Ruining a perfectly good fender...

With the spare tire mount to a point at which an actually tire can be mounted, its time to cut the fender...

I started by drawing an arc 1/2 the diameter of the tire from the center of the mount onto the fender to get the outer profile.  The inner profile was mostly just a guess...

A bit tight, but the shape is correct...

The patch panel was started by first stretching the center with a mallet and a sandbag.

Next, the edges were shrunk using the pullmax and thumnail dies...

It was then smoothed out in the English wheel.

This process was repeated several times until finally it was fairly close to fitting the hole...

At this point, the panel was trimmed and the edges were rolled to fit the contour of the fender.  This was done by hand with a combination of several different hammers and dollies.

 The fender was then marked to the panel and cut so that it could be butt welded in.

Getting close on the '49...

Well, after a crazy holiday season filled with in-laws and several illnesses, things are finally getting back to normal.  Progress is once again being made on the GMC.

The front suspension is completely welded in and done.  The inner fenders had to be modified a bit to clear the spring towers as well as something had to be done with the large hole left for the original steering box.

It's really starting to look like something when the sheet metal came be put back on...

The final part for this project is mounting a spare tire.  Since the original mounts are virtually impossible to find and that the angled bed sides had the tires mounted underneath, it's just easier to make a mount.  Plus, this allows for a larger tire.

With the mount made, it's time to start cutting on the fender...