B3B Rear Fender Questions

[bkahler]

I recently took the fenders to the painter for freshening up before respraying them.  The drivers side is original to the truck and we noticed this tab that is spot welded to the fender.  I'm pretty sure the tab is original due to the spot welding.  It does look like a piece might have been broken off from it.  Any clue what the tab was for and what might be missing?

 

 

 

The passenger fender is not original to the truck.  The original had been bashed in so a spare tire could be mounted to the bed.  I do not remember the year truck this replacement fender came from but it has very obviously been repaired in various places evident by the brazing that has been done.  The fact that brazing was used tells me the repairs were done a long time ago.  

 

However the odd thing about this fender is it appears to have a round wire bar rolled into the curved seam that defines the wheel well opening.  

 

 

 

The only thing I can conclude is someone was trying to reinforce the seam.  

 

Anyway, it looks like I might be placing a Wanted Ad in the Classifieds.

 

Brad

[kencombs]

That wire in the edge roll was a common thing when that type of fender construction was common.   Many times a dent would stretch the metal and deform the shape and the reinforced bead was the best way to restore the shape.  Or, at least easier, if not better than properly shrinking it so it would hold its shape.,

[JBNeal]

I went and fished out my NOS fender to look a little closer at it after all these years, and there is indeed that little spot welded brace...however, the one I have has a tad more meat on it.  On your brace, the two little nibs pointing away from the fender surface are at the apexes of a slot, of which only half of the slot is present here.  Not sure why so much material is present without a spot weld on it, but there it is...I'm guessing that vibrations on this tail end of the fender could start a tear in the sheet metal over time, and this little brace prevents this from happening.

 

Now the edge roll wire, that is something I have seen on a variety of truck and tractor fenders of this vintage.  However, on my NOS fender, the rolled edge has a cleaner look compared to what is pictured.  It almost looks like somebody tried to pinch that edge back with hand pliers after the fender might have been peeled away from the bed.  It should buff out  

[bkahler]

20 hours ago, kencombs said:

That wire in the edge roll was a common thing when that type of fender construction was common.   Many times a dent would stretch the metal and deform the shape and the reinforced bead was the best way to restore the shape.  Or, at least easier, if not better than properly shrinking it so it would hold its shape.,

 

Thanks for he feedback.  What you describe makes sense.   It wasn't until we compared the left side with the right side fender that we realized the wire was there although it should have been obvious due to the excessive amount of crimping done on the rolled over edge as they wrapped the lip around the wire.

 

 

[bkahler]

10 hours ago, JBNeal said:

I went and fished out my NOS fender to look a little closer at it after all these years,

 

 

To bad that's a left side fender.....  

 

 

10 hours ago, JBNeal said:

and there is indeed that little spot welded brace...however, the one I have has a tad more meat on it.  On your brace, the two little nibs pointing away from the fender surface are at the apexes of a slot, of which only half of the slot is present here.  Not sure why so much material is present without a spot weld on it, but there it is...I'm guessing that vibrations on this tail end of the fender could start a tear in the sheet metal over time, and this little brace prevents this from happening.

 

You are probably correct on why the brace is there.  The left fender with the brace has no issues in that area but the right fender is definitely torn in that area and I could find no signs of brace or spot welds.  So possibly early fenders did not have the brace and later fenders did.

 

 

10 hours ago, JBNeal said:

Now the edge roll wire, that is something I have seen on a variety of truck and tractor fenders of this vintage.  However, on my NOS fender, the rolled edge has a cleaner look compared to what is pictured.  It almost looks like somebody tried to pinch that edge back with hand pliers after the fender might have been peeled away from the bed.  It should buff out  

 

I suppose it's possible if I had big enough buffer it might buff out but I'm betting there would be very little metal left when I was done