Thread: New Member with questions

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Texascuda---I've been lurking, watching your posts as they came up. I am a veteran of a few "fiberglass wars", and have a fair bit (about 40 years) of experience with hotrods. Putting glass fenders on a car that has a reproduction frame is quite a puzzle, as there are no preexisting "holes" to line things up with. To get things in the correct place, on a car which already has the body mounted in place, it actually starts with the hood. WHAT???
Well, yeah, the hood. Here's how it works----The hood (if you have one) is a done deal, lengthwise. So---you start by dummying the hood into place, with a proper gap at the rear of the hood, between it and the matching body reveal or cowl-front. This determines where your grillshell should go in terms of forewards/backwards. If you have hoodsides, thats really good, because that will determine the angle that the grillshell should set at. If you don't have hoodsides, then your going to have to find a similar car and get a measurement of the angle the grillshell sets at. With the grillshell located, that determines where the "chinpan" (thats the part under the grillshell) goes. I am not sure if your year of car has one, or if the fenders bolt directly to the grillshell. On my model A, the fenders bolt to the "chin-pan". Either way, thats what locates the position that your front fenders should be in "frontwards/backwards". The rear fenders are fairly easy to locate, (or should be) because the sides of the body at the rear will have an indentation that the fenders mate up to----HERE'S WHERE YOU REALLY HOPE THAT WHOEVER BUILT THE CAR POSITIONED THE BODY SO THAT THE REAR WHEELWELLS LINE UP CORRECTLY WITH THE REAR AXLE AND TIRES!!! Now all you have to figure out is the correct rotational aspect of the rear fenders.----And that is determined by the running boards. I'm not sure if the 34 Ford has splash aprons between the running boards and the underside of the body or not---I am assuming NOT, as the 32 Fords didn't have them. Bolt the front of the running board to the trailing edge of the front fender, dummy it into a position that looks good (generally parallel to the underside of the body, and thats what deermines the rotational aspect of the rear fenders. Drill holes about 8" apart thru the rear fender flanges and body all around the fender flanges, and thru the mating surfaces of all the other fiberglass mating parts, I use a 5/16" diameter drill. Use 1/4" diameter hex head bolts x about 1" long, with a large flatwasher under the head of the bolt and under the nut---use nylock nuts, as you can't really put enough torque on the bolts to make a regular lockwasher work, without cracking the fiberglass. On the front fender inner flange that sets on top of the frame, I generally drill thru the fender flange and the top of the frame-rail at the same time with a 3/16" diameter drill, then open out the holes (in the fiberglass only) with a 5/16" drill, and I tap the top of the frame 1/4"-20. I use 2" x 1/8" fabric welting between the underside of the front fender mating surface and the top of the frame. If you want to spend a lot of time screwing around with polyester filler, you can make all the mating surfaces fit each other perfectly (thats what I did on my roadster pickup), or you can purchase vinyl fender welting which acts as a cushion and a "gap hider" between the mating fiberglass surfaces. If your running boards don't fit perfectly between the front and rear fenders, you may be able to tweak the angle of the grillshell a bit at the bottom to move the front fenders slightly forewards or backwards to give a perfect fit.---Hope this helps----Brian