Longbed Fleetside fender braces.

[geunther]

79 GMC, longbed, fleetside.

There are fender braces at the front of the wheel well openings, towards the bottom. It travels from the bottom, front corner of the wheel well to the inner wheel fender. They are basically a rod, with a flattened pad on each end with a hole for mounting. Ive attached a pic as an example of what they look like.

There are no braces at the rear of the wheel well. However; It appears as though there are factory accommodations for a rear brace. ie a tapped hole on the inner fender as well as a notch where the rod would have passed next to the inner fender. The notch matches the notch for the front brace.

As I think back I have never seen one on the rear of the opening. Does anyone know what the deal is. What it a discontinued carry over from an earlier year? I want to put some in but I can not find any so I plan on making some.

[geunther]

The picture

[Pop's C-10]

Making will be ya best bet money & pride wise that is..

[ray_mcavoy]

Hi geunther,

Dad's 77 GMC long fleetside has those rods you mentioned at the front of the wheel openings. But on the back, there are some heavy gauge sheetmetal plates bolted into those holes you mentioned. Sort of a combo reinforcement and mudflap type deal.

Here's an old pic with the bed floor removed. It doesn't show them real good (driver side one is a bit dark/shadowed and only part of the pass side one is visible).


I've never seen them on any other 73-87 truck so I'm not sure what the deal is with them. I'm guessing they might be part of the wood floor option that Grampa ordered on this truck.

[old Rusty C10]

im almost positive all my trucks have had them..i know my 82 does, on both the new and old beds

[geunther]

The tapped hole I spoke of is on those little "mud flaps". There are two holes, only one of which is tapped.

[BigRed76]

I have only seen them on one truck, a '77 which i took them off of at the junkyard. I liked them for the idea of the added support back there

[geunther]

Thanks so much for the info.
I would like to find a set but I can not find any for sale anywhere. I suppose I will have to go poke around a salvage yard but it sounds like they are few and far between. Ive attached a pic showing the threaded hole

[BigRed76]

yup that is definitly what that threaded hole is used for. the sheilds are held on with two bolts on top and that one on the side.

[1774btcrew]

I haven't ever noticed any trucks with them but I guess I haven't been looking! It makes total sense to have those as these trucks are know for broken spot welds in the wheelwheels. Guess I will be on the hunt for some of these as well!
Regards,
Jeff

[nerphin]

Mine didn't have them, and I thought it should, so I made some. The wheel well/tub even has a cut out under the bolt it attaches to:

[ray_mcavoy]

Nice job nerphin!

For those who are interested, the "mud flap" type braces I mentioned earlier are fairly easy to fabricate too. Here's a better pic of the old rusty ones off dad's truck.



When we restored the truck a few years ago, I made some replacements from 16ga sheetmetal. It was basically just a matter of cutting them to shape and puting a little offset bend at the top edge to clear the lip on the inner fender wells. The only thing I couldn't duplicate were those vertical ribs stamped into them since I don't have a bead roller. Here's a pic of one of the ones I made: