are a complex piece of bodywork, being made of several pieces of pressed steel welded together then leaded to conceal the welds. They are particularly complex around the headlight aperture.

As others say, if you're going to have a go yourself, (or your son is), to get the dent out involves knocking it out from the rear, or pulling from the front using a slide hammer, which involves drilling a hole for a small nut and bolt at the point of impact, (or screw), for the slide hammer to fix onto. Some body shops used to weld washers on to make a small loop. Once the dent is out the washers are ground off. Just pulling the dent will not be sufficient, so you really need a set of body hammers and dollies that all the body men buy when they enter the trade. Actually it makes a replacement wing look the cheaper option in your case !!

These wings are bolt-on and fairly easy to remove, I removed then on my Series 3 back in around 1992 to replace them with new ones.

Buy a stud welder and slide hammer and have a go at pulling the dent out. A skim of bondo and all you'll need is paint.

Looking on Ebay yesterday I found another person in my town who has a beautiful 85 xj6 Vanden Plas that he had repainted in red. He told me where he had the work done, and I took the car in for an estimate. This body shop was confident that they could pull the dent, however it would cost a bit more.
I also found a salvage outfit in So Cal that had a reasonable price on fenders.
I think I'll go ahead and buy the fender since it will come with the other parts I'll need to complete the project.

have your son work to pay off the costs..or just make him ride in the trunk for a year

@doghead08 LOL! It turns out my son is a good house and trim painter. I'm going to take a cue from Karate Kid and go fishing while he paints the house.

hahahaha....paint the fence...wax the floor...Muyagi style 101. good luck man. let me know how he does

I'd follow the advice further up and get a good book. Strip the paint and any rustproofing inside. Then work as a pair using heat and hammer an dolley. Have a "heat proof" glove to hold the dolley on the inside and with gentle "pulling knocks" work the dent out. The important word is patience. The slide hammers are a bit brutal, and the drilling option leaves the need for welding to shut the holes. If not welded rust will creep behind any filler from inside the wheel arch. Remember that the greater the curvature the stiffer the metal is.

get on the 3M website and look at the trizact process....for me the only products to use.

3MAutoBodyRepair's Channel - YouTube

It would be useful with a pic, we don't know how deep or sharp edged the dent is ....