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install fiberglass denders
Can you believe that in close to 40 years of rodding I have never before installed a set of fiberglass fenders and splash aprons and running boards? Well, the time has come brother. The roadster pick-up is at that stage, where I need to do just that, before doing the bodywork on the steel cab section. Now I'm not talking about replacing one fender, where you have a nice bunch of existing reference points for bolting a fender to. I'm talking about start from scratch, with a chassis, front and rear axles in place, and new bed on the pick-up section, body off setting in the corner, no holes in the glass stuff, and ho holes in top of the chassis.. First of all, where do you start?---Well, I kept the wheelbase the same as a stock model A Ford (103 1/2"), and you can move a front fender foreward or backward about 1 1/2" from the "ideal" position before it starts to look wierd. However, the rear fenders just gotta be centered on the rear wheel, or it looks ultra goofy, so--------we'll start with positioning the rear fender first. The splash apron sets on top of the frame, so this pretty well establishes the vertical positioning of the splash aprons. The runningboard sets in a small lip on the bottom of the vertical side of the splash apron, so that establishes the vertical positioning of the running boards. (don't worry about the running board support brackets yet, we'll get to them later). Any fool can eye-ball the rear fender to make sure that it is centered on the rear wheel and concentric to it, but how do you know how far foreward or backward to rotate the rear fender?----its a trick. The bottom of the leading edge of the fender has to line up with the underside of the runningboard, which is located by the splash apron, which is located by the fact that it must bolt to the top of the frame.----How am I doing so far? The front fender must mate with the leading edge flange on the splash apron, and the front edge of the running board. The inner edge of the fender, which sets closest to the engine, also bolts to the top of the frame, and it must line up with the inner edge of the splash apron ----trust me----see the 2 x 4 in the picture. After all glass parts except the rear fenders) are "dummied" into place relative to each other, (I never really knew how many clamps I had before) I drilled 3/8" holes in all the mating flanges and bolted everything together with 1/4" bolts on about 4" centers and flat washers on both sides. I attached the rear fenders to the sides of the pick-up box, and then picked up the front fender, splash apron and runningboard (which become one entity after bolting them together,) and carried them over to the roadster, sat them in place, slid them back against the front of the rear fender, and c-clamped them to the frame. (yes, I did have the front fender brace already bolted to the frame). I then clamped the front of the rear fenders to the rear of the running board and splash apron drilled thru the mating flanges, and bolted them.It seems that running board support brackets are never quite in the correct place, but hey, they'r made of metal so heat, bend, weld, whatever is neccesary to make them be in the correct place (relative to the attachment points on the underside of the running boards) check them for level, and then bolt them to the running board. I will drill thru the top of the fenders and splash aprons into the frame tomorrow while everything is assembled, probably full length of the front fender/splash aprons. for #10-24 flat head screws on about 6" centers, and tap the top of the frame, as it is boxed full length and there is no access to add nuts. Hope this helps anybody who is thinking of adding a glass fender package.
