The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Seams in reproduction fenders?

I've seen that seam on pics of reproduction fenders. It's probably there because it was cheaper to form the fender and then put the seam there rather than drawing the steel in a single piece like GM did.

If that's a lap seam that's spot welded, I'd be inclined to cut it and butt weld the seam in a single thickness, then metal finish it and maybe a little filler. If you're not going for a show quality restoration, then maybe use some seam sealer on the underside and use filler on the front to blend it in. Robert (MPandC) has photos of a "ghost" line in the otherwise flawless tailgate off a modern truck where someone used a lap seam for a repair. The double thickness changes the expansion/contraction properties as opposed to the adjacent single thickness.

Pa Farmer, If your sandblaster knows his stuff, you might have him do one of the original fenders to see what happens. Original steel is better than repop IMO. Maybe there's enough metal left that you can use a skim coat of filler (recommending the stuff with metal in it for that.)