We are making progress on the '49 3104. Earlier this week we trial fitted the bed to the frame. As part of that process we temporarily hung the rear fenders and installed the running boards. Everything is fitting fairly well.
We need some help to complete the repair of the running board splash aprons. The parts are in pretty good shape except that the clips/brackets on the upper rear corners are missing. It appears that these brackets attach to the front edge of the fenders. We know that we can repair the flange in the area where they are welded to the apron.
We need some detail guidance on the dimensions of those brackets so we can fabricate them. Pictures will be great also.
Here are some photos of my repop aprons, which seem to be pretty accurate reproductions of the originals. That apron to fender bracket frequently breaks - Mine were broken off because the bed mounts had pretty much given up, making the fenders drop a bit. My original aprons are long gone to the scrap heap as they had holes thru them below the stake pockets. The offset of the brackets is toward the outside of the truck. The angle of the bend probably doesn't make a lot of difference, with the more critical dimension being the distance of the bolt hole from the rear of the apron. Might work well to bolt the bracket to the fender and THEN tack the bracket to the apron after it's attached to the running board.
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
Many thanks for the great information! It is definitely what we need.
This truck seems to have suffered a similar failure of the bed mounts. Apparently the brackets were broken off the aprons when the bed and fenders dropped. The bed dropped so far that the cross member in front of the rear axle fell on to the frame.
I think that the brackets breaking off really saved the aprons. Overall they are in pretty good shape.
I agree with your suggestion about trial fitting the parts to get the correct position of the brackets.
