Do any you owners of the ’53-‘56 customized F100’s use front and/or rear fender braces to give the fenders more rigidity?
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I have not been able to notice them in pictures in classic truck magazines but they may be hard to spot. My guess is the braces may hamper the appearance. I do notice a slight vibration at idle especially on the rear fender and believe the braces would help.

 

I am not sure what you are asking.

Mine is stock and has braces on the front fenders. They go front in front of the wheel up to something up there. Never really paid any attention to what.

I don't recall seeing any on the rear fenders, but then again...I was not looking for any.

 

Yes, I plan to use fender braces. They are especially important on the rear fenders. The fenders like to crack without them. My fender braces were thrashed and so I threw them away. My rear fenders are out an extra two inches per side, so the stock braces won't work anyway.

I made my own braces using a turnbickle, thread stock and a couple pieces of flat stock. I cut off the turnbuckles "eyes" and replaced the standard left hand thread with thread stock. I cut slits in the RH and LH thread stock and inserted some flat stock and welded the flats to the threaded rods. Now I have fully adjustable braces that I can lock off at the required length.

The only picture I have is where I used the same setup to brace the rear corners of my hood:



I got the idea from Jag54, who did something very similar.

 

Thanks for the input. The fender braces are the ones that both you referred to. Both front and rear fenders have a tab that the brace attaches to.
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The front brace, I believe, is supposed to attach to the back side of the air deflector but I am not sure. The rear, I believe, attaches to one of the fender bolts that go through the bed. I have the customized roll pan on the back and I would have to drill a hole through it to attach the brace.
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The set up Randy Jack made would definitely improve rigidity and his explanation of why they are needed is what I was interested in. I just haven’t seen them on many trucks and therefore questioned their use.

 

Mid-Fifty sells them, and I have the stainless ones on my 3" wider rear fenders. They just are not that noticeable. Mine runs from the tab on the fender to one of the wood floor hold down bolts. I also plan on installing a set on the front fenders soon.

 

Does anyone happen to have pics of the original rear fender braces in place? I do not recall my rear fenders having any sort of tabs to mount them too.

 

Brian, I have seen alot of fenders where it is missing, tire blows out and rips it off etc. The "tabs" were just spot welded on. If you dont have them and you dont have a farmer style wrap around bumper they will flap in the breeze and crack.

Kevin Bigwin

 

I better find out if I have any. I seriously doubt it.

I do not need more body work to do.

 

I have both front and rear fender braces on my '56. The front attaches to the tab on the fender and the back of the air deflector. The rear braces attach to the fender tab and the bottom of the wood bed. The tab on my fenders has a square hole punched on the bottom of the fender where the brace attaches.

 

Thanks for the input. I was not sure where the braces attached to the body and your descriptions were a big help.
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Since I have two inch dropped spindles on a Mustang II clip, the stock braces do not align to the tabs on the front fenders. I was able to align the front braces by using a shock bushing to take up the difference in height and using longer carriage bolts.
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For now its okay as it adds needed rigidity but I plan to follow up fabricating some flat aluminum plate to change the brace length and geometry.

 

I just have to ask. What does dropped spindles have to do with the fender braces? I have a Volare front end with dropped spindels and my stock braces fit fine. You may want to look again at how you have them installed (the braces).

Have a good day. Chuck

 

After working on new braces, I agree that the dropped spindles should not have affected the alignment of the fender brace. When trying to align the original brace, the passenger side would only align perpendicular to the tab when the brace was raised. I mistakenly attributed that problem to the dropped front end.
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Since the passenger fender is out of alignment with the hood and I have no firewall to fender rods for fine tuning the alignment, it appears the problem is due to the out of alignment front fender, not the brace.
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Thanks for your post. I read that a clip can cause alignment problems but it should not have affected the fender to splash pan alignment for the brace as your post indicates.

 

UGH! I am never home in the daylight to check mine. Maybe this weekend....

 

Front and rear braces were standard and it is a good idea to use them as has been pointed out. Hey, Randy, what's a turnbickle?

 

This is another old post, I bought the rear fender braces and plan on buying the front braces. My fenders are in nice shape and want to keep them that way. Going after the hard ware today, waiting on some back ordered parts. Right now. Have an aluminum rear wrap around bumper. They did a nice job, the rear brace will stop the rubing on the fender.AJ