Quality Repo Rear Fender

[hdrl1935]

I asked this on FHP site also:

I've given up on fixing the early 45" rear fender from 45 restoration. $450 down the drain for this turd. http://www.45restoration.com/45resto...uct_id=3710-35 Long story short, it's a POS, and I lack any sheetmetal skills or patience.

So, I'm looking to buy a QUALITY, 3 piece, later 45 rear fender, and weld the taillight shroud on it to make an early fender.

Does anyone have any suggestions on where to obtain a QUALITY rear fender. I want to bolt it in without dicking around with anything. Is this too much to ask?

Please advise.

[Ohio-Rider]

This can be a tough hobby for anyone without much patience. You can survive this hobby without deep pockets but attempting it without patience will surely drive you mad at some point.

There must be one of those fenders you need laying around someplace on this earth. The fun part is trying to finding it. Good Luck.

[hdrl1935]

I have patience and love motor/tranny work. It is more an exact science if you will. Sheetmetal work is beyond me, and I have great respect for the people that can do it well. For me, looking at a totally screwed up fender that is twisted, hinged section is on crooked when bolted together, brace on backwards, etc..........I don't even know where to begin.

Give me a block of steel, and a print, and I feel at home.

[Ohio-Rider]

Amen to that brother. I'd much rather cut a piece of steel than try to mold it to my liking. I don't have that sheetmetal magic touch either. Those guys are amazing. But can they bake a cherry pie?

[hdrl1935]

But can they bake a cherry pie?

Probably not, but neither can I!

[exeric]

That's funny because I'm the opposite. I hate motor work . . . . I was going to say I love sheet metal work, but that is not true. I don't hate it but I'm not real fond of it. I think I'm very good at it but it is murder sometimes. What I like about it is the end result, which is very dramatic and in turn, self satisfying. Sheet metal work is a life long learning process and even on his deathbed, a 99 year old sheet metal worker is probably wondering how they formed that bend in the siderail of his hospital bed. I have learned that there many secrets but seldom shortcuts to forming sheet metal. Motor work is something I leave to the end of a project because I just hate it. I do my own bottom ends because it's fundemental machine work and I work cheap. Top ends I leave to the experts because that's where the voodoo is.

[Paps]

I've re shaped those repop fenders and it is a pain to do it. The first thing I learned about them is.....gring the rivets off and separste every dang component. Start the rework with the skin. Blocks of wood, shaped to finish dimensions are a plus for gauging. Other blocks of wood, shaped for beating are the begining tools. Patince is mandatory though. Without patience one will loose temper and beat it up worse than it already was. Each blow of the mallet needs thjought out in advance, Beat, gauge, measure...over and over and over, untill the skin is correct. Then come the braces. I welded up a jig, made from angle iron. Angle iron from an old bunk bed. I fabbed it to the finished width of the braces, when mounted to a bike. I recorded the bends and bend dimensions, just in case I found myself doing others. AND I DID FIND MYSELF DOING OTHERS ! Shaping the braces to correctness is much easier than the skin, but never the less, those take patience as well. Once I got the skin and braces correct, then comes the re- riveting. I use oem rivets in place of the incorrectly produced large headed repop rivets. Assembly is not always easy either. Sometimes the repop holes are a bit off and I have to correct those as well. Paps

[Ohio-Rider]

Yep, Thats the patience I just don't have. All my attempts at doing sheet metal work ended up with me putting band-aids on.

[Paps]

I just re read my post and noticed all the spelling errors in it. I put it up as fast as I could because the site times me out when I one finger type. Yeah ...I know....I could have used a spell checker or even typed it in a word program, before posting, but this is where my patience wears thin.

[mootch]

45 Rear Fender

BOUGHT A JOBBER FROM EBAY,RADIUS WAS WRONG......I DECIDED TO BUY ONE FROM A COMPANY IN THE U.S. FIGURING IT WOULD BE BETTER,IT WASN'T,THE RADIUS WAS JUST AS BAD........I AM NOW LOOKING AT THE 45 PARTS DEPOT....
ANYONE KNOW IF THAT ONE WILL FIT PROPERLY...
I WOULD APPRECIATE ANY HELP ON THIS..........
OR IF ANYONE IS WILLING TO SELL ME AN ORIGINAL....THANX,Mooch

[exeric]

Which radius are you referring to Mootch? The fenders I've worked with are the cheap ebay items and I've compared them to genuine fenders and found them to be quite good. By good, I mean they are close enough to work with. However, it's a ton of work and as Paps said, you have to dis-assemble the stays from the skins and do a lot of fitting. Of coarse all the rivets need to be replaced, the hinge needs to be re-worked, the skirt bead is all over the place, and the stays are the wrong width and by the time you're done you would have been better off buying an overpriced original. . . . Other than that, they're great.

[Chris Haynes]

As far as I know all the companies sell the same fender.

[mootch]

Which radius are you referring to Mootch? The fenders I've worked with are the cheap ebay items and I've compared them to genuine fenders and found them to be quite good. By good, I mean they are close enough to work with. However, it's a ton of work and as Paps said, you have to dis-assemble the stays from the skins and do a lot of fitting. Of coarse all the rivets need to be replaced, the hinge needs to be re-worked, the skirt bead is all over the place, and the stays are the wrong width and by the time you're done you would have been better off buying an overpriced original. . . . Other than that, they're great.

.........................
when i bolt the fender on the frame with the wheel on the bike,first off,if i attach the rear straps on,it sorta kinks out towards the rear too much & also when looking at the bike from a distance,the radius line of the fender does not match the radius of the wheel either..........

[exeric]

I think the worst part of those fenders is the hinge area. They will not fit right "as is". The following are problems I found and had to fix:

The hinged fender piece is too wide and needs to be sectioned to match the main fender.

When the fender is closed and bolted together, the fender "crabs" and doesn't look right, (the radius problem). I fixed this by replacing the fender stays which are the wrong width and have to be replaced, (original is 7/8"). When you make the new stays, you can make them exactly the right length so the fender doesn't bind or twist.

When you get that right, you have to work on the interface where the two fender sections come together, (i.e. when the fender is bolted closed). I used body lead in this area because it's a stress area when the fender is opened and closed. You could use Bondo here but it could very well crack if you're not careful.

I know this is a simple explanation but it should all be obvious when you get into it. There are also the other things I mentioned if you want to make the fender look like an original. These fenders have to be regarded as a "kit". Their biggest advantage is; the shape is close, and they aren't rusted out. I've worked with a lot of original fenders that are much worse than these reproductions.

There is an excellent thread on this forum about these fenders. Lots of pictures and in depth explanations about the fender stays, rivets, and hinge. I think it's in the Knucklehead catagory.

[Steve Slocombe]

I think Tom Feeser at Replicant has just started making the 45 fenders, and good luck to him for taking this on. He's an AMCA member so you should have the expectation of a decent job.