VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 FENDER WELTING

The fender welting on the 47 aerosedan I'm looking at buying is the same color as the body. I would imagine thats because it was painted when the body was painted, shouldn't it be black?

It sure didn't come in that color...Black's the norm...(Although, you can op for chrome colored, lol)...My welting was repainted with the new coat...25 years ago, and it's just now starting to rub through so you can see the black...That seems a little odd since he did say it was professionally redone...Well, I'm guessing they just repainted the body the original color and said to heck with removing the rear fenders...

Which brings up maybe something to ask the seller...There's an aluminum tag riveted to the firewall...Has the code for the original paint color/trim, etc...You might want to ask him for the numbers...It'd be nice(r) if the color now, is the same as the original...It'd ask him...

Kevin, I drove up to Sandy Utah yesterday and looked at the car. I think this car was restored by an owner who did most of his own work maybe ten or more years ago. A professional restoration shop would have removed the fenders and painted them and put new welting on before the fenders were reinstalled. That along with the painted headlight rims were two things to change. The hood isn't lined up as well as I would like either but the engine compartment was nice. Both of those issues can be fixed with minimum cost but lots of hours. The paint was about an 8 on a 1 to 10 scale. The body is real nice. The frame and floor showed no sign of rust. It ran good, steered good and stopped good. Its not a show car but it would be a nice driver, we'll see what happens.

I'm glad you were able to go take a look...Painted headlight rims...? You don't care for original...? I hardly ever see chrome ones...Is that what you were thinking...? Adjusting the hood/not to worry...You'll find lots of help here...I broke a hinge/mount/bolt recently...That started an in-depth discussion...

Nice Drivers are nice...! We love to drive'em...!

Kevin I just assumed the original ones were chrome, am I wrong?

Factory headlight rims were painted...I'm looking at the "New Car and Truck Accessories" booklet and I don't see them as an accessory, either...But I didn't think they were...Just double checking. You can buy chrome repo's...I've seen them on rod's and low-rider's...I wouldn't add them to my car..

I see it's got a accessory rear bumper guard...I just won a nice one of those on Ebay...I hope I'm almost done collecting accessories...lol

I was just going to suggest...If you had any interest. Is that there is a tag on the passenger-side door jamb...It's a number/letter "code" that indicates the month of manufacture and the assembly plant rolled out of...It's kinda interesting to know where the car was "born."

Now I'm wondering if you might have asked the seller if he knows how many previous owners it might have had...?

I like the painted headlight rims fine since you told me thats the way they were. The guy that owns it now said a couple of brothers bought the car some years ago because that was the same kind of car they learned to drive in. One of the brothers restored the car and kept it but neither drove it much after the initial excitement wore off. The brother that had the car died and the other brother got it. He had it for years, didn't drive it or anything else much because he was old. He sold it and I think the guy that has it now bought it from the guy the brother sold it to. If I get the car I'll nail down the story with more detail and write it down cause I already might be older than either of the original brothers since I can't remember stuff very good and he just told me yesterday. I'll try to get the paint code from him.

i just got some codes. Paint is 353 and trim is 132. I have no idea what that means. The seller has pictures of the car being painted and the the fenders and hood etc are off. Why would the welting be painted? The car was painted in 1996, he has pictures of the restoration. He got the car directly from the guys brother that died.

353 is a two tone. Top is Scout Brown and bottom is Sport Biege, a cream color.

132 is a tan striped cloth fabric. There were no other Fleetline interior options.Side panels were solid tan.

Back in the '40's there were a few after market companies that sold the chrome head lamp rims

Thanks for the info, thats the colors the car is painted, and thats the way the interior is. Do you have any idea why the fender welting would be painted since the fenders were off when the car was painted. One more thing I noticed that baffles me is there was a little push button spring loaded switch on the far left side of the dash that doesn't seem to do anything but it actually looks stock, any ideas about that?

Dave, I have a theory as to your fist question about the painted welting and that's that they just plain didn't care for the look of the black welting...They may have even held it up and said, "Nah, it adds a line to the looks we don't like...Paint it...!

As to an answer to your second question...? It's the Windshield Cleaner Solution .Button...You'll notice the empty container on the firewall/drivers side. Works off the vacuum of the motor...I see that button placement on occasion...But I think there should already be a hole drilled for it just below that, on the underside lip of the dash. That's where mine "hides"...

Re: Painted headlight rims. In looking at the pics it appears to me the rims have black of brown strips painted at 3 & 9. I don't think they came with stripes originally. I see that done on a lot of these Chev so maybe it was the thing to do back then. An easy fix if I am correct. maybe someone else can verify. The car looks very nice. Same color combination as my 47 Aero.
Good luck on your quest.

The 1942 had the painted(striped) The 1946-1948 were not.