Thanks for the help. I think I found the name of the person you are referencing. I sent him a message.
Today the rear fender went on and I eye-balled the centerline of the axle versus the wheel opening. When I removed the old rear axle I had marked the centerline of the axle on the frame rail. I have my new axle centered on that mark. First thing was to measure the center of the wheel opening in the fender. That's what the yellow tape is about. I was somewhat surprised to find that the two marks pretty much lined up by the carpenters square. Next I marked the center of the axle (short piece of yellow tape on the end of the axle) and lined up my square on it. Looks centered doesn't it? But because the axle end is 6 and a half inches inside the plane made by the outer side of the fender, this also means that the square is 6 and half inches inside that plane. So, when you move (your eyeball) a bit to the right or left the intercept point between the carpenter's square and the tape-marks change. You have to position yourself in alignment with the axle shaft, that's the tricky part. The last photo looked centered but wasn't (I was just a bit off to the left). I think this one is better: So, from this position I'm seeing the axle is positioned about 3/8 of an inch forward of where it should be. I ran into a comment to this effect somewhere - they said that Henry had installed the axle 3/8 of an inch too forward. I'll have to look at it again tomorrow.
So next I decided to mount the p***enger side front fender. First, I gotta get it a little bit cleaner than it was... And then get it in position: Doesn't look too bad does it? closer look:
I saw someplace a battery box that mounted under the rear of the front fender. Anybody try that? Does it work out?
Looks good to me...but I hope those aren't 20" plywood wheels...wouldn't want the photo to get deleted.
The front are 195/65R15 and the rear are 225/60R15. Tires are just too hard to recycle, so the latest trend is to go with bio-degadable tires like these. As you might guess, there are a few "kinks" that need to be ironed out before they receive wide consumer acceptance.....
I've always found 235/75 15 good on the rear of these. Anything under 75 series on radials seems to lack sidewall proportion. But that's me.
Not much today. I just played with masking tape and a tape measure. Previously I had used a carpenter's square for this measurement, but I think I need to avoid using my floor as a reference as it slopes down towards the garage door (towards the front of my car.) So I grabbed my level and used that to reference the center of my axle: Measuring the distance from the centerline of the rear axle to the centerline of the fender wheel opening I get a little over 5/8ths inch. I recall the other side was 3/8ths of an inch. But looking again at the picture above, the gap behind the wheel looks much larger than that in front. I suppose there's a good possibility that I didn't line the axle up to the frame as square as I thought I had. Next I marked the center of my front spindle and took a vertical from that to mark on the floor: And then measuring from that mark to the centerline of my rear axle.... ....I get 111 and a half. The specs are for 112 and as I noted previously I had heard that Henry should have made it 112 and 3/8ths. This might take another iteration. Dang! So, is the 3/8ths story an "Old Wives" tail?
And don't ***ume the fenders, their arches or their mounting is exactly symetrical side to side either.
Yep, because they likely are not! Especially on Pickups! Close is good for horseshoes and hand grenades and as it turns out ford fenders in the prewar years.
Just make sure the axles are square and parallel and then fudge to make the two sides as equal as you can. I wouldn't be too picky, though... you can only see one side at a time!
Sorry, already done. I should have posted this earlier: I probably needed the welding practice anyway...
At this point it shouldn't be too hard to make adjustments as I'm just using blocks between the axle and the frame and I can move them forward or back pretty easily with a Ford wrench. This would be my ride height/axle clearance:
I would agree with Bandit and X 38 on the fender / axle / wheelbase issue. It is true with all 38-40 fords I have owned or worked on. I like the idea of getting as close as you can and compromising on wheel center in the fenders. The other alternative is to do some metal surgery to center up the wheel that offends you most.
I don't think I would ever be able to re-create that beautiful rolled edge if I ever hacked on my wheel openings. How would you roll that like that?
Speaking of the rolled edge of the fender. My driver's side front fender has a bit of an issue. I cleaned that up this week. That edge looks a little rough. This is the replacement fender for the original that got tore up in a fender-bender many, many years ago. My p***enger side fender was rounded or rolled at the edge and the wheel opening, but this one looks as though an additional strip of metal was welded on. And it is flat, not rounded. Sort of rough-looking here too: It also looks like it might have been primered without first cleaning up the fender welt completely: And then I also noticed this on the mounting flange (the surface that mounts on the body.) These are pretty nasty. My other (original) fender doesn't have these. I'm not sure what they are for unless someone was worried their fender welt might slip out of place and so they nailed it into place. There are three of these and I will pull them out so I don't rip my fingers on them. But I'm not sure how to fix the wheel openings so they have that nice rolled edge like the other fenders. Anyone ever seen anything like this before? How did you fix it?
The nails are stock Ford. As for fixing the edge, it's gonna take a lot of hammer and dolly work, and probably some patches to repair ripped and weak spots. Just be glad it doesn't have the very common fix of tubing welded into the rolled edge.
Were they something that Ford did after-market? They aren't on the other fender and it has no holes in it from where they might have been.
Not sure, but I've seen nails like that in other spots on old Fords. Sometimes it's staples holding the welt or whatever to the sheetmetal too. I'd like to see the stapler that can pierce a piece of steel.
I was wondering how they got them in as I was pulling them out. I agree, I'd like to see the process they used to whack them into place!
There was a member - @swissmike I think his name was - a had a really good thread about his car and he showed fender lip repairs. From memory he bent appropriate bar to shape, tacked that to sheetmetal and used it together with a dolly backing the bar to form the roll. He posted pictures. I've only ever made short sections, up to say 6 inches using a combination of a hammerform and T - bar dolly. It's the bending beyond 90 degrees that gets tricky.
By the way, is the CW Moss hardware good? I need to get a new hood ornament and handle. Also, how are the WeedETR front fender supports?
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