Occasionally I see pix of roadsters that don't have fenders or running boards but do have splash aprons. I've never had a roadster and probably never will, but I'm liking the look. My question: is this something done just for personal taste or is there another reason? Also I've never seen this done on a closed car. Have you?
I believe it's done to give the model a a more substantial looking frame like a deuce. I agree on the right car it looks nice.
From my experience on a stock Model A, you have to loosen and raise the body to remove the splash apron, (you have to remove the bolts too) so if it was done back in the day it was easier to leave them on when removing the fenders. Today I think it's done to hide the frame. I like the look with them left on.
Please give me a hint on what to search for 'cause I didn't find anything. Also take into account I've never had much luck doing searches.
Type "Model A splash aprons The Hamb" into a Google Search......a lot of them in there. Easiest way to find anything on The Hamb is to search Google......typing in the subject you're looking for and followed by "The Hamb".
It's been hashed over many times over the years but it goes back to the dry lake days when you would drive your full fendered A to the dry lakes, unbolt the fenders and race then bolt them back on and drive home. Or if you were lucky you unbolted them at home and hooked a tow bar on the roadster to tow it to the lakes and run and towed it home. I'll have to admit that the look really does grow on you especially when you see one like that all black roadster.
Here’s my Uncle Bud and a couple buddies in his fenderless with aprons 31, in front of Roseburg High around 1950
I found about 20 fenderless cars with splash aprons; about 2/3 open (nearly all roadsters) and about 1/3 closed (all coupes I think). I'm going to post all of them here just in case anyone else is interested. Here are the open cars:
There were a few cars with severely cut down splash aprons that I skipped over before deciding to save them also. I'm not going to go back and spend the time to find them now though. Note that some cars are pictured more than once.
Yes, it's origins are all to do with lakes racing and removing fenders once at the lakes. It's pretty easy to understand that after taking them on and off a few times a person would say bugger this and just leave them off if a lakes regular (or poser.)
fwiw: we always call them valance panels, with a splash apron referring to the small panel between the chassis rails in front of the front crossmember. Maybe it’s a ‘down under’ thing ?
That's always been my thought... you can strip a full fenderd car easily for land speed racing on scene, except for the aprons which will require you to raise the body and loosen the body bolts. That's just too much of a pain. So the aprons were left on to race and then car could be bolted back together easily for the return drive home. Now its kind of a fad, for the look.