I’m new to posting, but have gleaned quite a bit of info from these threads. So my basket case is starting to come together, but Im really ready for front fenders and running boards. The frame design and its maker is unknown, but it was obviously designed to have an open wheeled front end as fenders will not fit over the shock design. I’m prepared to put on an independent front suspension and make the shock mount changes to make it work. The frame is flat at the mounting point, should I used the inner fender piece or possibly use 32 fenders with flat mounting surface to the frame rail? I plan to new steel fenders and running boards. Any help would be appreciated.
Not that it can’t be done, but you’re looking at a lot of fabrication to make stock style fenders work on that set up. The coil overs and mounts Interfere with the fenders. The front fenders extend beyond the grill and you have no frame horns there. Plus the engine compartment looks much longer than stock. I would leave it fenderless.
Just a heads up, this section is for traditional hot rods,the moderators frown on IFS, you might copy your thread and move it to off topic hot rods and customs, the thread may be deleted. HRP
Your straight rail ch***is, the distance from the firewall to the radiator, and a 32 grill will not accommodate stock style 33-34 fenders. You have a ton of work to do if you want it bad enough, enough time and money can accomplish anything. If it was me, I'd rather dump the funds into a better ch***is that looked like a traditional 32 or 33-34 setup instead of a Model A with weird coil overs on a straight axle.
So if the OP is going to install an IFS, he’s going to have a lot more changes than just those coilover mounts. Making some frame horns would be the easy part of the job.
Maybe put motorcycle style fenders on the front…like many did in the 50’s. IFS would be a bad idea, to put it politely.
You understand my intentions, the IFS will allow me to move the radiator back approximately 10 inches to match the stock hood distance. This will also remove the coil over obstacle. The 10 inch move should allow the horns to stick out past the radiator for the front fender mount. I’ve thought it out for too long, I’m about to start ordering parts. Appreciate the help!
If this really is a forever car, I would agree it's probably easiest and best to build another frame. The nice part of that is you can build it separately from the truck and then just transfer everything over. I'm pretty sure a '34 pickup uses a p***enger car frame, and new rails and crossmembers are available, or you could buy a complete one. Make up a frame with a transverse leaf up front and mounts for your current drivetrain/cab/box, then everything should bolt up and you can just swap all the bits from the truck over to the new frame. Someone would probably buy that old frame for something too, not even too terribly expensive, and you can keep using the truck until the new one is ready.
Skip the IFS. You might be able to get the wheelbase right with that, but the fenders still aren't going to bolt up to that frame, the 34 frame is shaped a lot differently and the fenders need to follow that frame shape. By the time you're doing cutting and reshaping and redoing ****, you could have built a '34 frame and sold off your old one and you'll be money and time ahead.
Are your frame rails a pair of parallel rectangular tubes? The original frames have a bit of an hour-gl*** shape. You're going to have a lot of work cut out for you if you want to use original type fenders and running boards.
Squawblow has the answer. Ditch the square tube frame, build a proper frame for it, when you're done plop your pickup cab on it with the correct fenders. Making that "right" as it sets will be twice as much work.
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