For you guys with full fendered hot rods. Drove my T all summer in primer. Want to finish paint this winter. In about 3000 miles I have picked up several star chips in the fenders from rocks hitting the bottom of the fender. I would like to do something to avoid these in the new paint. Rubberized bedliner? Glue a sheet of roofing rubber on the bottom? What do any of you guys do? I drive my cars.
A friend of mine swears by coating the underside of fiberglass fenders with bed liner,I have never had the problem with steel fenders and I drive my cars hard.HRP
I just started thinking about this because of some recent attempts at fine metal finishing. It certainly doesn't take much bump to raise a low spot or a misplaced bump to make a high spot. So while I was doing this bumping I thought , wow rocks probably play hell on fenders.
What about that Peel & Seal stuff . Then top coat it to make it a little less obvious. The stuff I've used had a foil backing, others may not. Just throwing this out there...
We use truck bed liner on all of the cars we do at work and on some I have made a 16 gauge sheet metal rock guard that fits up inside the fender and bolts to the end of the running board, inner fender and support rods. As long as you cover from the center of the tire to the back you usually don't get rock dings. It is not so bad with bias ply tires but radials like to pick up small gravel and toss it at about a 60 degree angle. Jim Ford
On my "just on the road" 39, we used RockGuard underneath fenders & running boards to prevent rock staring.....also used same product several yrs ago on my 29 RPU, seems to work as intended......
Road rash,battle scars it happens when you drive them but of course I don't have a high dollar paint job on any of my Deuces so I don't worry about any chips. HRP
Hell, I had a 33 sedan delivery for almost 14 years and almost 225000 miles, touched up the front fenders with a pinstripe brush so may time they probably each had an xtra pint of paint on em.
I used Duplicolor roll on bed liner under the fenders of the 36 Ford I did. Only nice paint job car I've had.
Yeah these fenders are steel and original to the car. (See my avatar). Well, except for the one I had to replace from the deer. HRP, there is something to be said about leaving them in primer. Drove my coupe in SPI black epoxy primer all summer, rain or shine, it was a blast. My shiny black fenderless 27T roadster, on the other hand, needs a sunny day and a lot more polishing.
I used peel and stick sound deadener on a '37 Ford I had. It came in 12" squares if I remember right, and worked great. I didn't do the entire fender, mostly just the rear half. They may have been called Q-Pads.
I had some lizard skin left over and blew that onto the inside of the fenders. Seems to work well. Pete
stone guard, it goes on under the paint. It's the stuff that is used on rockerpanels of new vehicles.
What about star blocker ? The stuff all of us old guys used years ago,I guess they are still selling it ????
I used bed liner under all 4 of my pickups fenders.....still got some rock stars. Lately I've been using the rocker panel coating and rubberized under coating. Hopefully the rocks bounce off better.
Used a thick coating of spray bomb rubberised undercoating on the underside of my 47 Chevy fenders, worked great and absorbed all the impacts from stones. Of course you couldn't see it. On my 30 coupe I will be doing the underside of the fenders with Raptor bedliner. Will have to wait for warmer weather in this part of the country. Should work just as good and look a little better as well. Also did the underside of the body to seal it. Canuck
Star cracks happen on steel as well fiberglass. My 35 Chevy rear steel fenders had several star cracks. Like larry K, I have used star blocker in the past with great results. I'm not sure its even sold anymore. At least I haven't seen anyone selling it in years. Star blocker was sheets of black rubber that you applied to the undersides of the fenders.
Use Plasti-Dip or Eastwood's ElastiWrap. Available in different colors, and it is removable if need be.
Raptor is made by UPOL. They offer bedliner and rock guard. I have used and liked both products, Schutz gun is needed. http://www.tcpglobal.com/Auto-Body/U-POL-Truckbed-Liners/
I have used bed liner or undercoating on all fendered fiberglass cars I have built. Never had an issue after thousands of miles. Steel fenders (Henry ones anyway) seem to not need anything. Bottom line probably depends on the roads and conditions to which you expose your car.
Was at a vintage sports car race at Laguna Seca and noticed the rock dings on the fenders of some high dollar Cobras, makes you admire the guys with that kind of money and still drive them the way they were meant to be. Trailer Queens are few and far between in that crowd.
My roadster has them on the fenders as well as on the 1/4 panels. With these radial tires rocks fly everywhere. Hell had one hit the windshield & there was not another car on the road. One of the perks of driving them. I also will never put a hi-dollar paint job on any of my junkers.
Another vote for bed liner under the fenders. Had Rhino Liner under the fenders on my RPU for 19 years. Never had a ding or star. Cost me 1st place in class at the GNRS in 2013, but stupid me, I thought it was a class for driven cars. But, hey, I had more fun driving my car home than the winner did loading is into it's enclosed trailer!
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