Working on getting a set from the Asian manufacturer above to see what the quality level is. I'll keep you guys all posted.
FJ60/62 OEM Mudflaps (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter OGBeno
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Update on my post above: The rep for the company is not keen on providing a return policy. I'm glad he's confident in the quality of his parts, but if there is anything wrong with them, I want to be able to return them. At this point, I am not comfortable moving forward with them. When there is no return policy, the buyer, you know, the one that pays their hard earned money, is the one that needs to be confident, not the seller.
I'm going to keep looking since I do want some good mudflaps and am willing to put together a group buy if I can find a company that can manufacture a good set WITH a return policy.
I'm going to keep looking since I do want some good mudflaps and am willing to put together a group buy if I can find a company that can manufacture a good set WITH a return policy.
I was getting asked about this in my rear seat bumper thread (since I molded those). I keep thinking about it.
The problems I'm facing are:
1. The attachment point. Toyota has a strip of metal inset in the rubber casting. I would have to make two pieces of metal roughly the same shape and have them sandwich the new mudflaps on the outside. Not truly stock = likely to piss some people off. Sales lost. The good part is: metal NOT inside of rubber = less rust issues for that piece.
2. The mold I would make would need to be big, and I would need 4 molds since each flap is unique. $$$$$. s*** ain't cheap.
3. Product choice. Urethane is a great product and very durable, but I would be curious about it's resistance to wear and tear on the outside of a truck and close to the road. I want absolutely bulletproof or nothing at all. @cheeese made a comment about 18 months ago regarding urethane flaps - are you still around Mr. Cheeese?
4. For home production, I'd be doing one set at a time and it would be a big wazoo in my kitchen or back room workshop. Labor intensive = $$$$$
5. I can take homemade protos to a number of local injection molding or fab shops, but they're likely not going to want to make less than X number of them, where X is very high. I don't have the capital for that and am personally against the idea of using Kickstarter, et al, for myself. (No disrespect if that's something you've done - it's not for me for various reasons)
6. I can CAD the bracketry and have that made for a reasonable price. No problems there.
Point being - I'm somewhat confident that I could do this. I have a full time job, two kids, and daily drive a 60 so my free time is minimal at best, so this would take a while. Like a year maybe. And when I get to the end of the process I suspect I'd either have a homemade product (albeit of good quality) that I would have to charge WAY too much for, or I'd be faced with a cost of entry I can't afford for a manufacturing facility to make a big run.
Not sure what to do. Send help.
The problems I'm facing are:
1. The attachment point. Toyota has a strip of metal inset in the rubber casting. I would have to make two pieces of metal roughly the same shape and have them sandwich the new mudflaps on the outside. Not truly stock = likely to piss some people off. Sales lost. The good part is: metal NOT inside of rubber = less rust issues for that piece.
2. The mold I would make would need to be big, and I would need 4 molds since each flap is unique. $$$$$. s*** ain't cheap.
3. Product choice. Urethane is a great product and very durable, but I would be curious about it's resistance to wear and tear on the outside of a truck and close to the road. I want absolutely bulletproof or nothing at all. @cheeese made a comment about 18 months ago regarding urethane flaps - are you still around Mr. Cheeese?
4. For home production, I'd be doing one set at a time and it would be a big wazoo in my kitchen or back room workshop. Labor intensive = $$$$$
5. I can take homemade protos to a number of local injection molding or fab shops, but they're likely not going to want to make less than X number of them, where X is very high. I don't have the capital for that and am personally against the idea of using Kickstarter, et al, for myself. (No disrespect if that's something you've done - it's not for me for various reasons)
6. I can CAD the bracketry and have that made for a reasonable price. No problems there.
Point being - I'm somewhat confident that I could do this. I have a full time job, two kids, and daily drive a 60 so my free time is minimal at best, so this would take a while. Like a year maybe. And when I get to the end of the process I suspect I'd either have a homemade product (albeit of good quality) that I would have to charge WAY too much for, or I'd be faced with a cost of entry I can't afford for a manufacturing facility to make a big run.
Not sure what to do. Send help.
I also just want to make a straight line sort of bracket that attaches to the two original mounting holes, that way I can hang some of the classic/vintage square mudflaps off the bracket. Yosemite Sam, etc.
Yep, I'm still around. You're right on the MOQ being pretty high, it's generally due to the cost of tooling for injection molding or casting. One alternative is using cut/bent stainless that could place a flat urethane sheet in the right position, similar to Rallyarmor's vehicle specific flaps— it wouldn't be an OEM appearance but we could easily have the thick urethane sheet cut to shape and assembly is easy. I have their flaps on my car and it was a one banana install.
I can also CAD brackets if we want to prototype some thru an online service that will CNC and bend for us.
I can also CAD brackets if we want to prototype some thru an online service that will CNC and bend for us.
That's what I'm talking about with the "sheet" style mudflaps. See 18 wheelers for the same idea. I could CAD a one piece bracket that mounts to the original mud flap mounting holes. Easy peasy solution, but not OEM. Recreating OEM is a whole other thing. Do I want to finance $20k++ to do a huge run? Probably not. Would they sell pretty well? Yeah, but I'm too scared of interest petering out when I've sold 15% of the stock. Then I'm sitting on a garage stuffed with mud flaps and a pile of unpaid debt. I wonder what the actual interest is for these. I know us enthusiasts want them....
I guess my question for you is: modern "sheet" mudflaps are urethane? Do they have much bend or are they rigid? Do they last? Any photos of your car with the flaps? I think I know the Subie style you're talking about - I've seen WRX owners running big res or yellow sheet style flaps.
I've seen sheet mudflaps in rubber, vinyl, and plastic also, but I have the urethane rally style ones from Rallyarmor. They're either 3/16" or 1/4" thick and they have a good amount of flex to them, yet the material is stout enough to not deform plastically or go brittle. They provide some stainless CNC brackets brackets that you bend to shape to match your car which I think Mud folks would be more than capable of— the kit for my Mk7 Golf looks like this:
For the 60 series we'd need brackets that bolt into the fender and are able to cantilever out into the fender well space to support the short leg of the L shaped flap, ideally in a way that they don't trap water and debris like the OEM flaps.
For the 60 series we'd need brackets that bolt into the fender and are able to cantilever out into the fender well space to support the short leg of the L shaped flap, ideally in a way that they don't trap water and debris like the OEM flaps.
I'd be up for anything that is quality and not crazy expensive. I would even take up the helm to contact RallyArmor to see if they would be willing to make a 60-specific kit.
It's pretty hard to find any images showing how the hardware mounts since they're mostly for car applications, but here are some photos of their flaps on a Raptor. I'm not affiliated with them beyond buying their product for my car so I'm going off what I can find on the internet.
That's good enough for my liking. I contacted Rally Armor, and they indicated that they did not have plans for making these for the FJ60 Land Cruiser. I followed up, asking who I could speak to and get this idea on their list. I've also contacted a rubber manufacturer here in the US to see if they could potentially manufacture mud flaps as close to OEM as possible. This is not rocket science!
#CruiserTrash, I'd be interested in talking to you more about what you can do too, especially since you are local to me here in Denver.
Let's talk. PM me.
I will hopefully know more soon!
where did you order from? Link? I have been looking for those!I had always wanted to replace my old rear mudflaps on my 60 (ones that say "Land Cruiser" in the classic 60/7x series font) but was under the impression that they were discontinued new from Toyota.
For giggles, I searched the PN out and found out that they were available. A quick stroke of the old keyboard and a few days later they are in my hands.
They are nicely made with a nice adhesive strip where it mates with the lower rear quarter. They also come with all of the hardware and grommets to mount them with new stuff. Very cool.
They are uber sexy and it will be nice to replace the ones that are 28 years old.
Enjoy.
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Yep, without finding a new manufacturer, they can only be found used.
Yeah. I realized after I posted.
Mud guards
The long anticipated reproductions are finally available !! Mudguards for the 60 series without fender flares / over fenders. Only available per set. Includes all screws.
www.cruiserworld.eu
Work has been done by Maartin at Cruiser World. Challenge is the price. Gotta pay to play or re-fresh a used set if you want stock. Or modify something else to be "close".
@CruiserTrash would love to see you make a repo locally.
Those are beautiful but the logotype is the later 80 Series style unfortunately
Those are nice, and with the dollar at a 15 month high against the Euro, they would be about $769 at the moment. I'm considering them, but shipping can't be cheap.Mud guards
The long anticipated reproductions are finally available !! Mudguards for the 60 series without fender flares / over fenders. Only available per set. Includes all screws.
Work has been done by Maartin at Cruiser World. Challenge is the price. Gotta pay to play or re-fresh a used set if you want stock. Or modify something else to be "close".
@CruiserTrash would love to see you make a repo locally.
