1950 F1 front fender
 

Hi, Just wondering if my '50 is the only one whose front fenders "oil can". The fenders are original, underside brackets installed with new rubber. If you press down on the flat area of the fender, it will "pop" down and stay there until I reach under the fender and push it back up. The fenders are steel originals in well-used, but not rusted away. Am I missing something, or should I install some sort of firm "shim" between the fenders and the supporting brackets? The fenders do not contact the rubber on the brackets and all seems to be correctly mounted.
Thanks,
Olguy

My rubber pads never touched, new or old. I'm not clear that they should, maybe they are just to prevent an oil can becoming a dent? I can't recall any that didn't oil can on the widest part.

Mine oil can, just don't lean on them.

I remember as a kid we'd crawl all around the old truck, roof, fenders, hood. I don't ever remember my dad yelling at us for doing it. In fact I do remember one time he built some quickie 2x4 seats in the box and parking the truck the night before in a parking lot on the parade route in downtown Milwaukee. The day of the parade the family and friends went to the parking lot and sat all over the truck to watch the parade. It was just an old truck back.

Thanks guys, I guess it was a dumb question, but I was curious...
olguy

I was always told the the only dumb question is the one that remains un-asked.

My fenders do the same thing. Startled me he first time it happened though.

DjS

Mine do that too. And like Ross's truck, my pads do not touch either. I would really like to resolve that. Maybe the PO mounted something wrong? Any suggestions?

:-yeahrigh
LOL mine do the same thing. On a side note try that with today's metal! Just a guess but i'm betting it won't pop back into place:-jammin

Like I said, I'm not sure they are meant to touch. The end of the support bolts to the fender at the wheelwell, if your fender is aligned with the grille, etc., what could be off? It could just be to limit the amount of deflection to a safe level.

PS not an issue with 'glass fenders!

The thing that I hated about the oil canning was when I had some parts or tools laying on the fender, I put my weight on the fender and it oil-canned down, then snapped back up, scattering all my stuff. No fun if you're rebuilding the carb!!

Not to hijack, but is oil canning normal on the hood too?

It's not "normal" anywhere but after the metal flexes so many times and loses its temper it will happen. Somewhere I read about re-tempering the metal with heat. I'll have to see if I can find it.

During design if we found a panel that was susceptible to that like a hood we would add a metal patch that was epoxied to under the main panel. That usually never made it into production as they added a bend or a heavier gauge metal to resolve the issue.

UPDATE: I found the link - You guys with lots of sheetmetal experience - what do you think?