Making the wrong fender flare work (1 Viewer)

[Rubiclone]

I bought my cruiser almost 8 years ago now with a broken front fender flare. At the time of my engine transplant I had a new fender flare painted to color match the truck. I have been too lazy (and did not have the fender flare gasket) to swap them out. 7 years later, shipping the fender flare to PEI and back, adding scratches to the new paint I finally got around to installing it. The old flare was easy to take off but low and behold, the new flare I have been carrying around for so long is the wrong mount style. Looks like my fender was fastened, the new fender seemed to be installed with clips. Only one clip was in the wrong spot so I went about making a new stand off post.

First up was marking out where the stud is supposed to be, to do this I used a string and two pens, with one pen in the known hole, I marked the distance on the new fender, I referenced the stud from the other three mounting studs to find an estimated location of the stud on the new flare.

This is the resulting stud location.

Using plasticine I made a post, using a drill bit to show the center mark on the fender.

 

[Rubiclone]

I then took the fender out to the truck, and pressed the flare against the truck using threaded fasteners in the holes that were good. This will leave an imprint exactly where I need the new stud.

As you can see my initial estimate was a little bit off. I used a center punch to mark the true center of where the stud needed to be.

I then removed the marking plasticine, prepped the are a with 90 grit sand paper along with oil and grease remover.

I then used a paint marker as a mold as this is roughly the diameter of the resulting post. The trick is to flare out the bottom to give a good foot print for the epoxy to bond to the fender.

Then I centered this mold on the mark I made on the fender, using a small drill bit I added to vent holes to allow air to escape when pouring in the epoxy, this was added on the bottom and the top of the skirt.

 

[Rubiclone]

Of course this will result in epoxy running out so I got two small plugs ready to fill the holes once all the air has escaped.

Next I mixed up the epoxy and poured in the first half. I did not do everything in one pour so that it would help some of the air escape. Once the epoxy was coming out of the vent holes I installed the plugs.

Finished off the pour and will be letting it sit for 24 hrs before removing the plasticine. The tower is most likely a little high so I will be cutting it down after it has hardened. I will then use the old mounting screws (they have wood screw thread on one end and machine thread on the other) and a pre-drilled hole to add the threaded stud into the right location.

Currently the epoxy is curing at room temperature and I will know tomorrow if this works or if I just made a huge mess.

 

[Box Rocket]

I love Play-Doh

 

[Rusty Marlin]

When trying to get the air bubbles out of epoxy potting I hold a vibrating scriber against the part, and the bubbles come rough up. No need for vent holes.

 

[landtank]

not the same but similar situation with my truck.

I had both front fenders replaced and painted. I sourced used ones and were told they were for a 1995. Well one was for a 94 and the drilled holes didn't match the 95 painted flare.

Went to home depot and bought some cabinet door cushions that were sticky on one side and carpet on the other.

Two holes did align , the one on the top (12:00) and the one at the rear at the rocker panel.

I stuck the cushions on the flares at the bolt mounts and painted them white. I them bolted the flare near the rocker and then pressed the flare against the fender using the 12:00 bolt as a guide.

This left nice round white paint marks where the fender needed to be drilled.