Need your ingenuity

I'm trying to sand a late 30's front fender (off of the car) and I cannot figure out a way to stabilize the fender to keep it from rolling around when I'm trying to work on it. I need someones ingenuity of ways to clamp this thing down to a work area. Anybody else have this problem?

 

How about bolting it on the car............

 

Are you working with it on a table? If so, is it metal or wood?

big mac

 

You might try filling a couple of 100lb grain bags w/sand. They'll hold it still.

 

I'm working with it on a table and/or work bench....

 

Sometimes I d**** parts over an old truck tire to hold them still. A big heavy sack of gl*** beads or mortar or sand or whatever you have handy works good to hold something from moving around. Those rubber tipped clamps they sell for cabinetmaking are pretty handy too -- they have a pistol grip and a long rectangular steel rod, you squeeze the pistol grip over and over to cinch up the two rubber pads tight. If you get some extra long vice grip welding clamps with swivel pads, you might be able to use them too with a block of wood or rubber under the end that's squeezing onto your fender so you won't mar it up.

 

Oh, another thing that might work is to strap it to the table with a couple of nylon straps.

 

Knew Rusty would have something

I wouldn't use: those durn black rubber "bungy" cords.

 

make a plywood cutout and bolt it to that
than make a t frame to put some weight on it
make it a hight where you can work comfy
tk

 

I have bolted pairs of fenders together with a few pieces of all-thread and some big washers. Makes a big bulky piece, but it's at least more stable than one.

 

I haven't done an A fender in a long time but I used to use two fairly tall saw horses parallel to each other so that when you set the fender on top of them the running board end sort of hooked over the end of both horses. The front end rested on one horse rail and I made a bracket to attach to the other horse and then bolt to the fender bracket hole at the appropriate height. Depending on the shape of the fender seems like I had to lightly c-clamp the back to one of the horses.

Charlie

 

Big block of styrofoam cut and contoured to the shape of the inside of the fender?Put or a garbage bag liner inside the fender and fill it with a couple of cans of expanding foam? Just a thought....

 

Bolt two pieces of angle iron or steel fencepost across the back, with both bolted to a single bolthole at one end, each bolted to a different hole at other end, forming a triangle. This as a bonus stiffens fender, but main purpose is to allow you to bolt it to an engine stand via the angle irons, screw the angle irons to bench, or clamp iron into a vise.

 

Take it outside, pile up a bunch of snow and rest the fender on that.

 

HAHAHAHA...damn thats funny

I like the scissor stands bodyshops use. I have mine padded with foam and it seems to be stable enough. like these...but tougher.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=38779

 

If you use those scissor stands, duct tape the foam rubber sleeves to the steel tubing. The foam rubber sleeves tend to roll around or slide side to side. They work a lot better if you tape them so they can't move.

 

If it's just skidding on the tabletop maybe find a piece of carpet and put it on the table.

 

Thanks guys! Some good ideas... The nylon strap downs got me thinking. So I strapped one over each end, pulled them under the bench and connected them in the middle. Synched up the slack and when I cranked them down the force pushed the piece down on the bench and having them connected in the middle forced tension on both ends! Cool!!!