Tidying Up the Front End of a 1946 Ford Roadster Pickup

Perfect. All it needed now was a gentle curve along its length. Note I used masking tape to protect the painted fenders.

Using a shrinker/stretcher from Summit Racing, I shrunk the upper and lower return edges until I achieved the curvature desired.

The jaws for the shrinker/stretcher are easily swapped. The stretcher jaws are on the left and the shrinker jaws on the right. It can be seen how, as the jaws are forced together, the angles dictate whether the jaws are pulled apart to stretch, or pushed together to shrink.

Shrinking the return lip causes the panel to curve, as shown. This panel was shrunk a little at a time until the desired curvature was attained. Trial and error and experience will tell you how far to go.

With the curvature matching that of the lower edges of the fenders, the panel was trimmed to length and trial fitted to the truck.

I planned to radius the corners of the grille opening, meaning adding an upward curve to the ends of the new panel. I fabricated these return edges 6 inches tall, where the panel will bolt to the fenders. As the panel is 4 inches tall, this will provide enough material for a 2-inch radius curve.

The new panel was then trimmed to fit between the end sections, and will be butt-welded to them. Fabricating them this way provides a neat 90-degree bend at the ends, rather than trying to weld on the corner.

Butt-welding the panels together, the front end looks neater already!

Whilst at Circle City Hot Rods I also formed a 45-degree bend in another length of 18-gauge steel, which would become a top section of the pan between the section I’d already fabricated and the radiator. Here I’m using a plasma cutter to trim a curve on the front edge to match that of the first section.