There has been a lot of talk about the rear fender cracking on our Road Stars. I have posted on the Road Star Riders forum a few time on how I reinforced my rear fender to stop the cracks. It’s a very easy mod to do and anyone out of warranty, especially those who have a custom paint job should really do this mod.
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by Frank
Bear Delaware
Instructions
- Go to Pep Boys and buy a one qt can of truck bedliner material and some epoxy
for metal to metal, a sheet of sand paper, acetone, a few cheap paint brushes, and some spring clamps. You will also need two strips of aluminum flat bar 1″x.125″x10″ long that any hardware store will have.
- Just lightly sand the underside of your fender to rough up the paint some and apply the aluminum strips (making sure you place some cardboard between the clamps and the finished side of your fender so you don’t scratch your paint) about 1/2 inch from the edges of the fender right below the subframe toward the bottom of the fender with epoxy and let cure.
- Put some masking tape on the outside of your fender to keep from getting any bedliner material on the finished side and use some acetone to remove any unwanted bedliner material while it’s still wet.
- Paint over the whole underside of the fender incasing the strips and the braces that are already there and make sure you fill the lip of the fender completely with the truck bedliner material.
- I made the thickness on the sides just thick enough to cover the strips encasing them and thinner on the top of the fender. I found it easier to lay the fender on it’s side to paint the sides where your trying to get some thickness.
- I add about three coats on the sides on my fender You can add and remove the subframe while you work on it, so you can tell where to add more or less material. Then just remove it to paint. I painted the whole underside of the fender even under the subframe( there is plenty of room) just thinner under the subframe rails.
- When your done you will have created another inter fender bonded to your steel fender. Make sure you don’t get any material on the bolt holes.
When I feel the underside of my fender the sides just feels flat with no indents. Most people can’t even tell what I’ve done to it, but if you ever seen any sprayed on truckbed liner then you know how strong but flexible this material is and you cracking fender problem will be history.
Write up by Frank
Additional photos courtesy of John Beddoe