Back in the dark ages (the late 1940s) when my father owned a body shop, there was one way to weld sheet metal- - - - -an oxyacetylene torch, and one kind of body filler- - - -lead. Somehow the tin benders back then did very acceptable body work. Maybe it all boils down to the skill of the guy holding the tools- - - -not having a shop full of fancy equipment. I saw the same kind of skilled work being done in the 1970s- - - -on Okinawa and in the Philippines! A little guy with nothing but a ball peen hammer, a concrete template poured into a dirt floor shop, and a piece of flat sheet metal could produce a fender that would bolt right onto a WW II Jeep and fit right!
Jerry