The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop original gauge body parts.

I am considering buying new rear fenders and running boards. Are the new ones original gauge steel? I can't find the gauge in their listings? Thanks for any help.

On Task Force, the patch panels are the same thickness. I've only heard complaints about "fit" on replacement pieces, not about thickness of metal. Bottom line is you have two choices. Donor or new. Either will be fine. LMC says "heavy gauge metal".

Not sure on the gauge specifically, but I am finding that depending on the panel and who produced it, its not worth the money for replacement parts. Nothing I have purchased from LMC has fit right unfortunately. I save them for non-sheet metal stuff. The panel I am looking at currently is the left side full cowl replacement, some offer 19 gauge, and some are offering a 20 gauge replacement steel. Purchase the highest quality stuff you can. Fender-wise, I would search for a nice pair of originals.

Unless made in US, which not many are, they are made in production quantities, with dies, in China. The vendors buy from one "People's Fender Factory". The parts are all made the same but not all the same fit. Two reasons: The users truck is screwed up, repaired, twisted, misaligned or has other Chinese parts. Second, the parts are stacked, handled, loaded, shipped, banged, thrown, stepped on a dozen times before they get to you. (8000 miles). Sometimes they fit pretty good, sometimes we have to tweak them. This is the nature of the beast. Folks think that one vendor or another has bad parts and another has good parts. It's really just your particular piece from the batch and your truck's slight problems. Nothing to do with the vendor. They come from the same place in China. Nobody knows, including the vendor, the exact thickness. The difference between 19 and 20 ga is 1 to 1.5 human hair. The Chinese thickness tolerances easily cover that range. That's why vendors don't usually advertise a thickness.

You buy them at the cheapest price, with shipping, and make them work with your American determination. The user needs to stop crying about it a "truck on" with the fix. Cut, chop and rebuild. Adapt and overcome. Listen to the Devo song.

Just remember, you only repair the bad parts, not the whole piece, whenever possible. Even if you buy a whole piece, you don't use it all. You just cut out the rusted part. You always keep good metal. You will also have less fit problems that way. You try to mount the piece after the patch is tacked into place. You use the truck to locate the patch, when possible, before tacking. You carefully measure and make profile templates before cutting out old pieces. It's an art and a mechanical engineering exercise. Wood worker guys are pretty smart with sheet metal. Sometimes you have to loosen other body parts and move them to find equilibrium. It takes awhile to learn how to weld thin metal. Another subject for a different day.

Vendors buy form different brokers, drop shippers, warehouses and each other. They would have no idea it's all from one Chinese factory. Communism allows no competition, therefore there is only one factory. China is the only country who could afford the tooling and labor for such low quantities, sell cheap, and still make a profit.

Generally speaking , you don't replace a section or part just because it's dented. Try to take out the dent(s) first.

As I said before, donor parts are another option.

No, Chinese replacement parts do not fit right. You have to make them fit. body lines are sometime 1/2 inch off. Indention's are sometimes so far off you have to remove them and make your own. It takes some artistry to make them work. Its probably just as easy to make your own out of flat steel if you don't need a really complex part. 18- 20 gauge works good for me.
lee

I can not verify quality of reproduction fenders, but I have had great success with almost everything else. Most of the reproduction parts I have purchased have been virtually indistinguishable from original. I purchased a complete bed, including sides, tailgate, front panel, every piece perfect and identical to original down to spot welds and gauge. Running boards, likewise identical to originals in fitment, gauge and form. Interior parts like door handles, glove box doors, radio speaker cover, all perfect. Two sets of chrome bumpers, numerous chrome exterior trim pieces, all exactly like original and correct gauge. Two chrome grills likewise indistinguishable from original. The only thing I have noticed is that some parts do not hold up as well if your truck is not garaged and cared for. After 3-4 years outside, the chrome grill on my ’47 truck developed dull areas, (but no rust). A taillight chrome trim piece as well as a mirror did rust quickly outside. On the other hand my garaged ’53 truck with numerous reproduction parts still looks like new after almost 20 years.

This illustrates what I said. You get a certain truck with a load of new sheet metal parts and it all fits well. Then you get a certain other truck with a load of parts and they "don't fit". So if there are many that do fit and some that don't fit, with all parts off the same dies, then it's the truck or user or parts got tweaked in shipping and handling. We do not know if we own a truck that has been misaligned. Many times when you restore a truck you find all kinds of "repairs" you didn't see before stripping it down. All they can do is build parts that match original drawings or that have been digitized from an N.O.S. example. If you don't trust them, use donor parts. If your truck is a tweaker and/or the donor part is a tweaker, it won't fit nice either. Sometimes you need to make it fit. It ain't no thing but a chicken wing.
China, like Japan have greatly improved manufacturing abilities/quality.

Mar-K products fit well and are made in the USA, I believe they are available for you truck. Have fun and good luck
Dan

Mar-K sells mainly bed parts. No fenders and just a few miscellaneous sheet metal parts other than bed parts. I have not purchased anything from them (yet) but they have a good reputation.

I bought a complete bed kit, sheet metal and boards for my ‘46 project from Mar-K. Top notch stuff! Would do it again in a nano second.

Yes, they make flat parts. Parts made with standard bead rollers, brakes, shears and using available stock shapes and tubing. Dies for fenders and other parts, made on huge presses, would not give a return on investment. Especially with off-shore filling the market. The post is about where to buy and the fit of: fenders and body panels. With new tariffs on imports and on steel.........watch out! Fenders and parts just went up. Buy your donor stuff now!