1941 Ford Frt. Fenders

I have a 1941 Ford Todor Sedan. It has 3 piece front fenders. Can anyone tell me why Ford made some 2 piece and others 3 piece front fenders?


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I don't know about your Ford but many auto makers over the years have had differences like this simply because they didn't make the part! They buy out parts and assemble a car, they really aren't car "makers" at all, they are assembling parts bought from other companies. Now, sometimes these companies end up being owned by them like GM's "Delco" division. But often these parts are made by someone and sold to the car maker. They could have changed suppliers, or simply upgraded to improve assembly time or improve the car it's self, if I am spelling it correctly it's called "superceded", it happens all the time.

I know that 57 Chevys built at a plant in Oakland Ca had a one piece bumper while all others had a three piece bumper (or it it the other way around? ) so there are many reasons why this happens.

Brian

i may be wrong but i believe the deluxe had 2 piece because of the trim. could be as brian said just different mfgr. but all the deluxe cars i have seen or built had 2 piece. i have seen 3 piece fenders but they had no trim. somebody older than me will have to answer this one.

One peice bumpers were for ca. as they had a law that all bumpers bad to be one peice design.

fenders not bumpers and yes cal has always had the dumbest laws on autos .

Jr Shine, I think you are right.

Trees

We can beat on California for a million and one things, the poor imigration policies for instance. But you can't beat up California on this one, it has nothing to do with laws, it was supply as I had said. There was also a different one piece frame that was used for the same reason. And Canada used those one piece bumpers too.

From a web site I found with a quick google.


I've been curious about the seamless frames and one piece bumpers for a long time, and here's what little info I've learned: Not all CA built cars had seamless frames; in fact, most had the 2-piece frames. According to info from Bob Wingate, a 55–57 guru I talked to 30 years ago, GM did not produce the frames in-house. They had two outside companies produce them for Chevrolet. One producer was A.O.Smith, and they produced the 2 -piece frame. I don't know who the other producer was, but they made smaller numbers, and they built the seamless (also called California, West Coast, Nascar, or tube) frames. Gm had to ship the frames from back East plants to all assembly plants, and they were charged by weight, so they tended to ship the lighter seamless frames out West (furthest), thus more seamless frames ended up under West coast cars than others. But by no means were seamless frames confined to West Coast cars…they were used under all models except convertibles, and used at all assembly plants. Incidentally, I've seen seamless frames under Chevys clear up to 1964, so Chevy continued the practice after 55–57. The one piece bumpers were used on all CA-built cars, and I've never been able to learn why. It was probably an issue of having two suppliers of bumpers, with a smaller stamping plant only having enough capacity to supply the two West Coast assembly plants. We have to remember…GM was not producing collector or special interest cars back then…they were only building production cars, and they used parts from various suppliers as long as those parts met their specs. I hope this sheds so light, and I also hope it causes someone with more info to respond and give us the real poop on these curiosities.


Here is the rest of the thread, pretty interesting stuff. http://www.new.carsinc.com/mr.bowtie/16248

I looked at a number of sites talking about this and could find nothing on any California law. I still see these sort of things today, I have a cousin in Detroit who has worked for a number of different manufacturers of parts his whole life, it is common place to change suppliers and thus change designs. In that 41 Ford case I have no idea it could very well have been standard and deluxe. But without any more imput manufacturer/supply could just as well be the reason.

Brian