The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 1950 3100 fender question

Just picked up a front end for my 1950 3100. Its in pretty good shape but there's a couple of spots that needs patch work. I can't seem to find a replacement for whatever this piece in the attached picture is called. Clearly I also cannot figure out what it's called to even search. Sorry if I sound dumb. I search through classics and all the big name sites but could not find the proper replacement panel. I'd have to assume this is probably a pretty common piece to rust. To specify I'm talking about the brace that attaches to the cowl

If you are talking about the mounting flange with 4 holes in it, if it's not available as a patch panel, then you either buy a crashed fender with a good flange or you make it. Not that hard to make. If you don't have shrinking/stretching/flanging tools, make it from two or three pieces. With a hammer and some "mandrels". Then weld it on the fender. Use the old rusted piece as a template.

Easy enough to make a new mounting flange. Take a piece of lightweight cardboard (cereal box, etc) and trace a pattern and cut it out of flat sheet metal. It has simple curves and can be bent to shape around a piece of pipe or other cylindrical object. No compound curves needing shrinking or stretching. Been there, done that on fender mounting flanges, both rear and front fenders.

If you had those tools you would make it from one flat piece with a short 90 deg bent leg along the edge. Then use a shrinker-stretcher to get the bent portion seen at the bottom of your pic. Assuming that it does have a bent lip to attach it to the fender or whether the fender has the lip. Not sure. If it has that lip, you can't bend it very easily. It's like trying to bend "angle iron". That's where a multi piece works better. Bend each piece and weld them together if you have no other method....or bend tabs.

You would put in the "step/offset" with hammer/dolly/mandrel or possibly a flanger.

Maybe a patch panel for that will show up.

The lip where it attaches to the fender is on the fender. The mounting flange itself is flat and spot welded to the lip bent on the fender. I don't have my fender handy to look at, but a worst it has an upset portion that could easily be hammered into the flat patch.

I doubt there will be enough demand for someone to supply a patch for that section of the fender, but they should. That's a very common point for rust outs.

Thank you guys for the input. It looks like someone already tried to fix this problem at some point. I dont really have much to template off of. But, I'm pretty handy and think I can make something work. This is literally the only rust through on the whole front end that I got so if I have to take some time to make it look right I dont mind.

Understood Kevin, thanks. Looks like poster has it figured.

Ouch! That driver's side fender looks pretty rough. It looks like it may have lost most of the contour needed to match the cowl. If you can find a fender that's crunched at the front beyond repair, that would be your best bet. At least you'll need a sample fender to get templates made from. Maybe a member nearby can get a loaner to you.

Good luck with your patching.

Yah it's in rough shape but I think if I take the measurements from the cowl for the template instead of what's in the actual fender it wl work out a little better

1. Isn't it sort of a mirror image of the other side? Make template and flip? Bend opposite direction. (If other side is not all rusted away also)

2. It is, however, easy to ad lib that shape from pics and what you have. I don't think it's all that visible of an area for the car show judges

3. As I said before, maybe four tabs would work.

4. Donor

Yes is it mirror imaged. My concern with it would be the overall curve of the fender losing definition once the flange (which is what gives it its stiffness) is gone. It would be real easy to mess up the contour, by "ad libbing" the shape, especially from pictures. The flange isn't visible, but the outer contour and how far it is from the running board would be evident. On second look, the flange is gone from both fenders on the lower portion below the reveal line, so getting the contour (front to back) from the opposite fender wouldn't be very dependable.

The flange is gone and fender still has it's shape. Don't think the flange retains the shape just a mounting feature mostly. The fender would be matched to the rest of the body contour (tweaked) during assembly as always. But I don't have, nor have ever had, an AD truck. So I will defer these details to others. I was just speaking as to what I see in pics and my sheet metal design experience. Together with body assembling of TF and 6066.

Bartamos, both side have been heavily tampered with. Drivers side has a piece of sheet metal tacked in place sort of in the shape and pass has the original rotted off with little pieces of metal tack to hold it in place. But I don't think it should be hard to adjust and tinker around to get them right. I was really just wonder if anyone knew where/if they sold them. Just trying to save a little time in fabrication

Bartamos, you'd be surprised how flexible a fender without a mounting flange is. I'd be hesitant to try and restore those without some templates of the proper curvature. Even with the compound curves, they don't hold their shape well once the flange is gone.

OP,
You have several options.
As I said earlier, check around for a fender or two that are less damaged than yours and splice the rear of it (them) to your fenders.
Find used replacements that are less damaged and more easily fixed. (more $ and less time)
Buy new replacements (way more $$ but way less time)
Patch yours using templates you might get from another member (I might be willing to make you some curve templates based on my fenders, but they're still buried in the snow). That's going to take a lot more time and higher potential to not get a good fit after all is said and done.

I appreciate the offer very much. The guy I bought the truck from has a few ad trucks. I'm going to see if I can salvage these and get a template off of some other fenders from him. Worst case when it's time to re assemble if I need to use something different I will.

Brandon

If it were me, and I have rescued several unrescuable fenders, I would start searching for a better fender. It is very difficult to create correct patch panels with that much metal missing as what I think that I am seeing in your pics.
Carl

Don't know your Florida location but The Florida Swap Meet at Sumter County Fairgrounds in Bushnell, Fl is coming up March 3rd. They usually have a good assortment of
truck parts, and sometimes it's hit or miss. Google It

Bud

Carl, I'll post more pictures when I get out of work. Maybe I'm crazy but, I don't think there is that much metal fab work to do. But, now that numerous people are saying that these may be unsalvageable I'm going to post a few more pictures for you guys to check out. It is literally just the mounting flange that has rust through. There is zero rust through anywhere else on the fenders. It seems like two carefully fabricated strips of sheet metal should solve the problem I'm having.

As for rigidity if the fender. There's a small maybe 3 inch section where the fender would wrap in to meet running boards that also needs a small patch on each fender. Which from pictures appears to be connected to the mounting flanges in some way. The rest of the fender and inner fender just has minor surface rust.

The issue I see in your fenders is that the mounting flange has rusted all the way to the corner. You cannot realistically weld a flange to the corner as when (not if) the weld shrinks, it will pull that corner inward with little recourse to correct, and more than likely, not consistently. So I would see such a repair looking like the Atlantic Ocean on that crease. If you wanted to save that fender, you could make some pieces with a folded flange both directions (call it a sheet metal angle, if you will) and use shrinker/stretcher to match existing contour. When trimming to the fender, locate the seam about 1/2" to an inch out from the corner of the mounting flange (as shown in my attached picture)


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/stovebolt%20fender.png

This puts the weld seam out where you can planish to negate the shrinking effects that WILL occur.

Or find another fender..

I get what you're saying. I just need to cut past the roll on the fender to keep as much heat away from the roll as possible. So it is possible to save these fenders with a little more fab work than anticipated? It's just not in my budget to drop another $4-500 on a used set of fenders.

I did find lower rear fender patches. They're a little pricey but still cheaper than buying fenders. So I'm thinking if I replace that then cut out what I need to for the flange this will give me a better starting point for fitment of the new flange

Patches exist for the FRONT of the rear fenders, but not the back. I wound up fabbing a patch for the rear of one of my rear fenders.

Pay attention to Robert. He knows whereof he speaks.

https://www.classicindustries.com/product/all-years/chevrolet/truck/parts/t70813.html

This is the part I found that I'm talking about. It's for the lower backside of a the front fenders. Looks like it will replace a good portion of the fender and give me a solid surface to cut and fab my flanges. I think if I replace this first then cut past where the fender rolls as stated by another poster. I will be in good shape

That's what you want. That should fix you up.
That wasn't available that I know of till recently.
I misunderstood when you said "lower rear fender patches". I thought you were talking about rear fenders.