The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Rear fender - what's SUPPOSED to be there?

I've recently enrolled in a community college body shop class. The teacher has encouraged me to bring in one of my fenders to work on. I jumped all over it!

The first problem was getting the fender off the truck while it's wrapped in a tarp, sandwiched between a fence and the house, and surrounded by 2' of snow!

I got it off no problem (thank god I changed the bolts in the fall to stainless!)

I now have the following questions with photo reference for each.

At the rear of fender and at the front leading edge I have a total of three holes - they look like they were drilled. I'm inclined to fill them.

https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5582221996970062834
https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5582222003490776274
https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5582222020128601042
https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5582222103832270402

Just below the first mounting bolt hole towards the front is a bolt holding onto a piece of metal:

https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5582222033046443298


And finally at the trailing edge (rear) of the fender there seems to be a re-enforcement piece that appears welded in at one end, and bolted at the other - regardless its cracked and needs to be fixed. Can anyone tell me why its bolted at one end? See the following:

https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5582222048237908978
https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5582222066551696114

the bolted part:

https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5582222077474940690

Is this bolt the location where the reenforcement post supports the fender and attaches to the truck here??:

https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5582221970664023618



I'll be welding patches in, grinding down existing bad welds and then finishing it off with fillers - so I would like to know what was original, and what should go. Close up shots of completed fenders would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

Hi Bigtonka, The 3 holes in front are for bolting to the running board, the remains of the tab above the 3 holes is to bolt the splash apron to the fender,(that tab is part of the apron) it goes between the running board and box.( I see from your pics that you have the splash aprons still on the running boards) the tab at the back/bottom of the wheel opening is for a fender brace, the holes on the rear side may have been for a non stock light. I"am not sure about the crack at the lower back of the fender. I have a 1949 1/2 ton that I just finished installing new rear fenders,running boards, and splash aprons and saw nothing there but I will check tomorrow.

ok - the splash apron you talk of is rubber right? (It's not that blue metal curved piece above the running board seen in the middle right hand of this pic)

https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5582221923616561362

My truck is a dump, as such the fenders move up with the box, so perhaps the holes were factory made and were once bolted to the running board? In which case the apron would also not attach to the fender anymore. Do you agree?


Mark

The splash apron is not rubber...it is the blue metal curved piece above the running board. I think it will all come together for you but you would need to check the cross sills and blocks that support the bed. I suspect something has been done or un-done along the way and it all may seem not to match up....but it will.

Even with the dump setup?

There is a fender brace that bolts from the fender to the frame this pic

Here is the one on my truck
...pic...

with your dump bed you would not want that bolted to the frame.

bolts to the running boards and metal splash apron
...pic...
with your bed dump you may want to plug those some how.

My pics are on a 50 1/2 ton.

Good luck

DADS50,

Thanks for the great reference shots. I do have the braces - although one end was welded to the fender, I suspect when it broke.

I've been subscribed to your Picasa feed for quite some time now, and use your photos as reference whenever I can.

When it comes time for me to paint my interior, I'm going to hit you up for the interior color you used, it looks pretty close to what mine was before someone painted it tremclad blue (with a brush!)

Seen here above the fuel tank...

https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/MyUnnamedToyProject#5516156127196782466


As for the holes for the metal splash apron, I'm just going to weld them closed.

Thanks,
Mark

*Sigh* I've been studying and studying these stupid rear fenders... so today I went out and took the drivers side off to see if the same problems existed.

Heres what I found...

TOP DOWN view of the leading edge on the drivers side:
https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5584082907197981618

A close up of the crease:
https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5584082952170665426

A view from the other side:
https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5584082961386973906

As best as I can figure, the LEADING EDGES of my rear fenders were intentionally pounded in. This caused the folding crease shown in the second & third image. As the bed dumps, if it was up adjacent to the apron, the fender would surly be blocked on its way up.

This is especially true as from looking at other trucks on the site, that apron is contoured to follow the flared front edge of the fender. Now I'm told that the dump was installed at GM as a grain hauling package for trucks, but I find it very hard to believe that this is how they modified the rear fender.

This photo shows the gap created by the bending in of the fender.

https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/RearFenderWork#5582221923616561362

This bending causes some unnatural curves and flow to the fender, so I plan on putting it back to its original contour and shape. Which leaves me only one option, shortening the apron.

Does anyone know of any other dump configurations like the one I have?

A shot with the box up, dual pistons...

https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/MyUnnamedToyProject#5512500333078319906

Thanks,
Mark

It sure dose look like someone creased them in to clear when the bed raises as you suspect.

Or someone dumpped the bed with the aprons still attached. The bed raised then snapped that attaching point off. Maybe not since the bed is sitting higher

My interior was rattle can resto. I didnt fully restore my truck, just kinda fixed her up a bit. I remember when I first joined the forum I would spend hours looking at stovebolt members build pics. Never to many pics.

Hopefully your find someone with a similar dump bed to compare the rear fender to running board area.

Thanks and Good Luck

There is no way that fender will clear the running board without being modified. The bed would have first need to slide back to clear the running board then lift up. Same principle as a reverse tilt front end. For the fenders to clear you either splice them in half or make the front end move forward then tilt.

I can tell the crease was not formed by the bed being lowered on the running board...Eric

There is no way that the hoist was installed by GM. Hoists were always a locally installed item.

You've got to be careful with the hoist on a pickup body. The box was designed to be supported by the standard mounts to the frame and doesn't have the strength to withstand dumping heavy loads over a period of time.

There are still people attempting to sell these hoists, but my experience has been that they all tend to break up the body over a relatively short period of time.

If you're going to use it as a cool looking unit for shows, you'll be just fine, but with heavy loads, trouble will find you.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

The box itself sits 1" higher than it normally would, it's been reinforced with 2 pieces of 9' C stock... so when its fully declined, the bottom of the fender sits about 1" higher, flush with the top of the running board, and not below it. As seen here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/MyUnnamedToyProject#5512500289462921410


I didn't really notice this until I started looking closer at the fender and its bolt holes.

Now I'm at a loss for what to do. Not only does the correct fender not clear the running board, but its 1" higher than it would be normally. Steve - I'm not worried about the load capacity, I don't plan on hauling with this truck.

I'll try to take better pics of the hoist assembly when I get it out of storage. But I'm curious if there are other trucks with this configuration out there.

Should I try to lower the bed? I don't think this would be an easy task. I don't mind the 1" gap - I never notice it until now.

But with the corrected fenders, I was thinking of cutting back running board to allow the raising and lowering, knowing full well there will be a slight gap.

Thoughts?

Someone had tried to solve the problem with the 9" C Channel. It's probably OK to use it empty or lightly loaded.

Sounds to me like you'll need to keep the 1" spacing and modify the running board and fender to allow for hoist use.

Just be careful.