Repairing 40 Ford truck rear fender

I bought this 40 Ford truck a number of years back and paid 600 bucks for it. My friends all laughed at me, and told me it was just scrap, but I figured I could resurrect it. The fenders are really really bad. I'm not building it yet, as I have a couple other projects to finish yet, but I figured I would fix one of the rear fenders so as to take it to the swap meet for promotional purposes.
I plan on having the other rear fender there in its original unmolested "junk" condition to compare to. Trying to drum up a little extra work, as almost everyone I know nowadays are building what they call traditional rods, but most look like rats.
Regardless, I took a bunch of pics of both, and I have the front half of one of them pretty much done now.









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So, now that everyone has seen the pristine condition of the fenders with all the modifications done to them by the original fabrication shop of about 50 years ago, with all the abuse that the original owner gave it, you can definitely see that this truck was rode hard and put away wet.

First up, I had to clean the loose rust off the outside and inside to make it bearable to work on. Then, I took a large mallet and laid the fender on the table top, which has a 1 1/2" thick MDF top, so its really nice to hammer on. The MDF has a little resilience when you pound on it, unlike a steel table top.

Once the initial fender shape was back, I decided to make up a new patch for the wheel opening. It had been welded on so many times that it had been pulled together and gas welded at the broken seams, so the fender opening was about two inches smaller than stock at the bottom. No repairing that.

In order to get the proper size of the opening, I took a pattern off another 40 fender that had been repaired, and was ready for paint. Sure hope that one has the proper shape of the opening. It looked very good and seemed quite symmetrical, so I am hoping for the best. That fender was an exact circle from about 8 o'clock at the bottom left side of the opening to about two o'clock, then tapered off to the rear end of the fender opening. Seemed right. Hard to find an unmolested fender now to take a pattern from.

I went to the local lumber yard and got a quarter sheet of compressed sawdust and glue, (MDF), half an inch thick. The original opening is half round, turned to the inside, so I took a router with a 1/4 inch round over bit, and ran it around the full circumference of the fender opening on the mdf board.

After that, I had to make another piece from 3/4 inch plywood scrap that was 1/4 inch larger diameter than the wheel opening to clamp onto the sheet metal so as to keep the metal from "lifting" while I pounded the metal around the opening. Straight and simple hammer form. Also put a few screws into the metal to keep it from shifting as I have had that happen in the past also. The screws ensure the metal won't move while hammering the metal over the mdf wheel opening.

Lots of moving it around and reclamping the fixture to get it all done, but it turned out really nice. I should also say that I ran the metal blank through the english wheel first to give the new wheel opening a little shape, as it isn't just totally flat from the wheel opening outward. Pretty hard to wheel it after the lip has been hammered into it. I can still wheel most of the fender afterwards though, just not the last two inches to the wheel opening.











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Before tacking the new wheel opening in place, I pretty much got the original shape back into the old fender. I also took the spare tire indentation out by hammering it with a large mallet, then had to do a bunch of hammer and dolly work to get it right with the world. Also had to shrink a little extra height off the "bulge" to get the whole shape to conform with the rest of the fender.

The tacking process looks like the welding gaps are huge, but they were nonexistent, or very minimal when done. Its all tacked in place with the mig, as I haven't master the tig tacking process yet, and the mig is just so easy to do. The tops are all ground off the mig tacks, then the whole fender seam is welded up. It was welded in small increments so as to keep warpage to a minimum.

I got lucky in that the fender jig I made for the 37 Chevy truck fenders I did a couple years ago, was close enough to use on these fenders. Just had to drill new mounting holes. Saved a bunch of time by not having to make a new fender jig. Makes it much easier to do hammer and dolly work, and I clamped it to the work table so nothing moves when using the shrinking disc on it.

The weld was ground outside as well as inside so as to facilitate hammer and dolly work. The front half of the fender is almost done. Smooth as a baby's bottom. Will be working on the back half today.

I'll be at the Lethbridge swap meet with this. Would be nice to meet some of you guys. Who's coming to the swap meet? Stop and talk and introduce yourself. With a little luck, I will have the back half all done as well. I'll post pics as I finish this up.

I might not have everything done to have it ready for paint, but it should be pretty much metal finished as long as I don't die or something in the next 10 days or so.

Forgot one thing. Anyone have a pic of the rear fender brace? One of mine looks like it could be factory, and doesn't look mangled, but it makes the rear of the wheel opening stick out an extra inch or so. The other one is definitely from "down on the farm". Curious to see what the factory rear fender brace looks like. IF anyone has a couple of these for sale, they might want to bring them to the swap meet. Thanks.

Thanks for the tutorial Jvo looks awesome!

Great work on a piece most would throw out as scrap.

Love your work.

Very inspiring for me as I am working on a 41 Ford pickup currently. Might have to do a smaller version of this on a couple of the fenders. Thanks for showing the bucks & jigs as well.

Thanks for the kind comments. Scotty, does that pic of the fender brace look like what is supposed to be there? The one that looks like it might be an original Ford piece puts the back end of the fender out about an inch and a half too far. Looks goofy. The one bracket is obviously homemade, but the other one doesn't look mangled either. Regardless, I'll have to do something about that.

Made this little dogleg piece for the inner bolt flange. Pain in the butt, but it had to be done.

Someone mentioned tutorial, so I guess I should show the other hammer form that I made to make the back end of the fender as well. I got that pattern from the same good fender that I traced the wheel opening from. I was lucky a friend of a friend put me in touch with the guy that had a good fender ready for paint. I forgot to ask him about the fender brace though.

The curvature in the back end of the fender was put in by hammering it into the depression in the stump. It was a nice try, but I'll have to cut a couple inches off that probably when I make the other transition piece to get a better shape in it. This one isn't quite right yet.

You can see I also welded in a reinforcement piece in the back end of the flange, as these pieces always go to hell first on these fenders. Should help hold the shape and keep it from cracking on the back end. Hopefully.











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A couple mock up shots of the back end of the fender. The curvature isn't quite right on this piece, but I'll fix that tomorrow. Also got the back end as smooth as the front end, so the whole fender is now pretty smooth. At least smooth enough to make and weld all the pieces in, then do a final planishing.



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The fender doesn't look smooth in the pics, but it actually is. There are just so many scars left from previous damage that its almost impossible to get them all out without sanding through the metal. Not gonna do that. Most of what is still there will disappear in the final planishing.

....wow, that is so cool. I love the detail in your posts and thanks for taking the time during the process to take tons of pics.....

Man alive what a big job, nice to see some cool work though.

bringing that fender back to life. Great work.

The rear fenders I have in my shop are loose fenders I bought. They only had the exterior straps welded onto them like most farm trucks. I also have a trailer / 39 box & fenders on cut down frame. I stuck my head in the one side that I can easily access. The bracket looked pretty much like the one you show with the 90 degree bends, but I am thinking it is home made. I was just messing around online and found this at Midwest Early Ford.

http://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb...S54J0ZS4YT75158105114a~Z5Z5Z5~Z5Z5Z50000266a#

http://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb.dll?Parta~ShowPicTxt~Z5Z5Z50000266a~Z5Z5Z5LAZ1R

that looks like a 33/34 front fender brace turned 90 degrees lol

Thanks for the info. I'll be looking for these when the time comes to do that project.
I backed up a step or two. The piece I made for the bottom back end of the fender didn't have the proper profile to it. It was too narrow, and didn't have the proper curve along the outside edge, so it went in the scrap bin.

Decided to try to make the whole back end piece in one piece so as to eliminate one weld. It turned out okay. Got it all done, except for a final planishing of the whole fender.







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Cut a blank using paper for a pattern. Had to do it twice, as I didn't leave enough allowance for error on the outside. OH well, just some more sheet metal. Second time, I wasn't so cheap and cut out a bigger blank.

Stretched out the middle on the stump, as well as the shot bag ( no pic of that), and shrunk the tucks on the stump on the top and bottom so as to facilitate the curvature from top to bottom to create the shape needed. It took a couple rounds of going from the stump to the e wheel, then stump again. It didn't all happen in the first pass. Good news is that each time, the e wheel polishes the metal up and smooths it out again.

Takes a few hours to get it all the way you want it. It is also easier when you have a good "buck" or good fender to take the profile from. All I have is the old buggered up fender, so there is a bit of guessing involved. As the masters will tell you, this first fender will be "art". Doing the other one to the exact same shape, when the time comes to do it, is actually metal shaping. That's the hard part. Making something the exact opposite of the first piece. Actually not really that hard, just tedious and takes time and patience.

That big mallet is a little hard to swing. It was designed by a man much bigger than I am, so I have to choke up on the handle quite a bit. But it does move the metal.
FWIW, the 18 gauge I am using here, was measured at .047 thick, and the piece I threw away was 19 gauge, which measured .038, which is a little on the thin side for 19 gauge. The 19 I have in stock is closer to what its supposed to be, about .0418 and it doesn't seem like much, but makes a hell of a difference when you are pounding out a shape on it. The thin 19 I used was part of the 57 Ford roof skin. My crossover sheet for sheet metal thickness says 19 gauge starts at .0378 and goes as thick as .0458. 18 gauge on the other hand, starts at .0438 and goes as thick as .0518.

I got the piece welded in place with the help of a contour gauge, made from the old fender. Again, it would be easier to use a good fender to make it, but luckily enough, the old crappy fender still had a pretty decent profile on the top of it, regardless of a couple of dents.
It welded up nicely, but I still have a lot of planishing to do, and have to work on the bottom rolled edge of the new piece to get it to the properly shape.



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That's some first class tin bashing right there....... thank you for taking the time to post.

Times 2 great photo essay

Times three...

...literally 'awesome'....

I just came across this thread John. I've the same patchwork to make. Nice to see how you did yours.

Vern
Edmonton

very nice metal work Jon.