We've hashed this out in years past, that is the
assembly sequence. Since the beds were painted with
the fenders in place at the factory Tim, I'm 'bout
99.9% sure they would have been painted. Makes no
sense to assemble the bed/fender assembly with out the
center brace being riveted and bolted in place. At
least I've never seen one that didn't have them
painted unless it was an attempted restoration of
some sort.
If your restoring one and you choose to wait till the fender is
painted before putting the brace in, then it's a simple matter
to take a dab of touch-up paint to the rivet head.
I realize that there are some guys that choose to level off all
of the spot welds, seams, low spots, waves and such in an effort
to make their Stovebolt look like a 2014 Silverado and that's
just fine with me. There are those that insist on
installing welting between the bed and fender also,
even though millions of Stovebolts were delivered
without it and seemed to survive for some odd reason,
for well over a half century. But.... if you're goal
is a "restoration" then I'd leave the rear fender
center brace rivet heads showing and just paint them.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
Last edited by Denny Graham; 10/28/2013 12:26 AM.
