Bulging fenders

[HoldenJones]

G'day,
I know this is probably a stupid question, but at this point I'm at a loss on what it could be.

I noticed a few months ago that both my front fenders where bulging out a tiny bit and the longer I drove it, the more it settle back in. At the moment it's still sticking out but not by much and it's stopped going in. I can push it in more but there's obviously resistance and noticeable tension in the metal.

I've looked at it 100 times, I've had fulcrum look at it and a few mechanics and they've all told me its all straight underneath, suspension wise and frame (just stuff you can see and touch).

Its a stock 2002 3L D22 with a 2" lift with around 200k km, could it be a worn out suspension putting stress on it or something like that? Is this just a problem Navaras get? I know fords get it pretty often... I am fairly sure its not the frame causing it at least.

I did have plans to refresh the old girl but I'm worried if I took the fenders off I'd never get them back on, or if its even worth putting money in it if its a terminal issue.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

 

[Old.Tony]

This is completely new to me. Would a photo show the detail we'd need to see?

 

[HoldenJones]

Yeah here's a couple photos of the fenders but it's a bit hard to see on camera unfortunately

 

[Old.Tony]

Wow, it's almost as if the top and bottom are being compressed somehow. Like ... a body mount may have failed?

 

[HoldenJones]

I feel like body mounts failing would come with more issues though wouldn't it? Apart from it sticking out that little bit all the body lines are fine and normal. It's just weird that it's settled back in over time..

 

[Boogieboots]

I was looking through the manual today to find the fender/guard removal instructions but found nothing. It seems as though maybe the fastening bolts around the middle (to the cab) may have loosened??
You might need to dig into this, I have not seen this on mine after 380k now
And it seems a bit vague of a description to find in a search of the forum
Hopefully someone knows something and if not please keep us informed of what you find. Good luck mate
If you don't have the pdf manual already, there have been a couple of links posted here with it attached

 

[Old.Tony]

I feel like body mounts failing would come with more issues though wouldn't it? Apart from it sticking out that little bit all the body lines are fine and normal. It's just weird that it's settled back in over time..

In truth I'm having a guess at a possible cause. If the rest of the car is sturdy and it's just the front cabin body mounts, I'd imagine that could cause the front of the cabin to drop. There's a good chance this would impact on the radiator, which means you'd possibly see signs of it there too.

As far as I am aware, the suspension of the D22 doesn't connect to the upper part of the inner guard like the D40 (D40 has coil springs, D22 has torsion bars). This means I can't rely on a suspension failure to cause that, hence thinking it's a body mount issue.

Otherwise I can't think of any other reason for it. Happy to learn though!

 

[HoldenJones]

Alrighty so had a body shop take a look and turns out somehow something got bent a little in the front end on both sides that's causing it, possibly from being jacked/hoisted in the wrong spot. Its nothing major but its never gonna look perfect unless I throw a lot of man hours and $$$ at it. I'll get on the vice grips and get the swear jar out this weekend and take a crack at straightening it out.

Only time I've had it near a jack/hoist (around when I noticed it) was when It went in for an alignment and left with a quote for 3.5k worth of parts it "needed" and the blokes there seemed a bit weird but coulda also been something else as well, that's just the most plausible explanation.

Cheers for the help

 

[bajatrailrider]

If it got bent by someone jacking it up wrong place . Easy fix if has bolt in middle back of fender losen it. The very bottom bolt losed it and put washer. Between fender and body to pull it down . You can take block of a 2x 4 with a rag on it . Very easy push on middle fender bending out . 50 years of body work doing this