Hey, Has anyone out there hammered out kinks or slight dents in a front fender? I am going to need the whole process you use to take the paint off (500 grit sand paper?) if so what material is best for this, and pounding out the kinks (minor crease) what tools is best used for this and is there a procedure for getting it ready to paint again? Guess i'm gonna need a start to finish on this one as far as do i need to polish the metal after? I have called dent repair places and they don't do bikes because I of the thin sheet metal used on the fender? And the shop i took it to said they would just pound it out for me for a fee and just repaint? Sounds SIMPLE right...? I will go take a pic of it tonight and post it up in the morning. This is for a Street Bob with Black Denim pant. im also wondering if Matte black paint and flat clear coat will do the trick, I have seen Hot rod Black and i also heard Sherman Williams sells auto paint.. Let me know your thoughts? And YES just so you know. I parked behind a buddies car thinking it would be ok seeing as he seen me pull up behind him...and later that night when we were all hanging out he decided to make a beer run and forgot my bike was behind the car..Needless to say I will never park behind anyone's car ever again.................. So Iv been runnin with no front fender and as BADA#@ as I think it looks I dont know if i will be able to pull off the eye patch look ALL the time..?!

 

If you can find an individual that does paintless dent repair they may do it. I had a crease in my front fender on my Ultra where I let the fairing drop onto it. He spent about 45 minutes and it was $75 and you couldn't tell it was ever there. He also told me that most repair shops wouldn't do hard jobs, they wanted to do easy and quick jobs. I'd check around with auto dealers and see if they have anyone they'd recommend. Hope this helps.

 

If it were me, I'd probably just drop $30 on another fender.

I'm not sure what you mean by a crease, but it may be a bit difficult for you to straighten it out. No harm in trying reall, the fender is already fudged, right?

You need something very solid behind the area you're pounding. Laying it on a solid surface works well. If that's not possible, you need a hand held dolly - if you have a small chunk of metal or anvil. There's usually a flat spot on a vise intended for use as an avil - you may be able to position the fender there. Bottom line, do whatever and just beat it out. When you get it close to right, move it around and tap it this way and that to tweak it up - you might even have to go from the other side. Run your hand over the area to feel for high or low spots.

Don't even mess with the paint until you're done messing with getting rid of the dent.

Sand it as little as possible. If beating on it knocked some of the paint off, you'll want to feather the edges of that area. Honestly, if it were me, since you'll want to shoot the whole fender anyway, I'd probably sand the whole fender down to the primer, shoot a couple coats of primer over the whole thing, sand each coat and get it real smooth, then base & clear the whole fender.

Any sanding you do presents the risk of you having visible sand scratches, so, I'd stick to 600, then 800 to prep it before shooting. No matter how you do it, go over the entire fender with 800 before you shoot. If you are feathering the repair area, you can start with a grit in the 400's, then go to 600, then 800. If I were doing a larger area, I'd probably start with 220, then 320, then 420/440, 600, 800.

I don't think the flat blacks like Hot Rod Flatz, would match the denim finish. I'd do a black base coat with the flat clear over it (Sherwin-Williams CC947)... but I've never matched HD's denim black, so I'd do some test panels to check the match before I shot the fender. I don't know where HD gets the denim paints, but the only one I've seen that comes out with that soft feel is House of Kolor.

 

Find out what other bikes that part interchanges with, then check Ebay.

There is always fenders and body parts for sale. Front fenders are usually under $75.00.

If you are patient you may even get a color matched one.

 

I fixed a dent and painted the front fender on a buddys king last winter. He bought the paint and the beer so all was good,only took took about 1 hour of actual work,between waiting for primer to dry, color to dry and clear to dry.All in all was a 2 day job as i had to wait till the next day to buff the clear

 

Had a springer with a pretty bent up fender. I used a rubber mallet and put the fender over a solid metal table with a towel on it and went to work. A hard plastic hammer worked best after the main dents were out. All that was left was scratches in the clear coat. The main basecoat didn't come off. Its kind of fun to beat on something that has no chance unless you give it a go.