I just can’t sleep until I get this figured out in me head. I’ve been trying to put my 1950, 3604 together in my mind like it would have been done at the factory and some pieces don’t seem to fit. First off from the pictures I’ve seen pictures of the paint lines at the factory, which shows that the bare cab interior and exterior were painted on one line.
The doors and front clip, i.e., fenders, hood and grill would have been painted, each part separately on another line. The fenders, inner skirts, grill, core support, and upper and lower pans would have been assembled and then installed on the cab. When the clip was married to the cab the sponge and paper anti-squeak were installed at the cab/skirt joint and the welting would have been inserted in between the fender and the cab.
In today’s world of custom everything you can buy welting that is just about any color that you want or have it matched to your paint tint. I feel very confident that at the Chevrolet Truck assembly plant they did not take the time to color match the welting to each individual truck color, and I can only assume that when the truck was delivered that the fender welting would have been but one color, black!
So, now that we have the front end assembled, lets move to the back. I’ve found through my archeological digging that the bed frame and rear fenders would have been assembled as a unit and painted as an assembly. It is universally agreed that the fenders were simply bolted up solid and that they were never assembled with welting. I’m trying to do an accurate restoration but to assemble the rear fenders with out welting just grates against my nerves and I’ve been contemplating using it when I assemble the bed. I’m sure from a purist point of view that it should not be used at the rear and that if one were shooting for a show truck that the judges would deduct points if the rear fenders were installed using welting.
I’ve been kicking the idea around about assembling the bedsides and fenders with welting and painting them all as an assembly. That way the welting would be less noticeable to the average person. I’d like to here any thoughts on this.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
