Sheetmetal question

Bob from Northport

Bob from Northport

Well-known member
Can anyone advise the thickness of fenders and bodies for a Model A.??
What gauge metal?? decimal equivalent?
Need it for mig welder set up.

Thanks!!
 
Well don't think dialing the guage in will make perfection. You will have some trial and error for proper penetrationGreat luck! It can happen
 
wrndln said:
I believe the consensus is that most of the body sheetmetal and fenders were made of 19 ga sheetmetal. Some other areas like the firewall, cowl, subrails and body crossmembers were made of thicker sheetmetal. There was a topic on this a couple years ago. The link is:
http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13473&highlight=metal+gauge
Rusty Nelson
Click to expand...


"Where" did this consensus of information come from? I disagree with the comment that is 19 gauge.

A couple of years ago I sent copies of some prints I purchased at the archives in Dearborn to Mike that show regular bodystock sheetmetal spec-ed out at 18 gauge. So my question about gauge thickness is does anyone have proof that it is 19 gauge, --or did this come from 'he said/she said' hearsay?

.
 
Sheeese ! 18 Ga. or 19 Ga. don't really matter much , truth is you'll have to practice a bit with some Clean original metal to perfect the settings , as most wire feed diagrams are not printed with the old Malleable steel in mind
 
All gauges aren't created equal, at least from different makers. But, the difference between the two is about .005-.006".
 
Brent,
With a good micrometer, I measured a sandblasted (no primer or paint on it) original 28/29 front fender in several place and I found it was .039". Every measurement was within .001" of .039". I also measured a NOS 28/28 front fender I have and it measured .041" in one spot and .042" in a second place. But the NOS fender had bonderizer and enamel on it with might add .002" to .003" to the measurements.

From the internet, I found a couple gauge tables (both were the same). It had 18 ga sheetmetal listed at 0.0478" and 19 ga at 0.0418". I sure appears to me that 19 gauge is much closer than 18 ga. even though what I measured on my fenders was a little thinner than even 19 ga (between 19 and 20 ga.). I guess I could be wrong, but I don't think my measurement are incorrect.
Rusty Nelson
 
wrndln said:
Brent,
With a good micrometer, I measured a sandblasted (no primer or paint on it) original 28/29 front fender in several place and I found it was .039". Every measurement was within .001" of .039". I also measured a NOS 28/28 front fender I have and it measured .041" in one spot and .042" in a second place. But the NOS fender had bonderizer and enamel on it with might add .002" to .003" to the measurements.

From the internet, I found a couple gauge tables (both were the same). It had 18 ga sheetmetal listed at 0.0478" and 19 ga at 0.0418". I sure appears to me that 19 gauge is much closer than 18 ga. even though what I measured on my fenders was a little thinner than even 19 ga (between 19 and 20 ga.). I guess I could be wrong, but I don't think my measurement are incorrect.
Rusty Nelson
Click to expand...


Rusty, here I think is where confusion in NOS comes in again, ...who manufactured the fender you are calling NOS? Many do not realize this but Ford was not the only seller of new painted fenders back in the day. Often times someone will find a fender that has original paint and assume it is a Ford-manufactured NOS fender. THAT is not always the case!!

As for the sizes, again if you look at what Mike said above, I'm pretty sure I am the one that sent him a copy of the Ford blueprints that each specified that the material used was to be 18 gauge and that size was .0478 with a minute +/- tolerance. Therefore I suspect your NOS fender is a not a Ford-made fender if it measures .0419, but instead is a NORS. :( :o
 
Brent,
I have to disagree with you. I said I measured two fenders, an original I am 100% sure was made by Ford in 1928 (a tudor stored since 1952 in a barn) and the NOS fender - could be NORS, but I doubt it. Both were very close to the same dimensions for thickness. Have you measured an original fender? I assume you have some. I actually have several more fenders I can measure, and they are original fenders not replacement fenders. I will measure them tomorrow and post the results here. I guess I thought that if both fenders were in agreement, that was enough. I don't know about the Ford prints, I am measuring the real fenders.
Rusty Nelson
 
Rusty, I need to apologize to you as I was working off of memory and posting that from my phone. I remembered emphatically the size was not 19 gauge but I should have reviewed the prints first before suggesting 18 gauge. When I actually got to the shop this morning where I could review the prints, I was going in the wrong direction on the size. The true thickness size of the sheetmetal is 20 gauge --not 19 gauge or 18 gauge. I am going to post a portion of the print just so you can see it. Again, please accept my apologies.

.
 

Attachments

also a thing to consider
metal stretches and thins out when its formed
a lot of forming stretching and compressing going on in those fenders
i dont think we can measure an already stamped fender and be accurate to +/- .005
tk
 
All of these gauges have a tolerance range of how thick or thin they can be and still called a particular gauge. These tolerances may overlap, max on one size may be thicker than the minimum on the next heavier gauge. As for setting the MIG, the settings on the charts are a baseline setting only and may need to be fine tuned from there.
 
As far as I know the OEM spec has always been 19 Gauge. I like to work in 18 gauge as it gives me more material to work with. If you need to do alot of stretching 18 gauge can go farther than 20 gauge.

The Old Tinbasher
 
Bob from Northport said:
Can anyone advise the thickness of fenders and bodies for a Model A.??
What gauge metal?? decimal equivalent?
Need it for mig welder set up.

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

Bob,
Sheet metal and MIG settings.......don't over think it. Pick any sheet metal setting and, on a piece of scrape, test it and adjust. Remember to keep heat to minimum to avoid distorting the metal. With a MIG I still prefer to 'stitch' sheet metal. ( spot welds 1" apart, then start laying new spots next to the earlier ones, moving around to allow the metal to stay cool.)
When I 'stitch' I tend to run the MIG setting on the high side of what the charts say.
 
MrWzrd said:
Bob,
Sheet metal and MIG settings.......don't over think it. Pick any sheet metal setting and, on a piece of scrape, test it and adjust. Remember to keep heat to minimum to avoid distorting the metal. With a MIG I still prefer to 'stitch' sheet metal. ( spot welds 1" apart, then start laying new spots next to the earlier ones, moving around to allow the metal to stay cool.)
When I 'stitch' I tend to run the MIG setting on the high side of what the charts say.
Click to expand...
Might I suggest when welding two pieces together leave about -1/8" gap this allows you to fill and will give a much better appearance. Hobart 125 I use setting 1 at speed under 10
 
Wisconsin Jimmy,
I think 1/8" between panels is quite a bit to much gap. The clips referred to in the above post have a .040" gap which I think is closer to what I would recommend. I guess if you use 1/8" for a gap and it works out OK, no problem, but I prefer a much narrower gap when I weld in panels with my Lincoln SP100 MIG welder.
Rusty Nelson
 
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