weinerschizel

I've never done any work on these type of panels. Curious what materials I need. Somebody, my self or a former owner, seems to have nicked bottom passenger side of A pillar where rocker arm meets the fender.

I pulled the fender and want to repair the section as it wrecked where the fastener holds the passenger fender in place.

What is recommended?

I've done tons of body work on little things like this over the years, just never a vette. Mostly metal bodywork, and plastic bumper cover stuff.

johnson-rod

I used a few washers to even out the attachment point then a fender washer on the outside to cover the ripped bolt hole. Unless you are laying on the pavement you can't see it.
Whatever works. If you try to fix this "right" you will be going down a very deep rabbit hole. Bring cash.

weinerschizel

That's a elegant solution. I'd not thought of that. I may have to do that. I really appreciate that suggestion.

Still curious about fixing it as was though. I have done a bunch of body work, painting, and restoration over the years. I'd likely just rebuild the corner and not paint as it's not terribly visible or paint that little spot with any old red paint that will adhere.. Only thing is, I'm not familiar with this material. It seems to be different than typical bumper cover stuff and I don't think it's fiber glass. What are these panels made from?

BHauber

The fenders are SMC material. Try looking up smc repair. A vendor use to make a repair kit but I thing they stopped producing it. I think it was Ecklers.

jackthelad

The repair manual refers to using standard fiberglass techniques. SMC is just molded and cured fiberglass sheet. On previous fiberglass cars I have used mat and resin/hardener such as you can get at most auto parts stores. And Bondo + hardener as a filler. IMO it's a lot easier than reshaping metal bodywork. You'll need some rasps for the rough shaping, then progressively finer sandpaper and wet and dry to smooth things out.

helphos

When I bought my 2003 AE vert, it had a long crack along the rocker panel on passenger side, down low starting at the rear wheel well. I removed the fender liner and used fiberglass patch from the inside to patch it. It worked fine and has lasted the past two years without issue. You can't see the crack unless you're really low, but I didn't want it to get worse, so I made that repair.