Sometimes I amaze myself

[tcianci]

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Some of you know I'm working on a 40 Ford pickup. I have the thing apart for paint right now and of course it's time to deal with all the little stuff that has to be done when the thing goes back together.
I was at the spring Carlisle meet last week and I got some flush stainless carriage bolts from a F 100 to hold the rear fenders on. There were more than enough bolts for a 40 bed.
I have Wescotts glass fenders on the truck and I was never too happy with the way the stock front fender bolts looked. So, I have this idea to use the extra polished fender bolts to hold the front fenders to the spalsh aprons. The only problem is even though they are pretty flat, the heads stull looked ugly and would have probably hit the hood when it was closed. Somehow I needed to counterbore the fiberglass to set the bolt heads flush with the fender.
I used a length of aluminum tubing 3/8 diameter, the same size at the square holes in the fender. This became a pilot to locate a square ground spade bit in the holes. I slotted the tubing and did a press fit onto the spade bit making an assembly that was robust enough to work for the few holes I needed to counterbore. Then I carefully drilled the counterbores so that the bolt heads fit flush with the fender. I think its going to look slick against the paint and no chances of chipping the hood

This is what I came up with:

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Last edited by 1great40; Today at 06:48 PM.

 

[jhelrey]

Smart!

 

[zeeke]

Sweet!

 

[Zeke]

I'll definitely be saving that trick!

 

[OccupantRJ]

Slick as snot on a doorknob!

 

[NUTTSGT]

Did it destroy the spade bit drilling through the steel ?

 

[Tscott]

Did it destroy the spade bit drilling through the steel ?

Looks to be fiberglass to me.

To the OP, great job using your head and great attention to detail.

Tom

 

[uhohjim]

Cool idea ...you're right it will look slick countersunk like that

 

[BWS]

The practically exact style/method of tool is used for opening up the factory mounting hole,in a shotgun buttstock.Its used when putting hyd recoil reducers in.I made ours....they may be commercially available.?Cool that you made it for yourself,and even better.....it works as planned.BW

 

[BlindViper]

Will primer and paint mess with your fit?

 

[tcianci]

Will primer and paint mess with your fit?

Funny you should ask...I have been hanging and gapping panels on the truck so additional clearance for primer and paint is always on my mind and there is allowance between the diameter of the head and the diameter of the counterbore so that the finish coats wont be a problem.

 

[Toolman12]

Very nice keep the pics coming

 

[RobSmith]

how thick is that panel where you countersunk it ? Not too thin to crack is it ?

 

[NUTTSGT]

Looks to be fiberglass to me.

Tom

I think you're right. I thought it was primed and sanded sheetmetal.

 

[po-boy]

Good idea!

Can't help but think that if it was steel he'd be posting about the shrapnel they took out of his face

 

[Steevo]

Well done. A brilliant solution to an interesting dilemma.
What did the original fender bolts look like, just for clarification?

 

[tcianci]

The original bolts are refered to as elevator bolts. They are a carriage bolt with a very thin head so that it barely protrudes above the surface. I could have used them but when I bought the bolt kit to use on the rear fenders, it was kitted up for an old F-100 so there were 24 bolts I think. Since I was going to have so many bolts left over, I decided to make the front and rear fender mounting bolts look the same. (like I've got nothing else to do!)