Steps to Make a Wheel Arch / Mudguard

[JonnyAlpha]

Hi;

I would like to make two of these:

Or at least most of it, to repair the rear mudguards on my Mini. Non genuine ones are available, cheapest from Ebay for £28.50, however I would like to give it a go.

I made part of one the other day and could roughly follow the same steps but would like some advice on the method.

Should I make the folds along the circumference on a flat piece of sheet metal before forming the radius of the curve (The curve that follows the circumference of the wheel.

The side you can see in the pic has two folds one down and one up, the outer edge spot welds to the rear wheel arch, the opposite edge only has one fold which spot welds to the inner body of the mini, the Rear Shock Mounting inside the boot and the rear passenger area.

I guess there are several ways to form this, either in two or three pieces and weld them together or fabricate one piece with several cuts along the folded edges and weld together to form the radius or the pro way and form it complete from one piece?

Any thoughts

 

[piman]

Hello Jonny,

I'm assuming you have little in the way of equipment? A shrinker would be the easiest way but they are not cheap if it's only for one job?
The folds make it an awkward shape to fabricate, and if you fold first you'll have a terrible job trying to form the curve. Fabricating in sections is possible but very long winded.

Personally I would buy the sections on e-bay.

Alec

 

[hotrodder]

Without some serious shrinking kit it would be probably be faster to make in two pieces than from one. The return 'fold down' on the back of the pic is within the realms of the small/cheap* shrinkers & stretchers but they have a very limited throat depth (typically 1.25" if that) so really are kinda limited to shrinking returns/flanges.

Tuck shrinking (a search of the forum will find several threads with links to vids) could be used to form the area highlighted in red, either by itself or in combination with a shrinker. Once that's done the return lip highlighted green needs stretching

It's been posted before but kinda relevant as it's how i'd go about making that Mini arch to avoid a bunch of tuck shrinking (unless the repros are OK in which case i'd buy 'em)... http://www.gartrac.com/fabrication/gaswelding.htm Note that they turned the corner for a butt weld rather than an outside corner joint. Less distortion and easier to finish. They probably made the 'bend up' flange using a jenny swage/bead roller with tipping dies which is a great way to make 'curved bends' or at least start them off neatly. Same thing can be accomplished with a pair of smooth jaw pliers, hammer n dolly and patience if a jenny isn't to hand. More detail on tipping a flange here... http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/shrinker-stretcher.27284/#post-298206

Personally i'd use a jenny and slip rolls to make that arch using hammers and dollies for fine tuning. If i was using a shrinker i'd fold the returns on the radiused section first and then shrink them to curve it. The outer lip is a curved fold line however you look at it

* relatively speaking, can still buy a lot of wheelarches at £28 a pop for what they cost

 

[lshigham]

Genuine ones are only £34, it's not worth the hassle.

 

[lordsamaels]

sometimes im thinking time to money way. if you going to spend more than half a day for these parts (£28x2), than do your daily job. earn money and buy ready made part

 

[Kent]

option 1 can I buy it? option two can I adapt something similar? if you have the skills to make a good job of that in reasonable time then your likely earning that £28 in a hour

 

[mike 109444]

You like a challenge JA!
See if you can get a piece of stiff (cereal pack type) card of a similar size. Then try forming that to see where it will give and where you will have to take.
With Xmas round the corner there will be plenty of large card knocking about soon, Cracker boxes....?

 

[droopsnoot]

The very easiest way would be to cut slits along the areas marked red and green in hotrodders post, form the main curve and then shape these, cut the V as required and then weld together. It's messy, though, and you're potentially introducing problems along all those welded joins. I made my spare wheel well from a pattern which is a similar shape to this, though of course over less of the arc, and I made it in several sections welded together because it would just take too long to do as a single piece at my skill level.

Lots of videos on YouTube and the Metalmeet forum on how to do stuff like this if you fancy having a go, but I'd think a lot of practice is needed to get the shape right.