The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 1948 3100 Series 1 Front Fenders

We have been working on 1948 3100 first series truck and we think that the left and right fenders are different. Why? With the truck level (horizontally) we can see left fender profile is lower than the right. We've measured from the floor to the top or bottom of headlight bucket opening (no headlights installed) and we have one inch (1") difference, the passenger side being lower than the driver side. We've considered replacing one of the fenders but the issue is which one should we replace, left? or Right? Any ideas? Is there a way that I can define the year and model of each fender?

First off, I'd take a seamstress's tape and measure both fenders. Don't measure from the floor. Measure from point to points on the fenders themselves. I'd bet you find them to be identical. If they aren't then one of them is bent or the fender has been damaged and repaired incorrectly.

If the fenders are identical, you've either got frame problems or the cab mounts are rotted away or the fenders aren't mounted correctly, or something else like that. How do the fenders fit around the cowl and hood?

Start taking measurements of the frame on each side, up and down, side to side, and diagonals, etc.

Post some pictures of your truck here.

1947 to 1953 AD fenders are identical on 3100 trucks. The larger series truck fenders won't fit on your truck. Another possibiliy is that one of the fenders is an aftermarket replacement that's made wrong but I've never seen one that far off. Look at the roll where the sheet metal curves under at the front of the fender.

Texas - I'll 2nd Otto's suggestion to take and post pictures of the entire front end and individual fenders. We can better help if we can see exactly what your looking at.

If you need help figuring out how to post pictures, take a peek at the info in this helpful thread.

Thanks gents for help.
The 4 cab mounts have been changed. I had placed 48” level across the front bumper braces and bubble is in between the level
Lines. However this early 3100 has 5 cab mounts, the one in the center aft has not been overhauled and I haven’t found any supplier for the bolts and bushings. Many attempts to find a repairable center mount on EBay but no luck.

Also placed same level inside cab A pillar to A pillar, bubble within the lines. Months ago I had place the level between the rails at the rear support and thick the bubble was as stated above.

I’ll put the truck on towers and take dimensions as you suggested.

Measure the fenders every which way you can and compare measurements between them.

Texas - After multiple looks at your pictures it's really hard to see the difference, but I think there are some between the fenders. For me, it looks like the passenger side fender light opening and "eyebrow" metal looks to be protruding farther forward an drooping (angled) down compared to the drivers side. One way to do a comparison may be to make a cardboard template of the top center line of the drivers fender that traces over the light opening eyebrow and reaches below the opening. Then take that template and lay it across the same spot on the passenger side. That should help gauge what if any difference there may be between fenders.

It also appears that your core support and everything attached looks to be canted lower towards the passenger side. The fender and grille seem to sit lower across the bumper brackets on the passenger side, both in your before and current partial assembled pictures. I get the same sense of passenger side of cores support being lower than drivers side when looking across to the top corners of the cores support and radiator where they look to be against the cowl. The passenger side looks like more cowl visible than the drivers side.

Of course this all may be just due to the slight angle of the camera lens when the pictures are taken, which can throw off the alignment perspective. Maybe give the fender template check idea a try and double check the height of the core support. Good luck and let us know what if anything you figure out.

Thanks for the observations. Interestingly enough about 1/2 hr ago and not yet read your observations, I was on YouTube looking at Wray Schellin's video and B.A.M.F. videos on how to make flexible tape pattern and that gave me the idea (as you suggested) to make patterns of the driver side fender and overlay it on the pax side fender and see if there are any shape differences. So I ran outside and retrieved a large cardboard box I was discarding thinking that I can use it for the patterns you suggested. Guess I'll go with that first and see where we are.
As to the radiator support this type support, (as you probably know) for this year / model has a single centerline support with two bolts ( about 5" wide, 1.5" width, two bolts.) I'll be posting a picture that shows a bit more as presently assembled, that could provide you a better view. I would also like to say that sometime after I repaired (ref the photo with fenders side by side in my driveway) my son recalls that his mother in-law seeing them said that they looked different.

tire's the height?

Bit confused about this.
But all 4 tires and wheels are new. However if you suggest that I verify the tire to fender gap, that’s something I’ve not considered. I’ll look into this.
How about leaf springs?

Ok Stovebolters, this week end we put a full effort on this fender assessment. We did make cardboard contour template (template Haaa!!!) of the right and left fender top contour. The Driver Side was used as the master fender (why, since it was a crapshoot we opted for that one.) We used the top left and right radiator / fender bolt locations (see ref photo) as a reference to establish a basis of known locators from which we would transfer the fender contour to the cardboard.
Yesterday we did observe that the pas side contour between the top of the bead sealed beam and Station 1 looked to have a more pronounced slope between that bead and the first tape stripe.

Yesterday after placing the Hood over the engine (hood not permanently installed) its looks better.

You have a tape measure on the driver side fender that reads 11 1/8" just where the tape wraps over the top of the headlight. What does the passenger side measure when placed at the same start location?

I think you have the correct fenders. One of them just got squashed and didn't get stretched back out to its original contours.

In your first photo, it looks like the body isn't sitting on the frame evenly. It could just be the angle of the photo but the body looks like its squatting on the passenger side, elevating the driver side.

Or the bumper mounts are crooked. Bumper mounts look higher on passenger side than the driver side relative to the fenders and grill.

Went back and verified that the passenger side measurement 11 ⅛” is same as driver side. And it is.

Ok. That's good. You have identical fenders that have been squeezed out of shape due to damage and/or repair.