Here we go with a long overdue update. Sorry it’s took so long, but I have been really busy and have not had much garage time over the summer months. Still here we go with the front mud guards which have been a real pain in the ass to be fair and not very enjoyable to fabricate. I started off with the fibreglass shells which as you can see pictured here, are far too big in regards to their radius. I spaced the guard off the tyre simply by using a roll of masking tape which sits the guard off the tyre by about 36mm. I kept the leading edge at around the one o'clock position and intend to cut/trim the rear of the arch around the nine o’clock position, to create a smaller but better looking arch for the front tyres. The fixing brackets are literally just some flat bar that I slowly bent and manipulated to suit the position of the mud guard. This is a very very tedious process as it’s important that the arch is held firmly and securely and keeping the arch sitting evenly and following the radius curve of the tyre.
The main fixing point is a bracket I fabricated out of some 4mm steel that will bolt onto the front stub axle. This then creates a solid fixing point for the two arm brackets to support the arch. I can’t fix the arch on or anywhere near the front suspension arms as I need to allow the suspension to travel and the wheels to turn without voiding on any of the brackets so onto the back of the stub axle is perfect as it will then allow the arch to travel and turn independent to the suspension. This bracket is a great solid point to work from, so I’m relatively happy with this bit, one for each side so now onto the bracket arms.
The first support bracket was bent and manipulated to suit how I wanted the arch to sit. I temporarily clamped it onto the stub axle bracket before I drilled through two m8 fixing bolts. This took a really long time to get a good fitting and lots of careful measurements took place to keep the arch sitting evenly around the tyre. But once I was happy with the front bracket I drilled through the arch into the bracket and used a slice of rubber hose to act as a spacer/shock absorber on the arch. I used some nice hex head flange bolts that hold it all together with a penny washer and nylock nut on the underside keeping it off the tyre tread and should offer a little more resistance to the road vibration that will be a constant issue for these arches…. Time will tell if they will hold up. The rear support bracket was bent and manipulated in the same fashion as the front but has considerably more angle to it compared to the front one. I added a strengthening section of steel on this bracket which was welded into place and had massively reduced the amount of wobble in the whole setup. I think I need to add a further support between the front and rear bracket also to help with the potential wobble as I don’t want to be replacing or repairing after every road trip.
So with one side pretty much sorted I had to replicate the process for the other. To be fair this was a tad easier because the stub axle bracket was exactly the same as were the arch brackets just facing the opposite direction. I removed the first set and replicated again using flat bar steel with the angles they were bent too. And after a mock fitting using clamps the second arch was sitting in a very similar and uniform position to the first…. Which was nice. I did have to make some adjustments to get it perfect for me, but once done it was drilled and bolted into place same as the first one.
I haven’t really enjoyed making these front arches and so I’m glad to have got to a point I can just fine tune them now. I’m going to have to restrict the steering rack as the now mounted mud guards/arches will void the body tub slightly and possibly on the headlights if travelling through suspension movement, I’m hoping to get this to an acceptable turning rake without compromising the drivability of the car… two possible solution would be to create a cutout in the body to accommodate the edge of the arch on full lock, or secondly just remove the arches altogether and run without them…. I’ll see how I get on and act accordingly later down the line.
I’ll finish this update with a full video walk around of the car so far. It’s daunting how much more there is to do in order to get finished, but tremendous to sit back and look at the achievements so far…. So much work and commitment has gone into it all so far, and much more still to come.
