Section XXVI Front and Rear Mudguards

 Front Mudguards Cycle Type

Note. The RHSC's video instructions for cutting the multi-bend tube are not wrong, they could however be improved. (these tubes are not stainless and will need painting) If you refer to the photo' you will see that the tubes that pass across the wheel (the mudguards screw to these) are a tad short. By careful cutting you can improve on this and give yourself a little extra length. Just 30mm is all that is required. Also the tube bends are a little on the big side and do not fit snug under the rolled edges of the (narrow) wings. When you first cut the tube it all looks very confusing and miles out, but as you can see from the photographs it does all fit together to give a really superb very rigid mounting. The front brake pipes do however foul the rear mounting tube, see below for a possible solution Also note that wider Mudguards are available, more suited to 61/2 J wheelsets, the bends in the tubes may fit under these easier due to the extra width. The standard ones just about fit.

With all four wheels off the car the brake cylinders were given a final bleed, easier with the wheels off. For some reason new brake pads seem to "harden up" after running, so a little softness at this point need not give undue cause for alarm until the brakes 'bed in'. Just make sure there are no leaks and the pedal is not slowly moving south under sustained pressure. If the brakes do not harden up after a few days the cause MUST be investigated, as although there may not be an external fluid leak as such, brake fluid may be passing round the seals etc.

The front upper wishbone assembly was partly dismantled for fitting the front mudguard carriers. Removing the top ball joint is a piece of cake. Jack up the car on the bottom wishbones, remove the top ball joint carrier clamp bolt, (12mm) and re-fit it the wrong way round. Put a short piece of 3mm flat into the clamp bolt gap and use the bolt to open up the clamp, use care, a max 1/2 turn is required. The upper ball joint & wishbone assembly lifts out easily. Take care as the complete hub assembly will now fall forward. The front mudguards were fitted more or less as per the RHSC's video. (see note above) However it should be noted that the tube assy that fits onto the top of Sierra hub forging is not the same design as shown in the RHSC's video or in any photographs in the catalogue. Some details of the modified unit are given in the update notes sent with the kit. It is now secured with one bolt on the top face, after drilling and tapping the hub carrier, and a couple of 6mm bolts on angle brackets at the sides using the clamp bolt as well. (See photographs) The head of the clamp bolt holds the front angle, but a nylock nut will be required for the rear angle. The bolt will need to be much longer than the original Ford part. Careful marking out is required here for the holes in the two angles. Also not noted is the fact that the multiple bend tube has the same OUTSIDE diameter as the central tube mounting assembly and therefore the tubes cannot be slid into each other as per the video.

You will notice at this point that the Front Hoses almost certainly foul the rear pipes on the Muguard brackets. This is a certain SVA failure as rubbing will occur leading to failure and, even for your own peace of mind, this problem should be rectified. My solution was to machine up a couple of mild steel rings with an internal diameter of 46mm and an outside diameter of 62mm with a thickness of 8mm. This lifts the brackets UP by 8mm giving a clearence between pipe and tube of at least 8mm. Since the whole assembly moves up and down in unison this should be OK. For a more long term solution I am investigating a set of special hoses with a 45 deg downwards crank, but no doubt this will be an expensive option. Do not forget these Mudguard brackets need painting as they are not Stainless Steel.

A length of tube is supplied in the kit to slip OVER these pipes for the joint. A hollow internal stub joint is a neater solution, (the same diameter as the tube INSIDES, but note that the inside diameters of the two tubes differ) If possible, ream the tube insides first to get a perfect drive fit. The top ends of the tubes are open and water is certain to get in, and with no outlet they will slowly fill up. Drill a 8mm hole in the lowest part of the assembly and fit 4 neat radiused nylon plugs into the top ends. (See photographs) When you are fully confident the tubes are all correct, secure with screws or better still internally braze. (you may need to cut 50 - 75mm off the ends of both tubes and give one of the bends a tweak.) To avoid an ugly joint all tubes must be cut dead square and spot on to length as there is no longer any adjustment. This method gives a much neater job, as the tube outside diameters run through with no step, but it will require more precise work in the short term. (the external tube method is more forgiving in this respect as it allows adjustment, but not as neat) As mentioned before these tubes ARE NOT STAINLESS STEEL so will need painting now, better still get them plated or galvanized.

Some builders have reported an SVA failure with the RH repeaters. I have decided not to use these and instead fit a pair of flush oval pattern units (ex Ford Fiesta) to the body side panels. (Premier Wiring Systems) This allows for much neater wiring, away from any water, dirt etc. Virtually all production cars are now fitted with repeaters generally to this pattern and in this position.

To ensure correct location of the Mudguards the correct wheel/tyre sets will need to be fitted first. Ensure that the edges of the mudguards are covered with clip on rubber or plastic edge trim (SVA essential) and put a small fibre washer under each screw head. I was not happy using self tappers or small screws to secure the Mudguards directly into the thin walled tubes and this method also leaves little room for error or adjustment, so instead I have used 8 black nylon "P" clips 22mm i/d (these can be obtained from Richco Part No. N-14B-BK Tel: 01474 327 527) You can still use alloy or better still nylon spacers to space the guards off the tubes but not only is the assembly adjustable, you can really screw the whole lot up tight using proper nylock nuts. To stop the clips moving wrap insulation tape aroung the pipe to give a bit of bite. Fit plugs to the 4 tube ends to stop the ingress of water. See mounting problems after running in. and AutoCad Drg.

The fiberglass mudguards and supports are clearly designed to suit standard Sierra wheel sets, as the bends in the stays are too far inboard, and the mudguards, are only JUST wide enough, but the radius on the sides is a LOT LESS than the support tubes. (if you are fitting 61/2 J wheels you really should be using the wider mouldings) This means that as you screw the mudguards down onto the tube they either crack or distort. The only solution (as far as I can see) is to trim the front and rear sides as much as possible, and to screw the mudguards down onto 8 - 6mm x 12mm dia alloy spacers. If you are not using the "P" clips and are screwing directly onto the tubes the spacers need to be dished on the underside to mate with the support tubes. Together with the trimming this enables the mudguards to be fitted without any distortion, but spaced off the tubes by about 6mm, also stops dirt getting trapped. Fit the front edge of the mudguards very close to the tubes, fitting of the tubes at the lower rear is not quite so bad. The photographs give a better idea of the completed assembly. If you do, as I did, and make a mistake, Hammerite Dark Blue Gloss is identical to the RHSC's Blue. Avoid fitting the mudguards too close to the wheels, as you might not get the wheels off. Early Mudguard stays appear to have been badly designed and some are known to have fallen to pieces after a few miles. Later versions have been "beefed up" with a reinforcing plate underneath and additional welding, these are a distinct improvement. Check this out on your car. The small vertical brackets failed the SVA. see Section XXV The SVA Test.

All four wheels were refitted using the 16 new chrome wheel nuts supplied in the kit and the front camber and tracking were checked and reset. If you build your front suspension as per Section X Front Hubs removing and refitting the top ball joint should have no effect on the steering geometry. There is not a lot you can do about the castor angle as this is fixed by the design. Recheck the front flexible brake pipes for clearance full lock to lock. At this point I noticed a serious problem. The front flexible hoses foul the underside of the mudguard stay assembly and neither are moveable. See notes on possible solutions above. Recheck the tightness of all nuts bolts etc. and ensure that there are at least two complete threads visible when using nylock nuts. (SVA) Fit domed plastic caps to all nuts and bolts (SVA) and this more or less completes the front suspension etc. Do NOT use any stainless steel fasteners on the suspension, only 8.8 ton high tensile steel bolts are acceptable. (SVA) Usually stamped on the heads. You may also need to wrap the open ends of the square cross tubes (swinging arm pivots) in foam rubber for the SVA. Some builders have reported that these (obviously) temporary fixes are no longer acceptable to the SVA. A point which is clearly stated in the Draft SVA manual.

 Rear Mudguards

I have been putting off fitting the rear mudguards for two reasons, (a) once fitted, they are prone to damage in a small garage and (b) fitting them to the car seems to have acquired a mystique all of its own. Now that I have my 61/2 J wheels on the car it is clear that the standard sheet metal panels are far too narrow. Following discussions with members of the NW RHOCaR & RHSC's I now find that I should have purchased a set of wider stainless rear mudguard panels more suited to the 61/2 J wheels. (See also front cycle wings) At a recent show the owner of RHSC's insisted that the standard narrow rear panels would fit. Fitting rear hub "taper wedges" would make matters even worse as this cants the top of wheels out to the vertical. With wedges fitted, a 25mm glue joint and using the wider panels the offside wheel is still only 3mm inside the mudguard. It is obvious, that under these conditions, the standard panels are not suitable. An attempt to fit the mudguards on my own was a dismal failure and the second attempt was done in the main by Tony Hurst, a local club NW RHOCaR member. The final method was more or less as the photographs below but in more experienced hands. Using the wider panels, and with expert assistance, turned failure into success.

The full sequence of fitting the rear mudguards (whatever the width) is comprehensively covered on the North West RHOCaR web site (go to Build Tips) and of course in RHSC's video.

As I dislike drilling thin metal away from my bench drilling machine, I decided to drill as many holes as possible with the sheets in the flat. This gives much better support and allows easy deburring. (1) I did however use the side panel template (2) to re-cut 3 or 4 fingers a bit deeper at the side panel end, only by about 2 - 4mm, after cutting the fingers deeper (3) I drilled ALL the finger holes 4mm. A word of caution, do not drill the finger holes too close to the bend, you will not get your drill or rivet tool in. See the photographs. The 4mm holes at each end of the mudguards, where the bolts or self tappers are used to hold the ends of the fibreglass, were drilled as work proceeded, which is where the second pair of hands comes in. All holes were de-burred carefully. This makes the job a lot easier, as all the other mating holes are either held rigid or are through soft fibreglass. Remove all the plastic film from the finger areas just prior to assembly as it is impossible to remove once the mudguards are fitted.

Next sand the long plain inside edge with a medium disc sander. Use masking tape to keep the roughened strip to about 25mm wide (see PS below) and follow this by fine wet & dry on the very edge. (3mm) Leave the tape in position. There must be no burrs or roughness here as it will scratch the the fibreglass edge moulding as it is rotated. The rear edge of the guard is bent inwards slightly oversquare, using the cutouts as a guide. I used a homemade sheet metal folder (4) but a hammer will give an acceptable result as the fold is hidden once the mudguard is in place. At this point it is a good idea to very carefully dress the TOP edges as these will be seen on the completed mudguards. Keep the film in place to avoid scratches. Also note that the upper face of the edge moulding cants upwards and this must be dressed off, otherwise it is impossible to sit the moulding down onto the stainless mudguard. The fingers were bent down using a standard Mole grip (5) with the jaws deepened by about 3mm on the grinder. After bending with the Mole "knock" them up with a heavy block of steel and a small hammer, get the fingers all in line with the base radius quite small. (6) You need to ensure the rubber pipe moulding will fully cover the notches.

You will notice that the two fibreglass mudguard edge mouldings are a different length. RHSC's advise that this is exactly as per the original Lotus 7. I can only assume that the offside moulding was shorter to keep the fibreglass away from the heat and dirt of the exhaust. The ends are covered by the stoneguards anyway. The wider part of the moulding goes to the rear. The wide pattern (61/2 J) sheet metal panels are laser cut with a "W" on the plain portion.

The back end of the edge moulding was fixed to the sheet metal with a 4mm button head screw. Now fit the front of the moulding, cocked into the guard, and secure with a mini grip at the front end. Drill and bolt. Using the tape as a guide pull the moulding outwards until the full edge of the tape can be seen along its entire length. The tape acts as an extremely valuable aid as to the position of the moulding relative to the outer edge. The moulding must be VERY TIGHT to the sheet metal along its entire length, if not start again. This point is crucial. Then a good fillet of 'No More Nails' adhesive was squirted into the inside gap. Make sure you get plenty of glue into the joint. I put a bead of glue on the joint BEFORE I rotated the moulding, but it gets very messy. Excess was wiped off immediately with a clean damp rag, try not to dilute the glue in the joint, wipe all excess glue off the outside and peel off the tape. Leave to dry for a few days at least. As a final check make sure that the moulding projects an equal amount along its length, and both guards are more or less equal. Using the wider stainless panels my mouldings projected 57mm. This more or less completes the initial fabrication of the mudguards.(7)

Before we can start the actual fitting the rear mudguards to the car a certain amount of preparation is required, some effort should be made to stop water thrown up from the road wheels entering the driving area. A small infill panel has been cut (8) to fill the gap between the seat back panel and the outward curve of the side panel, and this should keep out most of the water, together with the application of silicone sealant or expanding foam. (9) Put loads on as it grinds off like cheese once it is hard and gives quite a neat job, covered later with underseal anyway. Use a wire brush on your electric drill. Wear goggles and be prepared for an awful mess. Dust everywhere !! You will notice that the center section of the mudguard has no fingers. This fits in to the gap between the rear panel and side panel, and the "banana" shaped stainless piece more or less sits on top, (12) held by three pop rivets and then peened over. The larger inner panel was fitted later, once the mudguard was in and some more foam squirted in to finish off.

The next bit is quite tricky and you will need the use of an assistant. The mudguard need to be positioned so that the two ends are equidistant from the tyre. The top gap will be a lot wider, allowing the wheel to move up and down. Using 'G' clamps, clamp the plain portion to the inside of the curved tube. Now locate the rear of the mudguard as per the photo.(10) This is about 40mm in from the rear of the car and the bottom edge coincident with the rear panel lower edge. Clamp in position. Now look at the front edge. Is it fitting close to the outward curve of the side panel. If so great. If not you will need to modify the fingers a bit. Do not aim for perfection as it is all covered by the stoneguards. Check the tyre gaps, are they equal. If so this is the position to secure the mudguards. If not move the mudguards slightly to correct. All the time watch the mudguards to ensure that they are square and parallel to the road. Moving the ends, with the middle fixed, distorts the sheet. You will also need to check that the mudguards sit parallel to the wheel with no odd bulges. This needs a good eye, experience and patience.

Once you are happy with the position, recheck and start to bolt in position with 4mm screws, this allows for future removal. I suggest you put 3 or 4 self tappers in initially, recheck and if you are happy put either screws or rivets in. You will need to remove the wheel for this so take care not to knock anything. Mark the white plastic film with a marker pen to aid location. Do not forget to fit the 6mm circular pipe beading, pulled tight into the gap. (11) This needs fitting with care to give a smooth curve, not a wavy line. The back portion needs notching as in the photo otherwise it kinks. You will need to cut it at the middle portion and fold inwards. Proceed from the middle outwards, left, right, left, right etc. Once it is fully bolted or popped into position, fit the button head screws to the mudguard ends, remove the clamps and fit the stoneguards with 4mm button head screws. Make a paper pattern for the stoneguards first and trim until perfect, make both sides the same. Once you are happy cut metal. Drill all the 4mm holes around the periphery of the stoneguards before fitting. Supplied in the kit is thin edging for the stoneguards. Pull off the protective white film, refit the wheel and give the all the stainless a polish. The stainless is covered with a hard protective film, so do not use any chemical cleaners, just a dab of pink Windolene works well. Now do the same for the other side, making sure it is in exactly the same relative position.

Bananna In-fill Panels

With the Rear Mudguards in position now may be a good time to fit the "bananna" in-fill panels at the rear of the cockpit, above the front of the mudguards. This prove to be a very quick little job. Trim the panels at both ends to be a snug fit onto the top of the mudguards and with the ends cut to match any adjacent panels, push well down into the Mudguard tadpole beading. Secure with 6 or 7 equi spaced 3mm pop rivets and peen over the top edge to fit closely to the curved chassis members. The two panels were then covered with pieces of carpet to match the interior using plenty of Evostik. This gives a very nice finish to the cockpit and almost covers the "bananna" panels, so any hammer marks are not seen. See the photograph below of the finished job.

Completed in-fill panels c/w carpet.

Rear Wheel Spacer

Due to errors in the chassis the nearside wheel is closer to the body than the offside. Do not try to reduce the width of the mudguard to solve this problem. The result looks very odd. The accepted solution (which is not recommended by the author, even though I have used it myself) is to fit a suitable spacer between the wheel and the brake drum in conjunction with longer wheel studs. (Ford Transit Van Wheel Studs Part Number 1015829, 92VB 1118 AC are identical but 15mm longer) There is a copy of this drawing in Appendix II Link to AutoCAD Drawings Fitting these longer studs is not as straightforward as it seems. First screw a nut onto the stud before hammering it off. This prevents damage to the threads, you may need these as spares. Loose fit the new longer stud, trying to get the splines in mesh with the old splines in the hub. Then using a piece of short heavy wall tube and an old 12mm wheel nut pull up the studs into the hub flange. Make sure that all 4 studs are pulled fully home with the heads hard up to the flange. When using these longer studs ensure that the wheel nuts can be run FULLY HOME and not just run to the end of the threads with the wheel still loose. The spacer needs to be at least 6mm thick. Anything less is hardly worth the trouble anyway. As a safety check, put the wheel on without the spacer and tighten the nuts full home, then measure the gap between the wheel and the brake drum. The spacer need to be at least 3mm thicker than the gap. Only use genuine Ford Wheel Studs. If a stud did rotate in the hub with the wheel still on you are well and truly ****** Think about it, it's a tricky one.

Milling one of the spacers	The finished spacer

You will need to fit the rear light clusters, Fog lamps and Reversing lights, all this is fully covered in the Wiring section. Fit in accordance with SVA guidelines, height, angle etc. See also the photographs in the RHSC's brochure for an accurate idea of position. There is only one Fog and one Reversing light supplied in the kit, you may wish to buy another set for a more balanced rear end. I have also fitted two Rear Number Plate lights as in the photographs.

Underseal

The mudguards and the fibreglass edge mouldings are very prone to damage by stones thrown up from the wheels. Give the insides of the wheel arches at least two good coats of body underseal such as Car Plan 'Tetroseal'. This never fully dries out and stays slightly flexible. I would assume that this advice, passed on by a local RHOCaR member, also applies to the undersides of the front mudguards, whatever pattern.

Warning:- Take care on Fibreglass, Black underseal may bleed through. Use the CLEAR variety.

 The numbers in brackets refer to the photographs below.

Drilling the tags (1)	Side Panel Template (2)	Adjusting the Side Panel Curve (3)	Folding the Rear Edge (4)
Bending the Tags (5)	Knocking up the Tags (6)	Fibreglass Moulding Fitted (7)	Inner Arch Templates (8)
Showing Side Panel Infill Area (9)	Rear End Template (10)	Notching Rubber Trim (11)	Marking Out for Infill Panel (12)

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© Colin Usher 2005