1952 M38 Wheelhouse Stone Deflectors?

4x4M38 · Post by **4x4M38** » Fri May 13, 2016 1:04 pm

1/16 inch won't make the kind of difference you are seeing
Ron. Might run a straightedge along your surfaces and see if
something is out of plane or dished, maybe the inside wheel
house surface? Use a string line if a straight edge won't work.

4x4M38 · Post by **4x4M38** » Fri May 13, 2016 1:20 pm

I was going to ask if that was a repop tub but I saw the
antenna mount holes and came to the conclusion only the
Army would do something like that!

It looks like a crease in the bottom corner. Is it too tight at
the top and the bottom or only at the bottom?

RonD2 · Post by **RonD2** » Fri May 13, 2016 2:11 pm

Thanks for the measurement Rick. I'm pretty sure I have the correct M38 plate. I agree the 1/16th difference isn't significant.

I'm pretty sure it's not a re-pop tub (but I'm a rookie, have never seen another M38 up close other than this one). The body holes for the stone guard are there and in the correct spots for the panel, as are most all the other body holes in the right places for the right things. It has been repaired in a few places and has some bondo on it but all in all pretty solid. The clearance issue is pretty evenly the width --- too tight all the way down the sides, top to bottom. A few sloppy welds in there with big beads hanging in space too. Might give them a careful shave and see what that does. Looks to me like it's been tweaked just enough to mess up an easy fit.

I also might try dismounting everything off the tailgate and opening it up. Taking the bolts off the tailgate latches that are squeezing the rear fenders together might give me enough "flex" to squeeze it in? If not, I'll tweak that panel a little bit. It looks to mount up real close to the back of the tail light housing and wires too, so a crease towards the front would give a bit of breathing room. Ill take a few photos and put them on my project page.

Thanks!

4x4M38 · Post by **4x4M38** » Sat May 14, 2016 7:12 am

Ron,
You might get some pointers from Bretto.

If you have to you could figure out how much room you have,
use a couple of pieces of angle clamped to your workbench
and re bend one side. Straighten one side first, then mark and
bend a new angle. Should not be too difficult as you won't be
bending right over where the original was. That's where you
can run into trouble.