I am putting together my 1950 dodge pu. The grill and fenders can be removed as a unit with about 6 bolts. There are about 20 that bolt the fenders to the grill. I have read about the fender welting and such that seems like a pain. I am thinking about putting in a few bolts then welding the seam. Is there a reason I should or shouldn't? http://50dodge.blogspot.com
Never weld components together that were not designed that way. The vibration will crack it. Never do this.
If you only knew how many hours were spent undoing what you propose, you'd never give it another thought. You say... but that will not be my problem. It will be when the prospective new buyer balks on your price because you screwed it up. C,mon! If using all the bolts and fender welt is too much trouble, try stamp collecting. No heavy lifting involved there. Don't screw up the truck for others that might have the patience to do it right. JMHO
If you ever have to replace a fender or grill you will understand ,do not WELD. Good luck, .......Jack
Do not weld the parts.It will work in the short term but will fail over time .And car people will make fun of your ride .My 2 cents
not sure where the no votes are coming from, but if you are doing it to smooth out the truck a bit I say go for it, if you are doing it because you don't want to deal with 20 bolts then I'd say no. in my personal opinion, I'd like that truck looking close to original so I wouldn't do it. and as for fear of failure... WTF is up with that? people weld bodys together in all sorts of ways. I've heard there are people who will actually cut the roof off a car and weld it on lower. never heard of one falling off later. I don't get where that is coming from. this post looks like another one of those where a couple posts are made with a certain answer and every one else just follows the crowd
yea what he said. im pretty sure body parts that were originally bolted together can be welded. i am not 100% for sure but i think its been done once or twice in the last 60 years.
Welding the front end together is not that uncommon....often it is done when someone wants to make a steel tilt front end.....
hey, why not if your goal is to build a smooth custom?..if you weld it properly, there's no reason it should fail,,,unless its prone to a LOT of vibration,,in which case, you could reinforce in with some 1x1 tubing or similar from inside......i seriously doubt you'd need to do this though..
The sheetmetal will crack next to the welds, you would be constantly chasing cracks, if you don't ever plan on driving the car or running the engine, ie trailer queen show only car it would be ok, just say no to welding seams.
there are cars with welded seams done back in the 50s that still hold up.... i can see filler possibly cracking if its on too thick,,,but if you did the metalwork properly, you shouldnt need more than a skim coat..
I have not done it personally but lots of customs have the rear fenders welded in, i.e. the Matranga Merc, and the Jesse Lopez Ford. I don't know if the rears are less likely to fail though.
At the risk of going along with the crowd, here's what I think. If your goal is simply quick assembly and eliminating the fender welt 'cause that seems like too much work, then no. If you're building it to look mostly stock, with stock stance, roof height, and no other body mods, then the answer is still no. It'll just look wrong if nothing much else is done body wise. If on the other hand you're slamming it, shortening the box, chopping the top, and smoothing it all out, all over, then you bet, weld up the seams and don't worry about what MIGHT happen. Fenders have been welded to bodies since people started slinging lead at '36 Fords when they were new.
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