Riveting front guard, best method

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fireflake

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Hi, can anyone suggest a safe way of attaching the front mudguard stay to the guard without damaging the precious new chrome, David
 
I did use mushroom head Allen M4 fasteners to attach a repainted bridge to the mudguard. If you use nylon washers under the head of the Allen bolt, that should protect the chromium plate. The M4 x 8 fasteners are very small, and you have to look quite close to notice that they're not rivets:

Riveting front guard, best method
MudguardBridgeM4Fastenershttps://www.flickr.com/photos/7416531@N02/

Riveting front guard, best method
MudguardBridgeM4Nutshttps://www.flickr.com/photos/7416531@N02/

Personally, I hate rivets, as they make future maintenance more difficult - I liken them to nails in joinery. I attached my new ID plate with Pozidriv self-tapping screws rather than use rivets:

Riveting front guard, best method
ForkReassembly
 
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I too use the stainless steel mushroom head screws but have used nylock nuts. with a stainless mudguard I don't have to worry about nylon washers and use stainless again.
 
The Titanic's front fender (mudguard for you Brits) had the stays attached with nuts and bolts that were extremely rusted, so I replaced them with polished stainless bolts and nuts of the same size. Were they riveted from new? I have used stainless pop rivets on sidecover brackets and aftermarket exhaust cans after repacking, but they have holes in the middle. I imagine what would be needed in this case would be domed chrome or stainless rivets.
 
To do a correct restoration , you need the rivets. I have the rivets and rivet set punches, you gotta be careful:D. If you don't care about originality use whatever you like.
 
Someone evidently replaced the Titanic's mudguard stay rivets with bolts and nuts. I should have known from the throwback paintjob and the siliconed primary that other things may have had hands laid on since new.

The dry-rotted, rock-hard TT 100s I pried off don't have a clear build date. The stamping says "043" where normally there's a 4-digit week of date. But "Made in Great Britain" adorns the sidewalls. In less than 5K miles, it got a paint job and a primary hack job and bolted fender braces.. Probably original tires.
 
fireflake said:
Hi, can anyone suggest a safe way of attaching the front mudguard stay to the guard without damaging the precious new chrome, David
Click to expand...

I thought the mudguards were stainless? Or did you have it plated?
 
The reason I threw that out there about the old tires is I remembered reading of a '20's BMW restoration. The restorer couldn't find Continental tires in the right rim size, so he cut letters off some other Contis and glued them to some Chinese rickshaw tires, the only thing made in the proper size.

Who has cut the "Made in Great Britain" off an old Dunlop and glued it to a Cheng Shin?
 
bucksfizz said:
I did use mushroom head Allen M4 fasteners to attach a repainted bridge to the mudguard. If you use nylon washers under the head of the Allen bolt, that should protect the chromium plate. The M4 x 8 fasteners are very small, and you have to look quite close to notice that they're not rivets:

Riveting front guard, best method
MudguardBridgeM4Fasteners

Riveting front guard, best method
MudguardBridgeM4Nuts

Personally, I hate rivets, as they make future maintenance more difficult - I liken them to nails in joinery. I attached my new ID plate with Pozidriv self-tapping screws rather than use rivets:

Riveting front guard, best method
ForkReassembly
Click to expand...
 
Bucksfizz........I just viewed your pics and love what you have done with your rebuild resto.....I wish I had your skills and knowledge of doing wiring to that standard...do you have any details which I might follow to help me duplicate as my mk2A is in need of an electrical upgrade.....congrats again
 
One could take a pan head machine screw and grind and polish it to look like a rivet. To tighten it you would have to grab the threaded end with a vice grip or something.

Danno, the stays are bolted on, the thing that is actually being discussed here is the arched, bridge thing that goes between the forks. Not sure what it is supposed to be called. Brace? Anyway the early fenders where chromed. I think 1972 was the first year for stainless mud guards.
 
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Originality or not, no one has ever commented on my dome headed screws and Nylocks in over 20 years. use what is most sensible, if you rpefer rivets then prepare to replace the odd one from time to time.
 
If you go for the rivets make sure you get good new ones that havent age hardened, dont use too much air on the gun and be careful not to
shoot the rivets too hard as it will dimple the guard.
Or do as I did, and have a veteran airframe man do it as you watch. :)
Stainless guards are great, you can polish out any scratches!
 
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