Can someone tell me if the passenger side fender with the notch in the gusset plate is incorrect see pics attached . Trying to figure out if one of my fenders is an aftermarket or is incorrect and if I have to replace it
Here's the driver side fender
IMO it has been replaced , the notch was not needed in 70 , my car was the same , low miles & 1 fender was notched , it was in perfect shape so I welded up the notch
Passenger side = 1971
Driver side = 1970
:iagree: Also notice the location of the hood-stop. The square nut is piacular :thinking:
Thanks guys you're awesome
Quote from: anlauto on September 22, 2018, 09:42:56 AM
:iagree: Also notice the location of the up-stop. The square nut is piacular :thinking:
I think the square nut for the "hood stop" showed up on the post-'71 production "NOS" '70-'71 fenders
Lucky thing is you can fix it without touching the exterior paint surface.
I bought a set of new fenders in 1979 from the Chrysler dealer and the notched ones were what I received.
If it's a NOS fender are you thinking of just leaving it as is? The car is already painted, right?
No I want to replace the right fender because I want to be a 70 And yes it is already painted sad to say
Yikes, that could be very hard to get a new fender to match in color and it might take a lot of body work to get it to line up. Not sure I would take that on for the small benefit. It's your car so you get to do anything you want, but take a bit of time and think it over. I can tell you that AMD fenders will not line up and almost any fender you get is not going to be a bolt on and paint situation. :alan2cents:
I ended up with a nice notched right fender for my T/A restoration. The shop used a section off a damaged 70 fender to replace the notched section, as the rest of the fender is the same.
I'd look at doing something like that with this fender rather than trying to find a good or NOS fender.
Maybe you wouldn't have to repaint and match the paint on whole fender to go that route.
:iagree: I would repair/repaint just the under hood mounting bracket/area (make it a mirror image of the LH fender)
- the exterior repaint will never match the rest of the car
Its not a big deal. That's how NOS fenders come. If it bugs you that much just have your body guy "but weld" a patch in there and repaint that section only.
Fenders are an interesting subject
The yellow rt side fender I took off as I work on my early 1970 A66 vert that came with the e-60-15 rallye wheels factory.
It is an original fender and has the end notch only
The second picture; In 1980 I picked up two nos Challenger fenders thinking that sometime in the future I would need them. They both have the end notch as well as a U shaped notch that is there on all 1971 Challenger fenders (never noticed the differences back then.) All original 71 fenders should have the U shaped notch.
What is more interesting is the part numbers on the back of the NOS fenders; part numbers 3579624 and 625. These numbers translate to 70-71 TA fenders. (of course there was no 71 TA) but listed in the parts exchange manuals of the day.
There were three sets of fender part numbers for the 70-71 Challenger
3419878-79 - all Challengers except F60-15 tires or Challenger TA
3579380-81 - described as all 70-71 Challengers with F60-15 tires except TA
and finally the 624-625 fenders that I bought back in the day prescribed for the TA w "special wheel well radius"
I am thinking that the NOS pair I picked up (they were in the back of the dealer's storage room were sitting and they wanted them gone were the late 70-71 fender that they made available for all 70-71 Challengers just before they went NS1
My original 70 A66 fender early build Oct, 1969 has the L shaped notch.
I have owned the car since 1979 and know the original owner- fender never replaced.
Let me add to the confusion further;
One other difference; the location of the bumper stop threaded/welded nut is in a different location from my 70 original, only on the left NOS (drivers fender) and is a square nut like Kent's picture. My NOS passenger side fender bumper stop nut is in the same location as my original 70 fender and is star shaped.
Those fenders could both be factory, depending on if they are original or on the time they were installed/purchased and replaced.
Old parts exchange manual page
Part number on the back of one of my NOS fenders
the "notched" fenders didn't start to appear until mid-1971 model year
the "notch" is NOT required for the '71 Challenger, it is a mounting point for the '72-'74 fiberglass Challenger header panel
the earliest '71 I've seen "notched" fenders on was March '71 production - anyone know of an earlier example?
i had a 1969 roadrunner convertible that had a factory square nut where the hood bumper screws in it also. was original to the car so i left it that way
This is funny to see this post. I just found out last week from Mike Ross that we have this exact same situation. The RH front fender is different from the LH. I never even noticed it. I was commenting on the fact that I thought the fender had been replaced when he pointed out that my RH fender was a 71. He suggested that it was probably NOS as all the previous bodywork on the car had been done about 20 years ago. Had I known this BEFORE we painted the car, I would have modified the RH to be correct. As it is, we will live with it being wrong. Only MOPAR guys will probably ever notice.
Hello all, i am the process of restoring a 70 T/A that i purchased from a friend last year. With it i have a pair of NOS never used fenders #3579624 and a 3579625 that believe are for a T/A with 14" tires. Am i correct?
Quote from: gto105 on September 11, 2022, 01:20:01 PM
Hello all, i am the process of restoring a 70 T/A that i purchased from a friend last year. With it i have a pair of NOS never used fenders #3579624 and a 3579625 that believe are for a T/A with 14" tires. Am i correct?
You mean 15" tires, no T/A ever had 14"s
Yes, my apologies 15" tires
Quote from: gto105 on September 11, 2022, 01:20:01 PM
Hello all, i am the process of restoring a 70 T/A that i purchased from a friend last year. With it i have a pair of NOS never used fenders #3579624 and a 3579625 that believe are for a T/A with 14" tires. Am i correct?
It has been said forever that T/As were supposed to get special 15" fenders, but I've never seen any evidence that production T/As ever got a different fender than any other '70 Challenger. Other than no antenna hole in the passenger fender of course.
I have a T/A I've owned since I was a teen in the late 70s and did a concours restoration on, so have looked at this issue for a long time. I even put a new "71" driver side 15" fender on it I bought at a dealer in 1980 when I thought it needed a 15" fender. I don't claim to know it all, but am sharing what I could figure out on this.
Understood, thank you for your assistance...
Did you have issues with hood bumpers and hood pins lining up.
Joe
It's been 6 years since I reassembled the car, but I don't recall a bumper being anywhere near the hood pin.
Isn't there a hood bumper and a hood pin?
Yes, and there is two different hood bumper/adjuster locations through-out the years, but neither one interfered with the factory hood pin location :alan2cents:
Great Thank you
Quote from: anlauto on September 11, 2022, 01:27:17 PM
Quote from: gto105 on September 11, 2022, 01:20:01 PM
Hello all, i am the process of restoring a 70 T/A that i purchased from a friend last year. With it i have a pair of NOS never used fenders #3579624 and a 3579625 that believe are for a T/A with 14" tires. Am i correct?
You mean 15" tires, no T/A ever had 14"s
Do they have the notch in them.
And there are other differences. Like location of the hood bumpers and holes around the headlight buckets.
yes they have notches have to check the other holes, buckets look good just want to double check..
It seems this thread has 2 aspects...fenders with notches and 15" fender designations.
Both parts seems to get muddy when "over the counter" parts are figured in.
No 1970 fenders had notches...they show up in mid 71. (A further identification of replacement fender revision dating is the location of the hood bumper...it was towards the back early and toward the front later).
The 15" fender (rolled), as noted in the OP image and other threads, seems to not have been a factory line piece but showed up on "over the counter" fenders early on but went away as they realized it wasn't necessary...is this accurate?
So, What if you have 15" fenders? Modify them back to normal? Do they have any special value?
My TA was in a small fender-bender in 1971 and both front fenders are 15".
Thank you, i have to take a deeper dive and check this in more detail...
The history of why there were "15 inch" fenders as I understand it was a result of an incident that happened early in the 1970 production year where a '70 hemi cuda was being tested at the Chelsea test track, and during heavy braking they had a front tire fail because the wheel well lip cut into the tires sidewall when the front end dove during braking. The remedy was to modify the front fenders by rolling the top portion of the lip so this contact couldn't happen. That is where the "hemi fender" fender tag came from on hemi E bodies. And why early hemi E bodies don't have that tag. I don't recall when the change took place but I think it was sometime in fall.
I don't believe that these fenders were used on any other E body with 60 series tires. Perhaps the hemi engine's weight made it the only configuration that risked having this issue?
Many changes were made on T/A Challengers design during the scramble to get it ready and start producing it to make the features legal for Trans Am racing. The project was scaled back quite a bit from the original concept, which would have resulted in a car so different than regular Challengers it would have made Superbirds and Daytonas look tame in comparison. Among some of the features the T/A was originally supposed to have were H60 tires on 15x8 wheels. Maybe this is where some of the confusion came from about T/As supposed to have 15" fenders? Though the original concept T/A was supposed to have a fiberglas tilt front end therefore wouldn't have had regular Challenger fenders at all!
Thanks for that background.
I had heard about wide tire possibility but not the fiberglass front end potential.
So, in that window of time, let's say Mid-70 model year to end of 71 model year, it seems Chrysler created the rolled lip 15" fender part number. I recall that this fender was what showed as the replacement fender for e-bodies with 15" wheels for some period of time.
Yes thank you. I was thinking he same. car is totally stripped and have to decide to clean up original fenders or use a NOS set 624 and 625.. naturally the NOS fenders have the notch..
if you use the NOS fenders, they need to be modified to be identical to your originals
Yes probably a lot of work. Going to take a look at the old ones tomorrow and probably go with them...
Thank you
Took a look and think i am going with the original fenders. One side need a inner reinforcement bracket but worth it.
Any thoughts what 2 NOS never used fenders are worth 3579624 and 625...
The NOS fenders with the notch will always fit better then the new reproductions and will have value. I also bought a pair of the 624-25 NOS fenders in 1980. I sold off my original left fender at the time never noticing the minor differences. So I have 1 notched Nos fender on the left side, the original right side fender and the notched right side Nos fender. The original rt side needs a small bottom patch at the bottom which I have.
I am in the same position; use both Nos new fenders and not worry about the notches or repair the original right side fender and weld in a patch over the left fender notch.
Less work for me just use the New fenders as is!