TECH- Mounting A Rear Fender- Brought To You By Back Porch Choppers

[LinkBelt]

Hey guys, I know it's been a while since I've posted a Tech article due to working out of town.
Rear fender mounting is what this article will discuss. A common problem with mounting and unmounting a rear fender is having to remove the rear tire, I wanted to get around this problem where I could install and remove the fender without touching the rear wheel. After a while of brain storming I found my way out of the box and came up with a plan.
I started with a Led Sleds Customs Mohawk fender. . .
This fender is amazingly well made with heavy guage steel and a high peak down the center.
Well my Idea was to cut out two small sections of the ridge and weld in these threaded bungs allowing me to weld some tabs to the cross tubes of the frame and use rubber mounts much like the way I did in my fuel tank article.
This tech article isn't complete yet again due to working out of town so consider this part 1. Here is a pic of the fender with the two bungs welded that we discussed today. . Part 2 of this article will go over tab placement and rubber mounting, also look for two more threaded bungs to be welded to this fender, ridged sissy bar mod, chain relief, tail light mod, and p-pad mounting before this article is finished. Thanks for all of your patients while I make a paycheck. I will keep doing tech articles for you guys as time allows. Keep on choppen grease balls.

[LinkBelt]

So part 2, Here we go. Started off the day with the 1/4" plastic shims that I previously used in my fender radius article and zip tied them to the rear tire. There are 4 shims in two places holding a 1/2 clearance between tire and fender.. After that I decided while I had the wheel off I'd drill some holes in the axle plates for some bungs to secure my sissy bar. There where already some 1/4" holes there so they were used as pilot holes for the hole saw bit.. After the hole was drilled I inserted the bungs. . So now with the shims on the wheel, the wheel goes back on, the fender rest on top of the shims thus allowing you to pin point placement of the tabs. I'll have pics of that tomorrow.

[LinkBelt]

Now working on the rear mounts of the fender, I started with this sissy bar possibly from No School. . First thing I did was cut out the cross brace, it wouldn't work with this fender.. Next I cut the legs off in the bend and cut the flat tabs off.. . Then I welded some counter sunk bungs to each end. .

[LinkBelt]

And as of now I have a set of square fender struts. . Next I fit the struts up to the fender and welded up the bungs so that my fender now has four mounting points.. . I'll finish this up tomorrow with more pics.

[LinkBelt]

Well guys, I screwed the pouch on this one. I welded the bungs way to far back on the fender. My logic was to angle the struts to the same angle as the Springer and weld the sissy bar to the same angle as the handle bars. The reason it isn't going to work like that is it puts the sissy bar to far back and it interferes with my tail light and tag mount as well as the break arm. So this morning I spent cutting off the bungs so I can relocate them. Lesson learned, tack everything till full moch up is done.

[LinkBelt]

Back on track now, First thing I did was cut yesterdays fuck up off and clean it up. Then I got the holes drilled for my puss pad and tail light. I know it doesn't sound like all that much work but it is actually with this fender. Special attention has to be taken in the measurements because of the ridge. The puss pad is plyable so I used a seamstress tape and measured from center hole to center hole and then devibed that by two, measured that number to each side of the peak, drilled my holes and mounted the puss pad. The sparto tail light was a little more time consuming. I took a triangle file and filed a groove in the bottom to fit over the ridge then mounted it. Now that that was done I could get a better Idea of where to put the sissy bar bungs. and weld them in.

[LinkBelt]

Next was to cut a chain relief. I marked 2" in, in several spots then much like a pin stripier but with a sharply I followed the radius connecting my marks. Then I took a cut off wheel and cut it out. . Time to mount it all up and get final fit.

[LinkBelt]

For final fit I used rubber gromlets in the mounting tabs and rubber washers between the strut and fender. . . . . .

[LinkBelt]

Here is how she sits at this point. . I still have a little work to do to the sissy bar itself before welding it to the struts. Hopefully have that done pretty quick.

[LinkBelt]

Alright, sissy bar is all tacked together. I'll have to weld it up later, but my fender mounting tech article is finished. I had to split the top of the sissy bar and widen the bottom a little.

[vnygra]

Looks good man.

[LinkBelt]

Thanks man.