TheSamba.com :: View topic - Is it possible to get these wrinkles out of the fenders?

Sun Mar 23, 2025 7:37 am

So the original owner pushed this car around his property with a tractor and banged up the fenders pretty good. You guys think it’s possible to smooth them out a bit more?

Appreciate your help.

Sun Mar 23, 2025 1:25 pm

I would buy new steel or fiberglass fenders.

Sun Mar 23, 2025 1:41 pm

It's a lot of hours of skilled labor.

Skilled labor = $$$$$

Sun Mar 23, 2025 4:44 pm

You can certainly get some more of the dents smoother with hammer and dolly and shrink disk. But the metal is really quite thin so I wonder with all that work whether you don't end up with something dimensionally wrong despite how judiciously you shrink back the metal. And with shrink disks you DO thin the metal a bit. The more you use it, the thinner it eventually will get.

I'd look for better guards and not even consider filling that many dents that you have now.

Sun Mar 23, 2025 6:50 pm

Mike Fisher wrote: I would buy new steel or fiberglass fenders.

car is too original to do that.

Mon Mar 24, 2025 11:44 am

I saw a hand held English wheel somewhere online the other day. You can take them off and use a full size. The metal and thickness VW used is nice to work with.

Mon Mar 24, 2025 1:59 pm

amazon has one that connects to a vise for like $99. Might be worth a shot.

Mon Mar 24, 2025 2:19 pm

IMHO first verify if the fenders are the originals? Do the fenders have mounting flanges with the correct pressed-in dashes between the bolt holes? Maybe it is all the damage, but to me the lower rear curves don't look quite right. The red fender beadings could be hinting at a replacement event. If the fenders are repros, why spend time on them when better replacements can be purchased.

Mon Mar 24, 2025 4:36 pm

yeah they have the dimples.

Mon Mar 24, 2025 5:24 pm

That's going to be rough. Honestly, the price to straighten those out would cost much more than a new set of nice repros or originals.

Mon Mar 24, 2025 5:43 pm

Talk to Manny about who fixed his Bus.

Before

Almost done

Mon Mar 24, 2025 7:28 pm

Not economical to have someone else fix them, but if you do them yourself there is no reason not to if you have the ability

Mon Mar 24, 2025 7:34 pm

Also check out the barn door forum, Huetti_1989 has straightened out several panels way more wrinkled than those fenders. If they are OG German fenders I would try ro repair them, at the very least save them for someone able to save them