fender beads
 

I'm in the process of repairing some over used/abussed front fenders. The problem is in the bead on the fender edge. The round bar is broken and the fender is cracked (bad) and I would like to replace the bar and repoll the edge. is there anyplace were I can get dies for a bead roller or does anybody know of an how too artical on a repair like this?

Re: fender beads
 

What kind of vehicle? Different beads on fenders. I hope the "bar" you refer to is not "rebar". lol

Are you referring to the wire bead such as in 33-34 fenders? or a rolled bead such as on 35-36?

Re: fender beads
 

For a really cheap fix use a piece of electrical conduit, bend it to shape then cut a small slice out from end to end slide over bad part of fender then BONDO. lol it does work for a temporary fix though.
:)~~Walts37~~:)

Re: fender beads
 

Sounds like you are repairing something close to a 40. If you are not doing a correct, concours restoration and are going for a driver quality, a correct size steel rod and/or brakes line will give you the roll you need and be flexible enough to follow the bends/curves of the fenders.

If the beading is more than 1/2 gone and you need to replace the roll, I would cut out the bad areas but leave as much as you can of the original to get the shape, tac the rod/line in place where you cut out, then cut out the rest of the stock roll and weld it up (or leave it in, depending on your talents/desires).

If the beading is just cracked and gone in only a few places, I would weld the rod/line behind the roll to "reinforce" it and give you a place to weld the cracks to. This will require getting teh metal as clean as possible on the inside, not an easy thing to do but needed for mig welding it in. You can either spot piece this or do the entire bead - that's up to you.

Both scenarios require some welding talent but a small air grinder will take care of the ugliness of the welds, and keep the BONDO to a minimum!