• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)

Fender beads

Share this page

TulsaFred

TulsaFred

Jedi Warrior
Offline
Who has removed/replaced the fender beading? Difficult? Tips?

I left mine in place and wire wheeled the crevices before primer. The thought of crud or rust under the bead is bothering me, but I don't know if my rudimentary skills can be counted on to get things back together if I pull off the bead (don't even know how to get off let alone put back.

I also see the beading is available, but what is the quality and fit?

Fred
 
I in years past have cut em off with an impact cutter then brazed the seam. Too much work that.
 
jlaird said:
I in years past have cut em off with an impact cutter then brazed the seam. Too much work that.
Click to expand...

On one fender with a 4 inch section of damaged bead, I cut the "|" part off the new bead and glued the top bit on with some JBWeld. Little bit of filler and it looked great.
 
Have a restoration article somewhere in which the guys doing the repair cut the vertical section off that normally fits between the panels then soldered the bead part on. Course they were doing lead fill work as well and I think a little more talented than the average body man of today. A lot more talented than I, thats for sure!

Kurt.
 
nomad said:
Have a restoration article somewhere in which the guys doing the repair cut the vertical section off that normally fits between the panels then soldered the bead part on. Course they were doing lead fill work as well and I think a little more talented than the average body man of today. A lot more talented than I, thats for sure!

Kurt.
Click to expand...

Short of doing this or grinding them off completely, the only other choice is to drill out all the spot welds in the fenders, remove the old beads, install new ones and weld the fenders back on. Time intensive if you do it yourself or prohibitively expensive if you're paying someone else. I had my tub chemically dipped, which removed all the nastiness under the beads, but I think environmental regs have stopped that process in most areas.
 
Scott_Hower said:
jlaird said:
I in years past have cut em off with an impact cutter then brazed the seam. Too much work that.
Click to expand...

On one fender with a 4 inch section of damaged bead, I cut the "|" part off the new bead and glued the top bit on with some JBWeld. Little bit of filler and it looked great.
Click to expand...

There is a metatl to metal glue that is design to hold body panels together that would do this nicely. 2 part glue shot from a type of glue gun. can be purchased at professional body paint supply houses.
 
mightymidget said:
There is a metatl to metal glue that is design to hold body panels together that would do this nicely. 2 part glue shot from a type of glue gun. can be purchased at professional body paint supply houses.
Click to expand...

The hardest part of this repair (hack?) was cutting the un-needed strip from the bottom of the bead without damaging the detail on the top.
 
Oh, so this is a separate piece? I never investigated but I assumed it was the result of the fender edge being rolled into the body edge. Duh...

Do people have problems with paint cracking at the edge of the bead? it is something that has me worried about the upcoming resto.
 
Noop, no cracking.
 
From the factory, though, it appears they worked some filler or putty under them. This is evident if someone stripped and refinished a car and did not work putty back under them!

Kurt.
 
From the factory i beleive all seams had seam filler in them, we use 3M now days.
 
Back
Top