silverado 1500 front fender rust

[steveo2155]

I have a 2005 silverado 1500 crew. Rockers are in good shape but at the bottom of both front fenders there are areas where it is rusted, paint was bubbling and now chipping away. Trying to decide what would be the best option. To find fenders at a local junkyard that are already painted same color as my truck or ebay? Any idea average cost would be for this and how difficult is it to put them on yourself? Also if I decide to hold off on that for now, any suggestions on any cheap rust repair I can do myself to make it look decent for another year or so? Thanks

[davester]

It's straightforward to do yourself, you may want a helper with getting the hood off (or prop it up so you don't have to remove it), and getting the door off.

 

I did this myself a couple years ago, bought a used fender with no rust, painted it the right color, then swapped it on.

 

Besides looking the same, you want a fender the same year or newer (or maybe just a little older), as GM revised the panels over time, to add more bracing, bolt holes/nuts, to make them stronger.

 

If you find a used part with the right color (bonus!), verify that it is the right color via color codes listed on the RPO codes in the glovebox (both in your truck and the other truck).  Some of the colors changed a little from year to year, so it may appear to be the same, but once you get it right next to your vehicle in good light, the shade is slightly different (this got me, my truck is Silver Birch, and I bought an earlier door that looked the same (until I put it on the truck, then it was obviously different) and then found it had a different paint code/name.

[greatmizzou]

The fenders arent welded in?

[davester]

IIRC, they bolt onto the cab and radiator support.

[greatmizzou]

Cool!  I wish the rear fenders did that

[davester]

Yeah, it definitely makes repairing the front end easier and cheaper to do.  The PO had done a poor repair of the fender (kind of looked like they reskinned it, which would have been stupid expensive to do vs just replacing the whole thing), so I bought another fender, painted it, and then swapped it onto the truck.  It didn't take me that long to do the swap.