The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop ’41 Headlight

I have found that the headlight pods do not exactly match the fender contours. There is a small gap on mine probably less than 1/8”. No telling which of the two shapes is correct as I’m sure that both parts bounced down more than a few dirt roads. Does anyone have any suggestions for some material to sandwich between the fenders and the pods?? I was thinking of using fender welting.

Mine don't fit the contour perfect either. Probably the same gap as you described. I bought those rubber gaskets for that application from one of the venders (can't remember which one). It didn't fill the gap completly either. You can't really notice it so I left it alone.

I have the same problem with my 46 Kip, I've been refurbishing the fenders and I was thinking the fender might be bent out of shape from hammer and dollying them. there is a gasket that goes on the pod over the fender but I might try mounting them with 7/16 nuts and bolts and maybe torgue them down instead of the retainer screws that should be used, or maybe try 2 rubber gaskets available by any of the catalogue suppliers. It's nice to see I'm not the only one with this problem but I notice putting the front end together is going to take a lot of pulling, bending and above all patience to get everything together properly. good luck
Bob T

Kip,
Headlight bucket gaskets at Jim Carters here. Haven't used them as of yet not quite that far. Good luck.
Dan

Thanks guys for the suggestions and help. I have tried the rubber gaskets available from the usual places, but they are thinner than some of my old inner tubes. It would take several to fill the gaps and at the same time this would separate the areas that currently fit tightly together. Still not sure just what I will do about the “fit”.

As far as fitting the entire fender. I started by installing the running boards, the main front brace, the inner fender and the front side splash pan all onto the truck loosly. Next I sat the fender on the running board and main front brace. The fender would sit there all by itself. Then I started with some 2 and 3 inch long 3/16” bolts through the various attachment holes, slowly pulling them tighter until I was able to get the correct size bolts into adjacent holes. The whole thing went a little easer than expected. The only problem is that the rear braces (just in front of the firewall) seem to be a ½ inch too tall.

Is it noticable? I'm not sure if it needs to watertite. If there was a slight gap atleast moisture wouldn't condense as bad. The gasket is mainly there to keep metal to metal contact.

To add to this topic, I removed my headlamp buckets and noticed severe rust forming on the highest internal point of the bucket. Seeing that I would think that the moisture had no where to go, thus the rust. I would think you don't want a water tight bucket. From what I gather, the gasket mentioned was not original but more recently used to protect our investments. If the rubber being sold is not thick enough? Why not use some black camper shell foam tape? Stick it to the inner lip of the bucket. Just some thoughts.

On street rods where they want to omit the fender welt we "butter" the body with Allmetal where the fender flange bolts on and put a strip of wide duct tape on the fender flange making sure it's wrinkle free. While the Allmetal is still soft the fender is bolted on with every bolt which is snugged to near final torque. The excess will squeeze out and can be trimmed easily while still soft. When cured the fender comes right off because the filler won't stick to the duct tape and with the fender out of the way the filler can be blended to the body and sanded smooth. Once painted the fender to body joint is virtually invisible.

Hi Kip,
I have seen this problem too. A thought just came to me. The left bucket is different than the right bucket. Have you tried swapping sides? I just pulled a nice fitting set off of my tow-truck fenders If you want, I can take photos next time I’m at the shop and send you pictures of left and right that I marked prior to take-off.
Dale