So you are saying remove the brace entirely and just weld up the holes, right? No need for the brace to keep the fender more rigid?
That's what I did, but you need to make sure the rear brace is there. I watched an AD truck enter the freeway and the back of the fender fluttered back and forth a couple inches without the rear brace.
Was thinking about welting on the fenders as I think it gives a cleaner look
Here's mine. Found some automotive vinyl that matched the color pretty well and had them sewn up at an upholstery shop
Good comment on the spot welds. Was thinking about leaving them as they fit the style of the truck.
I spot welded my tubs to the MarK bedsides to reduce the warpage as much as I could, then used seam sealer to make a fillet between the tub and the bed. Here's a foto of mine. I used polished carriage bolts to mount the fenders. You can also see my screw-up where the tub flange partially covered one of the bed wood bolts
dsraven said
use some sort of home made spreader bar on he back side for the fender attachment bolts in order to avoid some of the waves that may come when tightening the bolts
Because I didn't pay enough attention to the fit-up of my front fenders to the body, this is exactly what I had to do - even with welt you could see the gap was wider in one place. I made some 1/4" plates to distribute the load and pull the flanges together, it worked, but was a PITA
I haven't been using guide coat for the filler.
I can't get a panel flat and straight without it. "Bad Chad" on Youtube has some good video on how to use Featherfill, guide coat and block sanding to get a panel straight. He's kind of a hack with mechanical things and his mannerisms drive me nuts, but his bodywork videos makes good points (but maybe that's just because that's the way I do it too) YMMV