VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 1941 Aluminum fenders???

I recently purchased an "NOS" 1941 rear fender on ebay that turned out to be made of aluminum...and it does not fit. It was old, with a little shelf ware, but in near perfect shape. We noticed that it was relatively light weight, but passed that off initially as smaller gauge metal used in after market manufacturing. All became known when we tried to mount it. And, yes, we did try to stick a magnet on it just to prove our suspicions that it is Al rather than steel.

Has anyone ever seen or heard of this? I am going to revert to fixing the original fender, which is pretty rough, and I would like to try to sell the Al version...provided I can determine what it was made for and be honest about the sale.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice that may be out there.
Don_41

You should be able to re sell the rear fender if you state in your ad its a repo and made in aluminum by ??? You should also state that it does not fit and why and where it would need to be corrected.

if somebody is skilled in working with aluminum or knows somebody it might be of interest to them.>????

mike

The aluminum fenders were aftermarket. They were common from about 1950 to 1953. If I remember correctly they were for the right sude only as that was the most common fender to get damaged. There was a good market for them as they fit from 1941-1948 which would equal millions of cars.
They generally fit OK but had a paint problem.
Almost all the Chevrolet dealers bought a couple and often got stuck with them.

I also have a beautiful aluminum fender that I purchased with a 41 body and several NOS parts to originally fix the body up. I am pretty sure I had it with me in Flint for the Anniversary meet when I was vending 41 parts and a 41 body. I thought it would make an excellant novelty item that could be used for an advertisement to commemorate an event or ones service. Because it is so light it would easily hang on a wall in a man cave. If it gets above 10 degrees this weekend I will take a look in my garage attic to see if it is in its original box!!! The box might tell its origin. Just as Gene indicated it is for the driver's side and my trying to make it fit was a nightmare so I gave up on ever using it. I did brush on a coat of rustproofing to stop it from corroding anymore. I imagined some day going to look for it and it just finding a pile of white dust!!!

Good luck, Mike

I would recheck the Ebay listing and see if it's covered by their warranty.

To paint an aluminum fender you need to prime it with special etching primer that is specifically for aluminum. You can use regular primers over it.

chev nut said the fender is generally for the more commonly smashed passenger side , not the drivers side

mike

With EBAYS new policy,
you should be able to return it for a full refund,
"just state not as discribed"
the fact that it was an ALLOY fender, would be plenty reason for a refund

Pontiac also made aluminum fenders.

Zinc Chromate

That would be correct unless the seller specified in the listing that it was aluminum. Many sellers are vague on their listings and list disclaimers such as " I believe it fits a" and " not sure of application, view photos before buying".

A pontiac fender is a completely different shape,
the buyer alone could see that it would not fit on a chevrolet

So what precautions are taken bolting an aluminum fender to a steel body? I know for sure that the bolts will make contact with both.

Thanks, Gene. You confirmed that I was not imagining this thing. It is a driver-side fender, as others suggested, and I got it already painted with very old primer...and it looked perfect! Unfortunately, i bought it a while back...been collecting parts as available while working on chassis...so we did not recognize the problem until we got to the body work.

Interesting that they were made in early 50s. In the post war era this country was swamped with steel. I was an engineer for a water utility that built a huge water plant in the early 50s that was constructed entirely of steel...not an ounce of concrete or a 2x4 to be found. When I asked why, the answer was...steel was cheep.

Thanks again

Thanks, Jeff. This good to know. It may explain the discrepancies.

Don

Thanks, Mike. Never thought about the novelty idea. Mine came "NOS" without the box, and we could find no part number when we got it. I don't recall the exact advertising that was posted on the ebay add, because we bought it a while back. But sitting next to my original fender, it "looked" perfect, so we did not question it.

Don

Old216...good point. Dissimilar metals can cause electrolytic corrosion. It Has been a while since i ran that thought through my brain, but it is worthy of a little mental refreshment. The way to avoid it is to use a non-conducting gasket between the different metals, or just avoid the practice.

Thanks for your post.

Don

The fenders came through with no paint. They had a slight gold tint so may have been treated with something. There would be very little metal to aluminum contact due to the fender welt.
If the fender was installed on a 1947 in 1951 the car would have been in the junk yard before any problems would arise.

Just curious, Were the aluminum fenders due to steel shortage from Korean War? I know that they used a lot of WWII aircraft so may have had enough aluminum production but not enough steel?

Sorry for the confusion, I was going off the info. from this post, my help with the policy changes, only reflect items in automotive related subjects, that were recent purchases.
now it looks to have taken place a "while ago", sorry I cannot be more help on "awhile ago" items

I would assume that it was part of it. We had a lot of trouble getting sheet metal parts around 1951 and 1952.

I never heard of Pontiac aluminum fenders. First the fenders were not made by Chevrolet. Next a Pontiac fender would have been of very low volumn compared to Chevrolet. The Pontiac fenders were not the same from 1941-1948 and Pontiac had two different body shells (three in 1941) and all used different fenders.
I had a customer that put a Oldsmobile fenders on the rear of a 1947 Fleetline. The Olds and Pontiac fender were "fuller" than the Chevrolet and he wanted more tire room be cause wider wheels and tires were installed. The Olds fender was very plain and smooth like a Chevrolet where as the Pontiac fender had a lot of body lines. The Olds fenders were from the small A body 60 series.

MR59...my fault on the confusion. As I get older, "recently" seems to span a much longer time frame. I acquired the vehicle in 1963 (my first car), went in the service and stored the car in 66, got out and got on with life, and the car sat stored for almost 50 years until i retired. I this context, "recently" goes back a while.

Many thanks to all for all the great comments and suggestions. You have all been very knowledgeable and helpful.

Don_41

Thanks for insite, you bought the car, when I was 5 years old, so I guess "RECENTLY" is a term that has a wider net as time goes by. I find myself casting "that same net" just not as wide.
now I know why I was the only one on this not catching on.

Couple years back I bought a set of the trim peices that go around the grill for my 41 and two of them were aluminum. I think I still have them in the parts bin.