I purchased a pair of aftermarket skirts hoping they would work on my '35 Tudor. They didn't. Not tall enough. I decided to make a pair for it. I had saved the roof skin from an 88-99 reg. cab PU last year with this in mind. I picked up another roof skin and two of the Auto Body Specialties students in my cl*** and I set to work making a set of skirts last month. Heres the two skins. Then drew an outline of the shape on the fender and used the old 4 mil clear vinyl trick lightly glued to the fender to transfer the outline. Laid the vinyl onto the skins and added 1" to the bottom for a flange and ½" to the outer edge to flange over. Cut it out with an electric shear.
Using a brake, a 90 degree flange was bent in the bottom edge. Then the bottom edge was shrunk with a shrinker to give it a gentle arc to match the purchased skirts.
A tipping die was used on the bead roller to get the outer 1/4" flange to 90 degrees. (1/4" was used instead of the ½" that had been allowed as it is easier to get with that arc.) 1/4" fine line tape was used as a guide for the first p***; then removed for the rest of the p***es. It takes about 3 p***es total, putting upward pressure as it moves around. Once its to 90 degrees it gets a few shrinks with the shrinker all around the outer edge. Then it must be hammered down the rest of the way.
Once the bottom and outer flanges were done, the outer edge was shrunk many times to put a little crown in it. Then the skirts were run through the english wheel to smooth out any wrinkles and give a slight bubble shape. Almost flat anvils were used on the wheel. All through the process the skirts were test fit on the car.....many, many times.
When the fit was good, a fastening system had to be made. Heres what we came up with: flattened Z brackets for around the arch of the wheel opening (5 of them with two plug welds each) and a ****on headed bolt in the front and rear of the bottom edge of the skirt to the flange of the fender. The rear bolt also holds the fender brace.
There will still be some fine tuning and smoothing, but heres how they look. The work seen here was done in the NDSCS Auto Body Program third year option Auto Body Specialties. NDSCS - Where you learn by doing. Yes, it's a little plug. NDSCS.edu If this wins tech. week, we'll use it to purchase some more metal working tools for the cl***. The entire build of the '35 is on the Suedes site projects Barn find.
'88-'98 fullsize Chev. regular cab PU.....I guess you could say I have Chevvy skirts on my Ford. Oh no!
Hey Jake, let me know what you are going to use between the skirts and the fender to keep from rubing on the paint.
There is a fender skirt rubber moulding sold by the rubber parts guys like Carpenter and Lynn Steele.
Cheaper solution: run a bead of clear silicone around the edge. Attach waxed paper to the car so the silicone molds to the fender. Put on fender skirt. Let silicone set up overnite...remove the skirt and then remove the waxed paper...trim excess silicone around the edge of the skirt with sharp razor blade... Worked for me... R-
I was planning on using 1/16" thick heavy foam weatherstrip. The stuff that is denser and black with adhesive on one side. But the silicone idea sounds like a possibility too. I think I would use black for my dark color.
The Jalopy Journal
