The bottoms of my fenders have a small rot out on both sides of my 53. I am going to fix it but I figured if there is a company producing fender bottom patches, it would make my life easier than fabricating them myself.
This is a pretty much universal problem on our Fords. Dirt, salt, etc. gets caught behind the reinforcement and causes the rust-out. Both of my front fenders have pinholes in that area. I plan to replace only the perforated part of the fender, however, and leave the rest of the fender bottom in place. My plan is to cut the rusted area out with a cut-off wheel, leaving the brace intact. I'll then fabricate a flush fitting patch and tack it into place. Then I plan to cut the part of the brace that limits access from the rear so that I can hammer-weld the patch to completion using lots of wet rags around the weld location to stop the spread of the heat. Then weld the brace back in. The idea is to have as much support in the area as possible during the welding process to minimize the change of shape caused by the heat shrinkage. It doesn't take much shrinkage or shape change to make the fender very difficult to reinstall properly. Same goes for using fender bottom patch panels. Looks easy when somebody else is doing it, but...
I hear ya missysdad. I've overheated enough metal in my years to have learned my lesson (well....sometimes, but I have ADD and sometimes I impatient!). I could make the patch but the patch would need to go the lip of the wheel well and I'd rather spend my fabricating time on doing cool stuff to the car as opposed to patching rust holes. Ya know? Grumpy...thanks for the heads up. I'll check them out later today.
EMS automotive has several catalogs and a lot of replacement panels. Tapered lips and ready to weld in. Sometimes it is worth the money due to the time it will save you.
Yeah....I just got a $300 order from mac's today. Fender bottoms for the 53 aren't listed in the catalog or online. I forgot to ask them when I ordered all the other stuff. On a side note: It's amazing that $300 worth of parts came in a box that would fit two hardcover books! I still can't believe that I spent that much money on little odds and ends. I guess that's the definition of nickel and diming you to death!
Yeah...if worse came to worse I'd make them but since they're available it saves me time which seems to be more important than money right now considering it is finally getting nice out. It's funny, we had 2 inches of snow two days ago and it was almost 80 today! This weather is wacky!!!
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