Rolling The Edge Of A Fender By Using Multiple Pieces

Rolling The Edge Of A Fender By Using Multiple Pieces

- Ron Covell

Q Thank you for your many years of tips for amateurs and pros alike. I benefited from your advice for removing dents in the roof of my ’48 Plymouth in one of your earliest Professor Hammer columns in STREET RODDER.

Now I want to enlarge the rear wheel openings on my Plymouth, and I want them to look factory. After determining the shape and forming an armature from 1/2-inch tube, there are two approaches I am considering. One is to weld the tube to the edge of the sheetmetal tangent to the tube, then grind and finish the weld bead to simulate a rolled edge. The second approach would to be to temporarily attach the 1/2-inch tube to the back side of the fender and carefully hammer the sheetmetal over and around the tube 180 degrees, using the tube as an anvil. Removing the tube would then yield a factory-looking rolled edge. Which technique do you think would yield the better result, and which would be easier for an amateur to tackle?

Bill Story

Orange County,