Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Fender work on the 550

I said screw it tonight and decided to get on the rear fender. It's holding the whole show up for finishing the rear end. Like I said, the radius of the fender was too big for the size of the tire I have. It was even kinda big for a big fat Avon Mark II rear.

Forgot to take a before shot, but this photo works. You can see the gap near the bottom


Just drew out my radius on a piece of cardboard.


Then drew the radius of the tire. It needs to come in about an 1 1/4"

Made about a total of 4 slices on each side with just a cutting wheel.

Some stretchy tape helped pull it in. Measured both edges, everything was still squared up.


I used the tig and tacked the edges first.


Looks good to me, weld it up!


All welded up. I started from the inside of the slices and worked my way to the edge. I was welding on the outside of the fender and I noticed it was starting to pull outward, back to its original radius! I decided to then finish my welds on the inside of the fender and it pulled right back to where I needed it. I was expecting shrinkage but not for it to shrink outwards.


I grinded the welds down and then used an orbital sander to clean everything up.




Looks good to me. Just those 4 slices on each side pulled the fender in exactly an 1 1/4". The cuts and welding were subtle enough the overall radius isn't disrupted. The sisybar is next.

5 comments:

  1. hey capt - fender looks real good. the whole roller looks really good. nice work. i love these insights into a work in progress.

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  2. Thanks! glad someone enjoys all the details I'm posting about this bike. This is actually my first ground up chop. Everything else Ive built has been someone's left over project or I'm just making subtle changes. This bike is going to have a lot of one of parts when finished.

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  3. Capt, you have mad skills with metal and art! Always enjoy your posts!

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