Fender Fab
How to make 2 cheap fenders into one Cheap fender!

I started by buying 2 small trailer fenders at Tractor Supply. They were the closest I could find to the radius I wanted to fit the tire snugly. The downside was they were only 5 1/2 inches wide and had a square lip on the inside. The upside is they were only $10 each. So to begin I cut about 1.5" off of the inside of each fender.

Taking the two remaining pieces, we line up the ends and start tacking it all together. That big chunck of I beam was very helpful in supporting the fenders while I welded them. While it looks good in the picture, these were 2 CHEAP fendersgetting the two halves to line up edge to edge the entire length took some persuading...

See it almost looks like a fender! It's not perfectly flat across the width, but with a little bondo... okay maybe a lot of bondo, it will look like a $30 fender!

Next to reduce the radius to match the tire, I slit the hell out of it so that I could bend it without it buckling.

Now kids, this is what it looks like to a 44 year old man without his glasses.

With a good squeeze, I easily curled it up to be way too small. Then, using a piece of thick rope (that I usually tie up my wife with) as a spacer...

...I push the fender down on the tire. THen I tack welded the all of the slits at the edge of the fender to lock the radius.

Next I went through and filled in the seams. Some recommend welding from the bottom to save a lot of grinding. They would be smarter and probabaly better welders than me.

Yep, I have a bunch of grinding to do!

Hell No, I'm not done, Back to the front page!!!