The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Getting the curve right on 37 fender

What is the best method to get the curve right in the heavy wire that is rolled in the edge of the front fenders on the 37? This fender had some body work and has been knocked back out. But the bend in the heavy wire has me stumped, it does not seem to want to go back into shape. I don’t want to bang and beat it so much that it gets everything else out of wack. Thought about heat but don’t want to warp sheet metal with too much heat. Any suggestions? You can see in this pic where it makes the curve have a flat spot.
http://s111.photobucket.com/albums/...IP/?action=view&current=DSC06000.jpg

Heavy wire??? Maybe the truck is different from a car but I'm not familiar with heavy wire anywhere. Are you maybe referring to the rolled edge along the wheel opening? If so it's probable that the body work has stretched the metal to the point where the fender won't hold it's original shape. While stretching & shrinking has been discussed here, actually doing it well requires practice and isn't often in the realm of a DIY project. It isn't something that I can look at your pics and say "hit it here" or "shrink it here". The best advise I can give you is to take it to someone who has experience in body work and have them fix it or possibly arrange for you to help with & observe the process. Good luck.

Sorry for a delay at getting back, but things are a bit busy.
Yes it is a wire/rod that runs the length of the fender edge roll. About the size of welding rod. Both fenders have this. I would imagine that it is there to support the shape of the fender. Seems if it was not there that the fender would be a bit flimsy and easily bent. I have added 5 close up photos to show what I am talking about. http://s111.photobucket.com/albums/...action=view&current=Untitled-5-1.jpg

The metal is not overly stretched, I just want to get the bend out of the wire. Apparently who ever did the body work originally just slapped bond-o there to make the curve look right, but was pretty thick. I have been doing body work on and off for many years. For myself and professionally, mostly motorcycle crash repair. So I am not totally inexperienced.

Hmmm, interesting. Either 37 was the last year that was done or they did pickups different than cars because my 38 coupe doesn't have the support rod in the fender roll. I guess I won't be much help since I've not had to deal with that before. Good luck.

I had a similiar problem on my 4t6 but my
fenders were mounted. They looked like they were driven through a door equal to the tire width. I hooked a tiedown/come a long and snugged it up and with a couple of wacks with a rubber hammer they "rebounded" close to where they should have been. I see by your pics that your fender is not mounted but if you could secure to a solid surface it may be a possibility. The cracks could be welded.
Dan

Re: Chev4t6
I don't plan on doing any body work to any thing until I put everything back together in primer. It is easy to make something look good off the vehicle but once it is back together it is a whole different story. The cab is the only thing I have started some body work on but not to the finished state. My main goal is to get all the paint and bond-o off everything and put it in a etching primer. I have seen too many dents that get filled with bond-o instead of knocked out. With gas the way it is going I don't need that extra weight to haul around. lol
When you did that, did it not pull any of the other areas of the fender out of kilter? Sometimes I think getting those swooping curves back straight is as much of a pain as getting a dent out of an outside crease. I plan on welding the crack and hoping I can get some of the roll back around the rod once the two bend areas are back right.
Thanks for the info. on how you solved the problem.