Fiberglass Fender

[paultsmith]

I was thinking about building a fiberglass fender by copying my existing front fender, but have not used fiberglass and dont know if this will work, here is what i was thinking:
My current front fender is chrome and pitted very bad, so i either need to fill in the pits and paint it or replace it.
I was hoping that I could cover the outside of the existing piece in fiberglass, then remove the fender from the initial layer of fiberglass.
I then plan on building up the fender by applying fiberglass to the inside and strengthening it up this way.
I am not too sure how strong the fender will be with 1 coat of fiberglass. If it is strong enough I figured I could just lay down more glass inside.
I was planning on bobbing the front fender, so my fiberglass piece will be cut and shaped later. I just wanted to use the existing fender as an easy way to get the right width and not have to worry about building a plug/mold

 

[JRK5892]

wrap your stock fender in foil, then stretch some fleece over it... from here paint on your first coat of resin... have your fiberglass matt pre cut, so that you can just lay it on top, then paint on some more resin, more fiberglass, i would do at least 4 coats of fiberglass matting... after it is hard, sand it down, use some short strand fiberglass bondo over the top in a thin coat... then bondo, glaze and prime! your golden!

 

[paultsmith]

Thanks for the response, however I have one question.
Wont this method result in me building a fender that is slightly larger than the existing fender since I am building over top of the existing fender. Perhaps the thickness is minimal and won't matter? or I can squeeze it in and bolt it to fix??

 

[Tim]

While I applaud anybody delving into doing something like this on their own, and if you want to get into this for other projects, by all means dive right in, but fibreglass fenders can be bought relatively cheap and will likely be better than anything you build your first time out of the gate.

 

[JRK5892]

Tim has a good point... but yes it will be slightly larger... you could do the same but just lay it on the underside of the fender instead of the top... would work the same way

 

[paultsmith]

Thanks guys,
I was just thinking that I may try to do the fender thing, before I jump in and start building by seat out of fiberglass.
Still think I might give it a shot, then try to do the seat over winter.

 

[xsthomas]

Im doing an XS Tracker project and I needed a rear fender, I wanted a metal or fiberglass one the size of the stocker but could not find one. I went to the craft shop and bought a $3 bucket of plaster taped up all the holes and made a neg. mold of my fender, turned it over and smoothed out the surface, extending the sides and rear to cut to my liking. first layer of glass was one full piece, covered with resin, satchurating with brush getting all of the air out, let set up. second coat was just resin, sitting like a bowl it will want to settle at the bottom, pour resin is, hold fender and rock back and forth to coat, until it sets up. a few mins, to keep from pooling at bottom and make a thick spot. second glass layer, i do one full side at a time. turning fender on its side to keep resin only on the side. do other side, then do just the bottom. then i do 2 more layers, using a full piece to cover the whole fender for strenght, and one last coat of resin to seal all glass, pop out of mold turm over, now you have a positive, same size as fender. smooth surface with sanding and resin, and prime, this step will take more work the rougher your mold is. its not as hard as it sounds. make it as thick or thin as you like and trim edges to shape you like.