Ford fenders

I noticed when lookin at early Ford fenders there different from side to side and there original Ford. Some rear fenders have wheel openings located either forward or toward rear when measured from right or left side of body. also some measure wider from left to right side. I talked to an old restorer and he said the dies at Ford plant were different for right and left fenders and that the plant brass figured you could only view one side at a time, so who would notice. any of you ever notice this ?

 

I've always thought that about 29 model A fenders. The right side (passenger in the US) always seem to be a better shape. At first I thought it was just dodgy fibreglass bodies in the UK but seen it a lot now.

 

Must have been a blip in the CAD system the day they designed that fender. Or the CNC machine had a chip in the tooling. It's still hard to image how the parts in error made it past the laser QC.

 

32 Ford ( and other Fords I imagine ) fender were cut by hand at the front. Trying to get a pair to match exactly ... will drive you CRAZY .

I have a " small stash " of 32 fenders plus the ones on my cars
and ... none ... of them are exactly cut the same.



The pair on my 32 roadster are the closest set I have ever seen ... but my 32 3W ... is like most others ... close but different.

32 Front fenders also have two different widths ... where they bolt down to the front of the frame

 

yeah i noticed

its a real bitch for us full fender guys..no wonder it adds so much more to those types of builds..hunting down a nice set is a big job sometimes..

but for me FTF is a cop out

 

Had a 36 tudor and we went nuts tring to align the wheels to match in the opening of the rear fenders. Finely used a cardboard pattern to see that the fenders had different openings. Looked at other 35-6 tudor after that and found they had the same problems.

 

An old time Model restorer told me years ago, that Ford had several different supply sources (stamping plants) for Model A fenders, and that was why fit can vary.

 

Another thing to remember is that Ford made lots of running changes that didn't exactly coincide with a model year change. For instances: Early '33 cars had a skirtless front fender that looked more like a '32 fender, the skirt behind the front wheels was a change made early in the '33 run. Early '35 truck doors have a removable garnish molding, late '35 through '37 do not. There is an early and late style of '41 car front fenders--early '41 is two piece, late '41 is one piece. What we think of as a '34 Ford hood and grille (straight rather than curved grille bars, straight rather than curved louvers, two hood handles per side rather than one) actually came out late in the '33 model year. Early '40 Ford front fenders are the same as '39 Deluxe except for the headlight buckets and headlight assemblies. Late '40 front fenders have a bit different curvature where they wrap around from the ridge of the fender toward the grille. Another big factor is that King Henry V8 was always looking for ways to cut costs. If a minor redesign of a body part would make it easier to stamp or eliminate a step in the stamping process, Henry was all for it. I'm sure the Early Ford V8 Club gurus, like my friend Lawson Cox who is the go-to guy for '35 pickups, could catalog a dozen or more minor variations within any model year or body style you wanted to name. I'm sure this is not unique to Ford, probably the same could be said for any make of vehicles of this vintage. I just know some of the Ford variations and running changes, less familiar with other makes.