I bought my '95 2 door about 6 weeks ago with a crunched right fender and a badly dented tailgate, but amazingly no rust. Found a local junkyard that had a black '96 with a good tailgate, and a 2000 with a good right fender....also black. I changed the tailgate Sunday. It looks much better!

Fender certainly looks like crap.

Today was my day off, so I spent a little time getting the fender ready to put on. The 2000 fender had a stainless trim strip around the wheelwell and lower body molding, so those had to come off. It also had a white pinstripe, so I had to remove that as well. Here's what I started with:

I used a rubber stripe removal wheel to get the pinstripe off and then slid a buffer over the area to clean it up. Since I was already covered in polishing compound anyway, I did the rest of the fender as well. The edge of the wheelwell trim left a mark in the paint (no surprise), but it'll still be a big improvement. After I get it on I'll put the red pinstripe on it to match the rest of the truck.

 

I replaced the temp sender unit and found that she was running hot (230 - 240) so i went and got a new thermostat. Opened it up to remove the "bad" thermo and found it had been installed upside down by the previous owner. I put in my brand new 195 thermostat and to my surprise it was still running around 230. Removed the 195 (brand new) and saw that one side of the plunger (part that opens up) was casted to the body of the thermostat. I went back and got another new thermostat (180) and now she's running at about 180 - 190. Much better.

 

I replace the rear shocks today (did the front ones on the weekend). Feels good to turn wrenches and make things better.

 

started throwing on the jimmy body cladding, I originally wanted the full fender flare cladding but I got what I could get.

 

Today I sanded and started priming a Bumper End that was real beat up..

Depending on how it turns out, I'll put some more pics up..

btw 01Vortec, those are the bumper ends i'm lookin for..

 

How did you remove the dent from the rear 1/4 panel? or is that not your truck. I remember the picture you posted and it had a huge dent. The reason i ask is I have a dent in the same exact place. The only option im seeing is drilling a hole in a place the cladding will cover and putting a rivet in there and pulling on it with visegrips. there no way to get from it from behind, and even if there was.. I can't without removing my box which I'm not doing,

 

I went with DDM. Love them! Guy I work with has $70 ebay kits that look like candles compared to mine.

I put them in at 11:30 PM last night and could not get the fogs to stop blowing fuses.

Today at work, I took the hour of early time to disconnect them from the relay harness and viola! Pics in my build!

 

Last night at 2am my Msd Coil decided to crap out (as usual) and had to call my brother to bring me my old spare out of my garage. While i was getting the old one out of the blazer i forgot i left the big dog out and he doesnt like said brother. So 2 hours later he finally calls me back "i got the coil" me "how?" him "i got my girlfriend to stand on one side of the gate to keep the dog busy with her while i jumped the fence and hightailed to the garage and back"

lol turned into a fun night. His gf hates him now. oops

 

Tore my dash out (again) to fix a short in my gauge overlay, PIA. Hopefully won't have to do it ever again.

 

That was the Junkyard donor of the Bumper End..

I dunno what I'm gonna do about that dent.. Probably pull from a spot that that get covered like you were thinking about doing..