The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1946 Rear fender patches... HELP

Anybody know where to get the rear fender patches for a 46 1/2 ton. Jim Carter no longer sells them and I do not have the skill to make a set myself. Since I have been unable to find a decent set of rears I have decided to see if I can save what I have. Not looking good so far.

Thanks
Brian

Brian,

Do you have pics of your fenders? What is wrong with them? Tears? Rust?

I thought mine were toast. I got a body hammer and dolly and pounded out the dents.

The passenger side was rolled under. I was able to pound that out too.

Welding up a tear can be done. I posted on rip and tear repair. There is a a great description on how to weld up a tear. It would probably work for welding in a patch as well.

I found that post...take a look.

rip and tear repair

Just curious as to what is wrong with your fenders?

46,
The tear and dents and the worry for me. I have considerable rot through were the fender meets the running board. Jim Carter used to sell this exact peice and I learned today that they lost their supplier and can no longer get them. Figures now that I am looking at my horrid fenders. I am going to pick one of them up from the media blaster today to see what I really have to work with. I will try to post a picture if I get a chance.

Don't let the dents worry you. Pick up a quality hammer and utility dolly. Also pickup a book on body work. I started too big...so my advice...start with the little dings caused by rocks and gravel that dinged up the top of the fender. Take your time...dolly on one side and hammer the other. The small dents will disappear.

Straighten your fender so the tears line up. That will require a lot of hammering. Using light taps...a lot of them, you should be able to re-align the fender. If you can't weld, bring it to someone who can. I tried the MIG. The guage wire I used was TOO big and I blew holes in my fender. I am going to try torch welding for my other small tears unless I learn to MIG a little better. I have not welded in 20+ years..unlike riding a bike, my skills have gone to the dogs.

With a shaping hammer, you can make your own repair panels. It will take you a lot of time and work, but worth it in the end I think.

Hang in there. Since you have them blasted, you have the benefit of knowing what is really there. They can be fixed....

46
Thanks for the tips. My neighbor saw me welding some of the tears and loaned me his hammers and dollies. I was able to make pretty good progress on the dings and dents but I am at a loss on the rot where the fender and running board meet. I am thinking of welding a peice of sheet metal to the inside and using a little bondo. Don't know if that is a good idea or not. I would like to find the patches for that spot because they are shaped and have the bolt holes all set. For now it is a great experiment in sweat equity.
Thanks again pictures to come.
Brian

L.H,

Check out this post for patch panels. He does other stuff too.

little horse- John is right, pretty much anything can be fixed if you have the time and patience. I've patched alot of those '40-'46 fenders, and most need patching in the runningboard area you are working on, or on the flange that bolts to the box side. Both of these are fairly easy places to patch as they are relatively flat, and both places are pretty hard to see clearly when the truck is assembled. The wheel opening is much more visible and therefore harder to patch nicely.

For the runningboard area, I usually trim the rust away and then start fitting a flat piece of sheetmetal in. You can bend the curve by hand. At the bottom, you will need to have a small 90* bend to give it strength. You won't be able to bend this without putting small relief cuts in the 90* flange to allow it to curve. If these cuts are placed every 1/4-1/2" apart, they can easily be welded up later. If the truck is somewhat together, the fender can be bolted to the box temporarily and the fender clamped to the runningboard to get the right curvature before final welding, and also to transfer the bolt hole locations. If you clamp the fender and board together when tacking the patch in place, the fender patch should fit good and shouldn't need much mud at all. If you don't fit the fender patch to the runningboard good, and the curvature is way off and you try to make up for it with mud, the bondo will want to crack when you bolt everything together. So take your time and get a decent fit before welding everything up solid.

If you take your time it will work.My front fender that I finished is all body filler now.I welded 7 patches in it plus numerous dents and cracks.For patches see if you can find an old fender that way the metal thickness will be the same.That's what I did.

46 thanks for the heads up with the patch I email him he said he makes that but doesn't stock it so lets see how it goes. Barry thanks for the tips I have already made great progress but am curious what the patch looks like and how much he wants for it. If it is too much I make it myself. Thanks again for the encouragement, I figured I can't make it any worse.
Brian

Are these what you are looking for?

Yep Curt, that would be them.

Hey guys thanks I will call them in the morning and see if they still have them.

Curt,

I called them this morning and got one right (the last one they had) and one left. Those are going to save me a lot of trouble.

Thanks again
Brian

Glad it worked out for ya.

If at some point you find you need some more patch panels that aren't made anymore think about taking a cordless router to the junk yard and cutting some pieces of similarly curved steel out of another car- Like a volkswagen, or even buying a VW fender to cut chunks out of of when you need 'em.

I meant a cordless 'dremel' style tool with a cut off wheel, not a 'cordless router'= sorry.