The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Re-pop Front Fenders

Since there's a thread on rears, I have a question on metal fronts. I noticed that ones being sold today have a wrap or fold over mated side under the headlight opening. Why the heck are they doing that now? And how do you make it look right?
See the link from Classic.JC is the same.

http://www.classicparts.com/1947-53-Fender-Front-Left/productinfo/37-115/

I can't specifically answer your question but I had never noticed this before UNTIL a fellow bolter came by the house to pick up a couple AD front fenders. These fenders were/are definitley OLD. No question about it. As we looked them over real close we seen the "seam". At first we thought it was just a repair but it was not. BOTH fenders were the same way.....now, my panel fenders were blasted but honestly I did not notice this on them...but then I wasn't looking at them as close as my body man.

It appeared that those fenders were that way to begin with. As we studied them we wondered how could the fender be "formed" or stamped out like it is without a seam???

I'm sure we will hear more on this. Stay tuned, I am.

Willing to bet the reason for that seem on the repops is to simplify the stamping process.

I have about four pairs of OEM front fenders. Some have a seem running from the headlamp opening to the grille, about a 2 inch seem others don't have the seem.
But none of the OEM fenders I've seen have the seem that the repops have...Eric

The 1954 reproduction front fenders that I recently bought also had the seams. The original 1954 front fenders did not.

We plan (but, our plans might change) to remove the EDP at the seams, weld the seams, fill/finish over the welds, re-prime, etc. Or, we might just fill over the seams/spot-welds and prime/paint.

One nice thing about chemical stripping is that it doesn’t remove any detail from the
original metal. If there had been a weld seam under the headlight it would have certainly
been evident after I got mine back from the chemical bath. And before they were primed I
cleaned the inside and outside of both my 1950 front fenders with Scothbrite pads and
solvent.
I’ve welded literally all of my life, much of it as a trade. I‘ve done every type of
welding, gas, stick, mig, tig, spot and brazing and soldering. It really is impossible to hid
a seam like that because any weld bead leaves the metal in a cast condition as opposed to
the grain structure created in the sheet from the cold rolling operation. The surface is
lightly etched during the chemical operation so you would clearly see the different grain
structures.
In short I’d bet the farm that they were not originally welded.
They were probably formed in several different operations, the last being a die to finish
forming the nose of the fender and blank out the headlight opening.
The after market fenders are made with a seam most likely because they could eliminate
two or three of the forming operations meaning less die work. Also the factory
reproduction is not made with material that was as thick as the original. A deep drawing
operation to create a seamless fender like the GM plant was setup to perform would have
thinned the metal out to much in some spots using a lighter gauge sheet.
If there had been a seam from the factory it would have been directly to the inside of the
headlight and into the top corner of the grill opening. You can almost take a flat piece of
paper and form the fender if you put a seam there and I don't see why they didn't
put it there in the reproduction. .
I see no reason that the seam couldn’t be filled so it wasn’t visible under the paint.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Interesting info Denny. I know my '50 originals have no seam visible in or outside. I suppose as you suggest the seam can be filled although it appears a large amount of fill either metal or bondo would be needed. A good body man could make it presentable I would think.

Not that big of a problem Drew. Although I haven't had the occasion to do one my self I
have a friend that used the reproduced fenders on his ‘50 show truck, it had a seam at the
front and they welded it and filled it and you couldn't tell it was ever there.
I don't recall what the seam looked like because they had the work done before I saw it.
I'm sure that it wasn't just overlapped without using an offset flange to make the two
surfaces flush. The other way they could be is simply to have 90° flanges turned in at the
edge and then spot weld them. Either way it wouldn't be a problem to make it disappear.
DG