Splash Guard?

[Lucky'57]

Hello all, hope you had a good Xmas. Quick question for you, I'm fixing to change out the bushings and ball joints on my control arms. The book says to remove the splash guards prior. I don't see any splash guards, are they talking about the inner fender? If it is the inner fender, do I need to pull the front fenders off to get to the inners? How tough is it to work on the control arms without removing fenders? Got a hoist and looks like easy access.

PS - How many silly questions am I allowed? 

[jumping jack flash]

Lucky 57 , Originally your 57  Ford was fitted with a tough rubber shield that is stapled to the inner fender. That is a splash guard. Most have been rotted away for decades, but are available if you are so inclined to replace them.The rubber guards were placed in several places along the near contact areas of the inner fender and the frame. Since yours have been most likely rotted away , you may now proceed to the next step. I have replaced entire front suspensions and never touched the inner fender.

[Lucky'57]

Well, that's a goldang relief, I just couldn't see myself pulling the inner's without pulling the outers, grill, etc. etc.

Thanks a million.

Lucky57 (Ron)

[Ecode70D]

Lucky 57 , Originally your 57  Ford was fitted with a tough rubber shield that is stapled to the inner fender. . I have replaced entire front suspensions and never touched the inner fender.

   I agree completely.  I too have never had to remove the inner fenders when working on the front suspension. 

[Jeff Norwell]

I still have all rubber splash guards.All in great shape,still very pliable.My Question is this.How the heck to you re-staple that back onto the inner fender?
And what kind of industrial stapler would one use?

[jumping jack flash]

I don't know , Jeff. If you find out let me know too. Right now I use a minature set of needle nose pliers, with mixed results. The splash guard at the rear bumper is the hardest one for me. I wind up removing the bumper to do it. The staples are stainless and always left behind after the rubber parts are long gone.

[RICH MUISE]

We've had several threads running on the stappling in the past. No one knows for sure, I think at one point someone was going to contact a person that actually worked in the production lines in the 50's.
The patterns for the stapling seem to be random, so the best guess is they had some kind of elaborate stappling machines that did one stapple at a time. If you were going to build millions of cars, you sure would fork up some money for specialized equiptment (and  staples). Not likely your gonna find one of those staplers at a swap meet.

[lalessi1]

The staple question is right next to "what is the meaning of life" in my book...how and why?

[Zapato]

How many silly questions am I allowed? 

Lucky you haven't even scratched the surface yet............. keep them coming.

Zap-

[Jeff Norwell]

I imagine it was a heavy duty industrial Staple gun,the forefather to the nail gun.Possibly an outfit like Minters would know.I just find it fascinating it had the power to drive staples through an inner fender or a rear tail pan.

[jumping jack flash]

Staple gun, humph! you could just screw it.

[hiball3985]

Mine are missing and if I ever decide to replace I'll probably use pop rivets..

[RICH MUISE]

I think mine are just going to stay missing.

[Ecode70D]

When I had my car apart, I just removed them along with the staples and am not going to worry about them. 

[lalessi1]

Splash guards actually served a purpose in rainy climates. Back when distributors still had points it was easy to kill a car by going too fast through a "puddle". I can't tell you how many times I had to dry out the distributor to get my car started again. It was a common experience around here "in the day".