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Meet the Legends of Hot Rodding at the Triple Crown of Rodding

August 27, 2025

Those who know Ottawa, Kansas Roger Ward are almost certainly aware of his dry wit, his candid demeanor and his unique ability to create understated cars, one after the other. His talent in applying the most understated details to relatively unsung vehicles provides a lesson for us all that the best way to make a strong statement is to say as little as possible and do it your own way.

While his daily duties revolved around reworked body panels and refining those efforts with a paint gun, his lifelong hobby has focused those skills on a series of cars that exudes the same laid-back character which can be enjoyed in this extremely subtle, yet equally eye-?catching, 64 short-wheelbase Chevy pickup. As with so many trucks of this era, previous owners didn’t worry too much about retaining its pristine originality. Dented and rusty, this truck had been through the proverbial ringer, which made this conversion that much more difficult to achieve. Then again, Ward’s particular talents have made a great deal out of lesser vehicles, so this would simply be another test of his talents and another example of the skills he wields.

The Cold Facts

Typically, winter isn’t the time of year when we are thinking about a car’s air-conditioning system…or is it? It’s understandable that we would tend to think about “fixing” the A/C during the dog days of summer, July or August, but once the car is put up for the winter, those hot and humid days are often forgotten. And short of those comfortable windows-down driving months, when we first pull out the car again for the next season, it’s smart to think about giving the A/C system the attention it needs. So, we think this is a great time to present to you troubleshooting highlights so that you can rip into the car and upgrade the necessary areas before the cycle continues.

MORE THAN A CAMEO

Gil Palmer just loves cars, trucks, and motorcycles. He’s owned more than 100 miscellaneous cars, ranging from ’40 Fords to ’55 Chevys to a ’70 Monte Carlo. He’s owned a few pickups, too, and this one originally came to him as the bonus gift, so to speak, in a trade of his ’32 Ford Cobo Hall winner for a motorcycle at the Detroit Autorama. The ’57 Cameo that he received in the trade had an entire ’55 front end on it, and because of that, everyone thinks it’s a ’55. But this truck was in pretty sad shape when it arrived at Palmer’s Southern California home. Just picture this one item in your mind for a minute, and you’ll get the gist of the kind of shape the truck was in: There was a hand-painted (we’re talking 4-inch-wide brush, here) Chevy Bow Tie on the tailgate. The 10:1 compression supercharged engine would overheat in a matter of a few blocks.

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Installation Tips For Those Tough Spots

Installing Fender Welting on pre-1948 Autos

Author

Dave Hill

Story & Photography

What Fender Welting Is and Why It Exists

Most every pre-’48 car came with fender/body welting, consisting of a simple combination of a narrow strip of vinyl (or similar material) folded over a small-diameter woven cord and glued shut. Its purpose was, and still is, to insulate one piece of body metal from another when bolted together—not an electrical or temperature insulation, but essentially to eliminate squeaks and rattles, and to prevent paint from chipping (or cracking) as the two pieces flexed and vibrated together under normal road use. Generally referred to as fender welting, this product can also be found throughout certain car models; used to mount grilles, running boards and bumper gravel shields.

Why Fender Welting Was Standard Equipment

That was how it was done years ago, and unless the car has special body panel fitting or these pieces are molded in, you will find it still in use today. We use the stuff mainly because our cars still need it, but also because it does the job. As far as we know, nobody ever came up with a better way to do it.

People still ask about the pre-’48 cutoff for street rods, but the answer is simple: 1949 was the year of “The Big Change” in automotive design, and it wasn’t just in looks. The new cars had no running boards and used welded-on rear fenders and isolation-mounted front fenders. The new-envelope body design extended the front fenders past the cowl and back to the front door edge. No more body part bolted joints meant no more welting. Thousands of welting folders, gluers and rollers were out of work.

Fender Welting in Street Rod Construction

You’ve seen street rods without fender welting. Sometime back in the last century, street rod building pioneers such as John Buttera and Boyd Coddington declared war on such trivial detractions. We don’t have any direct input on the results of those metal-to-metal joints, but it’s a fair bet that few of those cars saw many road miles, and they most certainly required many metal finishing hours to get those parts fitting just so.

Modern Fender Welting Options and Improvements

But today you’ll find all sorts of varied solutions, and even welting hasn’t changed all that much. You will find it in different types of fabrics, even rubber, and it is available in many colors, including chrome. If they don’t make your color, your upholstery shop can make it for you in any material and color imaginable.

Thinking now about why it hasn’t really changed over the years, we’ve concluded that in certain applications one might benefit if manufacturers were to add a thin strip of peel-and-stick adhesive to one side of it. Look at the accompanying photos and you’ll understand why we mention this.

1. On our example here, we had the rear fenders and running boards welded to the body, leaving only this joint between the front fenders and the cowl in need of fender welting. The paintwork is finished and the front clip is in place. We unbolted the fenders from the cowl one at a time in order to install the welting.

2. Looking inside the passenger door under the dash, you can see the mounting holes for the right front fender. Removing the bolts will allow you to pull the fender away from the cowl.

3. This is the view straight up under the passenger’s-side front fender showing the interface between the two. The flange on the fender (left) comes wavy from the factory. This is where the flap on the welting will come through. The white streaks are from color sanding and are still there.

4. We just happened to have a spare set of fenders (this is a driver’s side), and will use them to show how to cut and form the welting. Cut an extra-long strip and start at the top. If you can remember to make up your welting before you mount the fenders, you will be better off.

5. You can really see the wobble in the mounting flange here, especially in the shadow. We were tempted to hammer and dolly it out, but if Ford didn’t mind, why should we? Besides, there’s a good chance that you’ll distort the fender’s shape. Note the opening cut for a bolt and the slits made for the bend. Try not to cut right up to the cord, as that would allow water to get to it more easily.

6. Using masking tape, we started placing the welting with the bead right against the fender’s top surface. The trick here is to use a heat gun (yes, you can use the hair dryer if she’s not home) to form the bends. Hold the curve and remove the heat. When it cools the vinyl will hold the shape fairly closely.

7. This is about the tightest you can bend the welting with the help of the heat gun. Still, there are going to be small wrinkles.

8. Note the slit cuts for this outside bend. Look closely and you’ll see there are three thicknesses of material stacked up there. This will cause big problems with the installation of the welting, and it won’t allow a tight fit between the fender and the cowl.

9. Here you can see where we cut wedges out of the slit cuts to prevent stacking. This is pretty much our final shape.

10. With the shaped welting taped firmly in place, apply a medium heat uniformly over the whole length. Let it cool completely (about 30 minutes) and then untape it. You’ve got yourself a permanently formed fender welting, custom made just for your car, and you did it yourself. If you were smart enough to do this before mounting your fenders, this would be the perfect time to glue the welting to the fender.

11. You can see how pre-forming the welting is going to make the installation much easier, as well as ensure a perfect fit. If you’ve ever tried putting it in right off the roll, you know what we mean.

12. We very carefully applied weatherstrip adhesive to the fender side of the welting, set it in place and spent the next half hour moving up and down the length pressing it into position. Having welting with a pre-glued strip would greatly simplify this process.