VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Front Fender Bolts

I am looking to know what fasteners are used on the front fender through the front brace. I know the two special ones that go through the headlight bar but there is two holes at the outer edge and one below the headlight bar halfway down to the chassis flange of the fender. The two holes on the fender edge look like they could be 1/4x20 carriage bolts because the fender support looks to have square holes in it. The other bolt mid way down under the headlight bar, I have no idea. I imagine all other mounting bolts are stove bolts.

The different types of fasteners used are listed in your 1929-32 Chevrolet parts book.

I did look at the parts book and found the different types. While I don't see any carriage bolts it is quite confusing listing cadmium bolts, really long bolts, etc. that I don't see where they'd go, square nuts, hex nuts plated, etc. Doesn't really help where they go on the fender. Some lines mentions fender to fender iron 3/4", fender to outer support 1 5/8" etc. Round slotted head bolts, oven head stove bolts, etc. Not sure of the difference. Tried to find what exactly an oven head bolt is and no luck. Round slotted is easy enough but the oven head? This is why I asked.

The head on the oven head bolt kinda sorta looks like the head used on a carrage bolt, but the head on the oven head bolt is bigger and flatter. The oven head bolt is also called a truss head, a mushroom head, a stove head, and an oval binding head bolt. I bought some at my local fastener house for my car, so you might want to buy some and then you can physically see what an oven head bolt looks like.

They have this cool thing on the Internet called "Google". I went there and typed in "what is an oven head bolt?" and the following links came up with a bolt chart:

http://www.broward-bolt.com/images/IdentifyingBolt.pdf

http://www.dbroberts.com/dbroberts_fastener_guide.pdf

The above charts should help you greatly concerning oven head (or truss) bolts. There are so many different types of bolts that it does get confusing at times without a bolt chart.

Having recently installed the "primed only" front fenders on my '31 deluxe, I can't imagine the extra challenge of installing them with finish paint!
I used carriage bolts in most locations, sized according to what was need for length, and the size of the various square holes in the braces, and used oval head machine screws elsewhere, etc, all stainless steel. It is quite a challenge getting all of the 10 or 12 bolts in place for each front fender (my car is Canadian and has an extra front brace). Start by keeping the brace(s) loose where they attaches to frame (my car has 3 braces). Then only loosely put in the fender bolts, i.e. the 2 outer bolts (4 for my car), the 3 wheel well bolts, the two almond shaped bolts for the headlight bar (with the rubberpad)and the extra bolts below headlight bar, and the bolts into the frame. Apply some masking tape to holes in fenders until everything is close and then remove tape. Before or while tightening things down a few turns at a time for each set, check to see there is nothing deforming. If fender brace or fender profile has been changed at some point, then it may be necessary to install a spacer between brace and fender to avoid "dimpling" the fender. This is a go slow part of the job, and although the fenders will eventually all bolt up, it is a task to get everything right, not scratch the surfaces etc. A second set of hands is almost essential. I had to re-loosen some of it to finish bolting up the running board front edge. Again, doing this for nicely painted fenders must be fun! Cheers.

Did the same thing. Even in these charts, none say oven head and that is why I asked. I did find truss head but not oven head.

The charts featured in the two links above both list oven head bolts.

The chart in the first link shows an illustration of a truss head bolt. In the item description right next to the illustration it says: TRUSS HEAD: Also known as oven head, stove head, and oval binding head.

The chart in the second link from above shows many of the different types of bolts and next to the illustration of the truss head the description states:

*TRUSS HEAD: Also known as oven head, stove head, and oval binding head. A low, neat appearing large diameter head having excellent design qualities, and as illustrated can be used to cover larger diameter clearance holes in sheet metal when additional play in assembly tolerance is required.

What I should have said is there was not a direct wordage link on those pages. In other words, when I Googled Oven head, no pages said, "oven heads" sometimes referred to as truss heads, stove head, etc. Instead those pages all gave other terminology and if one goes through many pages and descriptions they will eventually find some sort of answer. I just thought I'd ask and if someone knew I could save valuable time on other things I have to do.

So the bolts that hold on the luggage rack are considered oven head bolts. So now there are oven head and round head fasteners used on the front fenders, just where they're used, who knows?

I will take a ride and go look at a car that I know to get my answer, it just might be easier.

It all depends on what you type in on Google for a search. For example, I typed in "What is an oven head bolt?" and lots of stuff came up. I also typed in "Oven Head" and I got a lot of cool stuff on "ovens"! Wow!

On the luggage rack, the parts book lists an "oval slotted head bolt", not an oven bolt....and.....an "oval head" bolt is different than an oven bolt.

Ain't this fun?

Cool ovens are certainly a lot easier to work with than hot ones!

Thanks for this vivid description of installing the front fenders. I will be doing this in the next couple of months, except mine will be finished. Wish me luck!

But....ya gotta remember that there is "cool" and then there is "COOL"!!

I bought stainless steel. When removing the old it appeared more rust occurred. There is a couple of bolt and fastener companies on the net. Stainless does not hold paint as well so should be chemically etched or bead blasted, 2k epoxy then painted. Also, I am installing with newly painted panels, wrap in moving blankets to protect. Do not tighten anything down until all fenders running boards, aprons, cowl are installed. I can send photos of bolts removed fron where f you like. Mm