| Back in 1986 when I bought my first FLH
Shovelhead that is now Cadbike 1, one of the first things I did
was to remove the stck fenders and I used a ducktail fender that
was originally intended for a hardtail, slightly widened and fitted
with internal struts for a cleaner look. |
| My buddy Theo had a polyester shop and
asked if he could use it as a pattern and so the first Metapol
fender was born (MetaPol stands for Metal-Polyester) Ofcourse
I got the first one for my own bike and rode around with it for
a few years in the eighties. After that it was on Jobert's
bike for a few years and then it ended up on the shelf in
my barn |
| Fast forward 32 years or so, as I had managed
to damage the fender we made last year, I was trying on some differnet
ideas and found the old ducktail again. I figured it looked kind
of cool in combination with current look of the bike so figured
I would give it another go. First issue was a big gap between
the seat and the fender, so it was going to need some surgery...
|
| In order to move the fender forward an
inch or so I cut off the front. Better! Now you can see the heavy
steel struts that are built into the sides of the fender, I would
need to make new mounting holes so that the shock bolts would
connect to the steel part. |
| I machined some threaded bungs from stainless
steel, removed the polyester on the inside of the fender and welded
the bungs to the steel supports, using a simple jig to keep the
parts aligned, then covered the insides and filled the gaps with
polyester again. To be continued... |
|
