Fender Guard size

[andrew7]

I am going to put SS guards on my rear fenders but don't want them to look too big. A rough measurement of length ,15" on the outside and 19" near the body. Its half way between elbow and shoulder across the fender. Does this sound about the right size?

[bsimon]

Assuming that the car is a Caterham, it's 15.5 inside and 12 outside on the starboard wing. The port wing is shorter and the angle is different. 13.5 inside X 11.5 outside.

[andrew7]

Thanks for the measurements Bob. My car is a scratch built not a Caterham. The fenders are suppose to be reproduction Lotus from Curtis Unlimited. I'll use your dimensions for reference, the smaller guard size might not cover most of my stone chips.

[scannon]

Andrew,

 

Have you considered having the appropriate area coated with Rhinoliner or its equivalent? I've seen several done that way and you can get protection right to the bottom of the wing.

 

My Caterham came with stainless steel stone guards and after 1,500 miles they were looking quite shabby. I had them covered with the Rhinoliner and reinstalled them. It looks a lot better but the area below the stone guards has lost almost all the paint after nearly 7,000 miles.

 

I also had the underside of all four wings coated with it to prevent star cracks from rocks being thrown up against the underside. I doubt all of it added 10 lb to the car.

[andrew7]

I checked out your car Skip and liked how it turned out. I have heard of guys using Rhinoliner and that may be an option down the road. My guards will lip under the fender edge and will be unpolished. Its a tough grade, .012" and a screwdriver won't go through it, plus only a couple ounces. I did about 300 miles last year so it will take a few years for the stone chips to turn it crappy.

[slomove]

If unpolished it may be O.K.

I put on new polished 40-mil 304-grade stainless sheets and after some 10k miles they did not look good anymore, especially on the passenger side where there is no exhaust can to shield from direct impact. The rocks leave a gazillion of small impact craters in the steel and with your thin sheets it may be worse. Also, the shields did not go around the curved edge of the fenders and I had some serious gel-coat damage there from larger rocks.

 

After a re-paint I considered Rhinoliner or some equivalent but since I had some 1/16" adhesive rubber sheet sitting there I put that on. Works pretty good so far and no polishing, only wipe-off and with tire spray it even gets shiny

 

Gert

[Dave W]

I gave up on polishing the fender spats after 3,000 miles. It was impossible to get them to shine. I then used a 220 flap wheel on the surface in a vertical pattern so they have an etch type surface. They now get cleaned with steel wool and bug-tar remover/polish. Only takes a minute or two to get them clean. The bottom inch of fender is cover with bedliner which has to be touched up on a regular bases. I just added some short mud flaps last year which did cut down the sand blast affect by about 50%.

Dave W

[paulmpetrun]

Andrew7

 

Hey how about using some of that material they make the clear car bra's from. A few friends have it on there cars, and the paint actually looks better with it than without. One of the guys drives the full length of RT22 and RT28 from McDonald up to Kittaning every day for work(you know what those roads are like in the winter). His Scion still looks like new. That stuff is very tough. I think 3M makes it and you can buy it in different widths/lengths. You would get all of the protection of the stone guards but keep the simple clean look of bare fenders.

Just a thought

Take care

Paul

[slomove]

Andrew7

 

Hey how about using some of that material they make the clear car bra's from.

 

I have that on the painted surfaces and it is great for protection from scratches, insects and small flying rocks. But the rear fenders are hit frequently by bigger rocks and similar debris picked up by the front wheel. The tough ClearBra or like paint protection films (only 6-8 mils thick) will probably survive but such a rock can anyway smash a ding into the gel coat below.

 

Gert

[SkinnyG]

Mine is done with spray-bomb bed liner. Maybe not show quality, but I built it to drive it. Don't mind the wee bit of mud and dead bugs. You can still see a few rock chips on the edge - I should probably tape a bit further around the curve and re-spray.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/skinnyg/BedLiner.jpg