Fender question

[RickA]

Hi all, new guy trying to save a PW. I'm patching the front fenders from an M-37 and noticed when laying them side-by-side that the radii are different- about 24" for one and closer to 26" for the other. Can someone tell me which is correct? Thank you.

Rick A

[Bruce]

Hey RickA,

Tell me how you are measuring them, I can measure mine for you? My driver's side is NOS, so that would be the one to go by, I am not seeing how you measured the radius. I measured from the center of the hub to the lip of the drivers fender, 26 1/2", hope this helps?

[RickA]

Thank you Bruce. I only have the fenders right now so can't measure from the hub. I laid each upside down and laid a 2' level in it, then measured from the middle of the level down to the inside surface of the fender. I then laid out marks on the bench for the ends of the level and the midpoint, then marked a line perpendicular to the line thru the marks. I measured up from the line the distance I got in the fender from the level edge to the fender, about 3". This made a fairly flat isosceles triangle. I then used a trammel to swing an arc from different points on the line (trial & error) until I arrived at a point where the trammel point crossed all three points of the triangle. This gave me the radius of each fender.

Both fenders were in pretty bad shape at the ends- rusted out around the bracket and light bolts but otherwise not enough damage to cause them to vary in curvature. I wonder how identically they were made back then.

Rick A

[Bruce]

Rick, it sounds like you know your math, much better than I?

[RickA]

Actually there's a formula for figuring a circle from a chord but, being lazy, I figured it out with logic rather than math!

If it's of any interest, I got these fenders from an M-37 that's one of half a dozen on a cattle ranch here on the Big Island of Hawaii. Some are 6x6, others 4x4. The ranch is cleaning house and is giving them to anyone who'll haul them off. It's a shame they're so far away from most collectors that they're probably not worth the cost of retrieval.

Rick A

[Bruce]

I wasn't aware that there were so many M-37's on the Big Island? Now I wish I was there.

[Matthew Welcher PWA]

I have noticed on many of the PW and M37's alike that the used front fenders very alot, when working with and installing them it takes a rather large guy to give them a good lean and or push from the top to get them to return to the original shape. Can you send pictures of the 2 you are looking at possibly side by side and we can take a look? Thanks

[Bruce]

I can do that!

[RickA]

Here are pix of my fenders after considerable surgery; they were pretty rough but you take what you can get! Also, I'm putting them on a regular PW, not an M-37. Note how one is higher than the other. One's also longer. I think, like you said, Matthew, I can massage them into place. Bruce, can you tell me the distance from hub center to top of fender (not the lip)? Thank you.

Rick A

[Matthew Welcher PWA]

Rick, you may not be able to post pictures until you are a premium forum user, feel free to email me the pictures b1pw1948@earthlink.net

[W_A_Watson_II]

RickA, sorry about that I had inadvertently opened up the attachment ability while trying to correct an issue.