1942-1947 Ford Trucks Fender Extensions ?

[mercman from oz]

My friend has the remains of this 1942-1947 Ford Truck front clip in his yard.
What is unusual is the "joiner piece" on the inside of the front fenders.
That then makes the truck wider, maybe for a Heavy Duty model?
Looking at the front, you can see that these extensions create another problem.
The actual grille nose-piece also required an extension at each end.
Looking at the actual workmanship, it is all very professional.
All very odd. Can anyone throw any light on this subject?

 

[Model51]

To get the conversation started, my personal guess, and it's only my guess, is that someone wanted larger tires and decided to move the fenders out a few inches to keep them inside the fender well. It looks like a very well crafted modification but I've never heard of Ford providing a solution like what appears in the photos. I'm curious to what others think.

 

[GB SISSON]

I have heard of them, not sure if of Ford manufacture. Maybe I'll look in Wagner's FTS'05.

 

[GB SISSON]

No mention or pics there. Back to square one.

 

[Karl Wescott]

If this looks to be production or semi-production, my first of the usual suspects on the line up would be Marmon-Herrington with a 4 wheel drive. Just speculation, or course.

 

[GB SISSON]

Wagner's book shows a tandem axle 4wd MH jailbar with a 16' bed and 10.50 x 16 high flotation tires, but clearly no fender extentions. Sometimes I take pictures of the photos in the book and post them here, but that may be copyright infringement?

 

[Model51]

I wouldn't worry about copyright - you aren't trying to make money on the image.

The Marmon-Herrington 4-wheel drive front axle might provide sufficient height for body lift to allow the larger tires without the need to spacers, so that makes sense. I was thinking that the fender spacers would be for the situation where someone wanted larger tires but the suspension remained the same. Still, it's just a guess.

 

[truckdog62563]

A number of years ago a truck was discussed over on FTE that had this exact front fender set. To my recall the truck had 6 x 8.75” pattern wheels which is probably why I focused on it. Whether it was a military application or very heavy commercial build I can’t say. I spent a fair amount of this morning looking for the old discussion of it to no good outcome.

I also looked through my copy of the 1947 Hildy’s Blue Book and found nothing. Stu

 

[rawlir]

Does anyone remember the truck (s) during this time that had 2 engines side by side?
(or am i losing my mind?)

 

[Karl Wescott]

Does anyone remember the truck (s) during this time that had 2 engines side by side?
(or am i losing my mind?)

Two questions. Any question about question 2 likely means yes, no question.

 

[rawlir]

I knew i remembered 2 engines, did not remember it was a COE....

 

[mercman from oz]

 

[mercman from oz]

Received the following information from a friend:-
Those photos are exactly as the truck at Russel Prices are or were about 2 years ago when I was last there. I recall reading about the reasoning behind it was because of the wider heavy duty axle fitted. I got a lot of important parts from that truck to help me when converting my jail bar to RHD such as the spoon type accelerator and floor cover over pedals and steering column as well as the inner fenders, as mine were rusty. After reading some articles in the HCVCA magazine today under the heading "jail bar questions-forum".
I am starting to think the modification may have been an Australian only design.
Apparently a company in Brisbane, J.J.McGrath of Trailer fame were fitting Thornton bogie drive rear axles and Hercules diesel engines to the post war jail bar trucks and possibly wider front axles which would account for the modified fenders.
The article appeared under the heading "jail bar Hercules" on 09 Dec 2019 in HCVCA magazine on the internet and it had some interesting story's off modified jail bars back in the day.
Maybe that is why our American friends are not familiar with that sheet metal modification.

 

[GB SISSON]

Not related to fender extensions, but found this in the bottom of a rabbit hole

 

[tubman]

Another take on dual-engine Ford trucks. This one is European (German I think) and therefore probably had 4 cylinder engines.

 

[petehoovie]

Not related to fender extensions, but found this in the bottom of a rabbit hole

 

[GB SISSON]

Thank you Pete, here's one I just received from Stu. He didn't mention where the picture was taken. He said he hadn't mastered the picture thing and that I could post it up. Gonna guess 'down under' by the location of the steering wheel...

 

[mcgarrett]

From what I'm seeing of the photos in the original post, the fenders look to be stock without any modifications. Here's a link to an original '47 pickup and see if you agree they look the same.

https://www.rocksolidmotorsportsinc.com/vehicles/485/1947-ford-pickup

 

[petehoovie]

Thank you Pete, here's one I just received from Stu. He didn't mention where the picture was taken. He said he hadn't mastered the picture thing and that I could post it up. Gonna guess 'down under' by the location of the steering wheel...

 

[petehoovie]

From what I'm seeing of the photos in the original post, the fenders look to be stock without any modifications. Here's a link to an original '47 pickup and see if you agree they look the same.

https://www.rocksolidmotorsportsinc.com/vehicles/485/1947-ford-pickup