MTFCA Forum

I've wondered, since I bought my car, how this damage was done to the passenger side fender.
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Then I saw this photo and it looks like my car could've had a different brace on it than the one it does now....one the like one in the photo that would require such a hole in the fender.
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Heck...for a second I thought that might even be my car with a different body on it because my car had previously had extra front spring clamps on it. But I think the car in the photo is a TT.

Any thoughts?

That type of fender brace didn't need a hatchet chop to mount. Those and others required the two inner most fender bracket plate rivets to be removed, and then use bolts and nuts to secure the brace.


IMO, that damage was from an outboard strike.

Could have been done by an errant fan blade.

Or someone thought a ravine there would be handy place to prop one side of the hood open.

Most likely a stress facture, the inner bracket plate terminates about there, leaving the fender metal free to flop and crack.

Obviously, adding the wrap around fender brace is a good idea.

I've always thought it looks like unintentional damage of some sort too Dan.

Wouldn’t you love to know??

I think it would take some quick and sharp force to tear the metal like that. None of the other metal around it seems to be deformed including that bead right next to it.

Ah, think I have it.

One owner of that T was a lumber jack. So he carried saws and things on the rear floorboard. BUT.....

His most handy tool was an 8' pike pole. Can't fit that in the rear seat.

So....he laid it over the front and rear fenders, nice way to carry fish poles and lumber too.

However the spike on that pike pole bounced down on that front fender, and after a few chuckholes in that dang road, damage!

That damage is a puncture. Enlarge the photo and you will see the edge of the brace is nicked. Fatigued sheet metai will crack, but a rigidly riveted area will loosen and crack thru a rivet hole if the rivets become loose. A slight bend that works back and forth will fatigue and crack ALONG THE BENDING area only. A puncture hole starts out as a stretch around the penetrating object, this in turn carries the future hole edges down from the surface which action results in a puncture hole. These fender hole edges are classic puncture edges.

This damage looks to me like a broken off fan blade that hit the side of the fender and punctured it.

I think Ron got it correct. The trajectory of a loose fan blade would be slighty upward from that side. Probably no hood, as its doubtful a blade would penetrate a hood panel and still have enough energy to pierce the fender skirt.

I doubt a fan blade had anything to do with the damage. A flying blade would have a trajectory almost parallel to the inner fender panel, resulting in a sliding contact, which would surely have been impeded by the rolled edge of the fender top surface. There is no damage to that rolled edge. The rolling of the edge of the damaged area indicates to me a considerable downward force was responsible for the penetration. The dent to the top of the fender need not be connected to the puncture incident.

Allan from down under.

I agree with Ron, fan blade.

It might have been caused by a meteor.

Nice forensic theorizing Allan. I’m a fan of the thrown blade idea but you talked me out of it. Who knows ?

The dent to the top of the fender need not be connected to the puncture incident.

Well...speculation may be it IS connected.

Seems Mr. Diddledo.... got sooo tired trying to get that stubborn Ford running again.....

In fit of heated disgust , he grabbed his pick axe...

and swung a terrible blow upon that Ford...

...so hard that the wood handle dented the crown, and the pick dug deep into the heavy sheetmetal of the fender, leaving that gash of despair

Do you still have the original hood that came with the car? If it was the fan blade the hood would have a good lick on it. But then again maybe the hood was off or?????

This vehicle was STABBED TO DEATH years ago.

“Father, I cannot tell a lie. I did it with my little hatchet.”

Someone tried to repair a warp in the fender, but ended up doing a hack job?

I'll take separated fan blades for 100, Alex! When you look at the slot, it came from the bottom traveling up, and was stopped by the lip in the top of the fender. If it were something come down from aboce, it would have either nicked the top surface, or the bottom of the hole would be larger than the top. Instead, it looks like a blade that cut loose from the bottom of the fan into the sheet metal of the apron, went sideways into the fender, and stopped there.

Don, my laughter meter is in the red tonight. Your Touring just might have the Avery Truck syndrome.
Spittin' fan blades out.
On the other hand:
I vote you put some chicken-poo weld of yours on that fender and get about the business of trying to wear that Ford completely out.
It ain't done yet.
Interesting...

Duey_C wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:56 am

Don, my laughter meter is in the red tonight. Your Touring just might have the Avery Truck syndrome.
Spittin' fan blades out.
On the other hand:
I vote you put some chicken-poo weld of yours on that fender and get about the business of trying to wear that Ford completely out.
It ain't done yet.
Interesting...

No worries in that dept Duane....I'm doing my best to wear out this little car. I drive it every chance I get!

I really like the remaining bits of damage to the car (including the gash) and have no intention of reparing any of it unless it's causing structural problems. Perfect cars are awesome and I've had many, but this car tells a story that makes it so much more interesting.

I drove it to the big Conroe Swap Meet a few weeks back and had several people walk around the car, running their hands over all the dents and bruises and comment/speculate about the car's history and what it might've seen. You just don't get that with a really nice car. First of all, you don't really want them touching your $8K paint job and second, once the car is made perfect, much of the history disappears.

Don't get me wrong....I love a nicely done car. My 54 Ford is about to get one hell of a nice paint job and new interior, but my goodness I love this old beat up Model T....so much so that I can't adequately put it into words.

What a neat post Don. Tho I'm not surprised your Touring got some good attention at the show. Then ya drove it away.
The rusty old clunker out here in the yard is similar. Golly day is he loved by this bunch.
Drift: Have extra time lately. Maybe his turn in "back to the living" is sooner than I can see. Been considering dropping some coils off on Andy's deck, doing up a coil box, digging up a commutator and putting a proper ignition system in it.
Bosch parts lately are . I don't like the condensers.
"once the car is made perfect, much of the history disappears."
That notion is in another hobby and the exact reason I'm leaving a lot of things "as they are" on an OT project. Welds and wounds.
New and Hot (remember that from the J C Whitney catalogs?) engine on this one but the rest of him looks all used up. I like that.