Miloman5599

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Hello all!

I got my first car (98 xj) last August and I have been souping it up interior and exterior and am about to have a lift installed. But, I recently helped a friend get his ****box ZJ unstuck from the most ungodly place at 1AM and in doing so I backed up into a branch and it dragged along and dented my front fender a good bit (pictures included). Needless to say being new to jeeping and driving in general this has me pretty upset as my XJ was in near perfect condition before this. I am aware this is my own fault and for the love of god don’t respond with the typical “just leave it like that it looks better it gives it character I love my battle scars yee haw 🤠” I am willing to do whatever necessary to get this dent out. I understand it will never be “perfect” again but I’d like to get it much less worse and close to unnoticeable if possible because it really screws with the cars lines as I see it. Thank you for any and all help it is much appreciated!

dave1123

Because it involves the body crease, it has to be taken off and hammered out from the inside against a dolly and most likely repainted. OR you can get a replacement fender and have it painted to match.

97grand4.0

Once you take it off, you may as well replace it. They are surprisingly inexpensive, I think rockauto had them for about $100.
But before you do that you could try sawing off or hammering down the bad part and patching it with some walmart fiberglass. It's an xj. It gives it character. This looks like mine, actually, my 98 white. I have a bent fender where the wheel fell off on a test drive. No biggie. XJs are tanks.

Waynerd

Either replace it with a used one in the same color or have a paint less dent repair done. A used fender will be about 1/4 the cost of having the dent removed. If y’all haven’t seen what some of these guys can do then I suggest watching some videos. When I worked at a car dealership we had this company called the dent wizard who would come to the dealership. I didn’t believe it was possible to get some of those dents out without needing paint until I saw it happen.

Waynerd

https://www.google.com/search?q=pain...5&bih=553#ip=1

97grand4.0

Interesting, never seen that myself, but doubt it would work at all in his case, did you see that dent of his? Is more than a dent that is a straight up munch of the fender lines about 10x the size of that video one.

caged

you will never hammer that back out to perfection, at least not without some body filler and lots of sanding/patience and much experience. then you will need to colour match it. good luck there.
best thing is to just replace it, save the aggravation and do yourself a favour.

nice xj, by the way.

country2

I say try the paint-less dent repair. I Had a pretty bad Y shaped dent that also went thru the oval on tailgate on my F150. They got out about 97 percent of it and charged me only $100. This was a traveling one that does work for the dealership my brother worked for at the time.

texastaz38

Personally, if you have a pull-a-part or similar salvage yard in your area, I would go there and look for another white 98 model with a good fender and pull it yourself. A couple of good things happen doing this 1) the color would probably be faded close to your color and 2) you get the needed experience in removing the fender on someone else's junk prior to working on your own treasure. Just a thought.

Happy Jeepin'
TexasTaz38

dave1123

I can't agree with that more! Taking another car apart gains you valuable experience in taking your own apart. I needed the rear hatch latches for my 2000 WJ and was worried about taking mine apart, so I went to the junkyard and took a donor apart for the latches first. Then taking my own apart was much easier.

97grand4.0

$36 for a new fender on Rockauto, and you dont have to go to the junkyard to pull it. Which by the way the junkyard would also charge you something for the fender.

RocketMouse

heck... it's an old XJ just like the rest of ours... I'd say unless it really #$@#'s you off... or if it interferes with the hood... then just leave it as a "badge of honor"

dave1123

all well and good, but from Rockauto he'd have to pay shipping and then get it painted. A good body shop can match faded paint pretty well with spectral analysis, but that's going to cost!

Red1992XJ

Try the dent repair, they should be able to give you an estimate and it won't be any time or work on your part. A junkyard fender will probably also not be as perfect as you want it, (may have dents and scratches).

Bottom line, get some estimates from places and see where you stand as far as price

awg

be patient till you can pick up one the same color, will be similarly faded, and cost very little

one of the main benefits of running older 4wd like XJ is it doesnt matter much when you dent a panel off-road, as repair will usually be cheap

try that with some fancy new $100k POS