One nice thing about chemical stripping is that it doesn’t remove any detail from the
original metal. If there had been a weld seam under the headlight it would have certainly
been evident after I got mine back from the chemical bath. And before they were primed I
cleaned the inside and outside of both my 1950 front fenders with Scothbrite pads and
solvent.
I’ve welded literally all of my life, much of it as a trade. I‘ve done every type of
welding, gas, stick, mig, tig, spot and brazing and soldering. It really is impossible to hid
a seam like that because any weld bead leaves the metal in a cast condition as opposed to
the grain structure created in the sheet from the cold rolling operation. The surface is
lightly etched during the chemical operation so you would clearly see the different grain
structures.
In short I’d bet the farm that they were not originally welded.
They were probably formed in several different operations, the last being a die to finish
forming the nose of the fender and blank out the headlight opening.
The after market fenders are made with a seam most likely because they could eliminate
two or three of the forming operations meaning less die work. Also the factory
reproduction is not made with material that was as thick as the original. A deep drawing
operation to create a seamless fender like the GM plant was setup to perform would have
thinned the metal out to much in some spots using a lighter gauge sheet.
If there had been a seam from the factory it would have been directly to the inside of the
headlight and into the top corner of the grill opening. You can almost take a flat piece of
paper and form the fender if you put a seam there and I don't see why they didn't
put it there in the reproduction. .
I see no reason that the seam couldn’t be filled so it wasn’t visible under the paint.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
Last edited by Denny Graham; 10/11/2011 11:47 PM.
