Rear fenders removed for first time in 76 years

sidevalve2

Thought you might like to see these if you are into HPOF cars. I'm in England and I have the ex-Duke Marley nearly all original HPOF 37T, and the rear fenders have some checking to them. The roof and fenders have been painted before (because of checking in the past - you can see the old checking under the new checking!), but the rest of the car is original.

I have a rule that I don't paint any areas that haven't been painted before, but it's O.K. to do the fenders because I am not making the car less original by doing them again, and so I decided to paint them (I run a bodyshop). One day I will do the roof because that also has a fair bit of checking coming back (the car should have been bare-metalled when those areas were painted before, because if you don't sand off all the checked paint, the checking continues to spread under the new paint, which is what has happened here).

When the fenders were done before (looks like about 30-40 years ago) they were clearly painted on the car, because there is no evidence of them ever having been removed (and in fact once I had them off this was confirmed because there is a paint line along where the fender welt goes, and the paint under the fender welt is original, so I will not paint that bit). And the fender welt is original too - it is rock hard with age! I am going to try to preserve that as well, but one side broke into several pieces as it was stuck to the fender.

Anyway, I decided to remove them and paint them off the car, as we have some paint that is a brilliant match, and it is actually easier to do like that, as well as being easy to do a better job. I know the car is a real 'time warp', but even I was amazed at what I found. ALL the bolts came straight undone, light wiring and fender flaps etc. came right off, and when I had the fenders off it was virtually as new under there (unlike the outside, the inside of the fender itself and the bodyshell you see here are all original paint). The other side is even better but I haven't cleaned that one up yet.

I cleaned it up and found that the only deterioration is a bit at the front and another bit at the rear, where the checking has spread inside the fender - but the amazing thing is, especially with the bit at the back, that although the paint has actually flaked off and there is bare metal exposed, it is still nearly all SILVER - it hasn't even got surface rust on it! I won't paint the whole of the inside area - I will just carefully rub down the bare metal area and touch it up, as I am trying to keep the car as original as I can. I never use it in the rain anyway (so I hardly ever use it at all, because it never stops raining here!), so it won't rust any further.

One thing I am puzzled by, though, is the tire marks on the inner wall of the fender (i.e. the outside of the bodyshell) - you can see them in the pictures but I can't for the life of me work out how they got there. The paint is clearly original there (its 'orange peel' exactly matches that on the firewall, which is also original!) - but as the inner face of the tire is several inches away from there, I can't work out how it got there - Duke certainly wasn't the kind of guy to fit wide wheels, and neither am I! All I can imagine is that back in the 40s or 50s, when 'balloon' style tires were popular, some have been fitted that were actually wide enough to touch this area on bounce. Very mystifying though!

I have read somewhere that 30s cars were less susceptible to rusting, as they were made mostly with 'virgin' steel rather than recycled steel, as not enough cars had been junked by then for them to have recycled steel to use, so it has a low scrap content and doesn't rust. I don't know if that's true or not, but I am struck by how many places there are on my car where the paint is maybe a bit thin (e.g. on the edges of panels), or there is the odd stone chip, and although the metal is bare there is no rust. Mostly I touch these up with a tiny brush, but even the ones I have missed haven't rusted.

It's amazing - a true time warp, and a tribute to a) Hudson's build quality; and b) Duke's (and the other owners') long and careful stewardship of the car. I only hope I can follow in their footsteps.

Sorry if that isn't interesting to people - I was just so amazed at what I found that I needed to share it, and my wife and most of my friends glaze over if I talk about this kind of stuff to them!

Cheers and thanks for reading!

Alan

barrysweet52

Im redoing my 37T. I found the same with the panels between the 'fender' and the chassis. When I bought my car there was a strange noise at the back of the car. One shackle was extremely worn and this caused the tyre to rub on the body - perhaps this is your problem. I also found a section of copper pipe and olives on the original brake line, and some elastoplast wrap to stop a leak. When it rained water would leak in through the back windows and the inside roof lining would act as a wick - you could seethe dampness rising up. There are 2 metal panels on the inside of the rear window - spot welded to the body. The rust was so bad that I only had one side of one panel left. You seem to be luckier than me. ozhudsonatgmail.com

sidevalve2

Thanks Barry - I'll check the shackles, although the car has done few miles and been looked after, so I wouldn't have thought they were worn. As I said above, it's not so much luck with this car as that its previous owners were all very careful with it, and it has never been stored outside or used in winter, and it is from NC so they have a gentle climate. But I have plenty of other cars from England where I have the problems you mention!

sidevalve2

My back windows do leak though - I have been caught in showers 2 or 3 times and I saw the wicking effect you describe. It's why I try never to take the car out in the rain - but like I said, living in England that just means you never get to drive it!