Boy Ron, that subject has been discussed literally hundreds of time on this site and a few of the others that I frequent. I’ve got a friend that believes that also because there was a ½ ton at the golf course that he worked at when he was a kid. After all these years you really don’t know what the previous owners or their kids may have done.
Visually I don’t see why they would use it at the rear because of the angle that you normally view the joint from. It’s a different story at the front because you see both sides of the joint straight on from the same angle and any discrepancy is quite obvious.
If fender welting were installed at the factory you would see a lot more examples of it. Instead what we find with nearly all of the AD’s is the fender bolted directly to the bedside and on very rare occasions one with beaded fender welting. It just seems logical to me that these odd balls are because a previous owner thought it would look better with the joint in trim.
Back when they were relatively new and the fasteners weren’t rusted tight, it would have been a simple matter to loosen the screws and slip welting in place. Would have been a nice easy project for after supper one evening.
So I guess what I’m saying is, unless I see documentation that some came from the factory with rear beaded welting I’m gonna go by what I’ve seen and what nearly all of the people that I’ve talked with have run into.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny G
Sandwich, IL