8. Ariel Golden Arrow - How hard can it be to fit a front mudguard?

The continuing saga of the restoration of my 1961 Ariel Golden Arrow. With the crankshaft away for regrinding and new needle bearings and the cylinder barrels away for a re-bore and the wheels away, being rebuilt with new spokes and rims, it was time to sort out all the parts that needed to go away for chroming, as the rebuild was bound to need some of them pretty soon. So I sorted all the pieces, knowing full well that I was bound to miss something. Even I was surprised at the number of parts when I finally counted them. 55 pieces were sent away to Quality Chrome, in Hull. They are not the cheapest, but the quality is excellent and they are reliable. -
So with all that lot away, what could I do to the bike. It then occurred to me that this was the ideal time to fit the front mudguard. After all with no front wheel it should be easy!!.

The front mudguard is actually in two parts. The back half slides on first over two curved bars inside the forks. These bars should be fitted with captive nuts and the manual says that bolts pass through the mudguard sleeves to clamp it to the curved bars then a further bolt passes upwards in the centre of the mudguard into the fork. It sound so easy doesn't it?

Firstly, my mudguards lost their captive nuts long ago but secondly you have to fit a rubber trim on each side of the mudguard. So I fitted 4 new 10mm captive nuts into the mudguard (that was easy because my business already uses them) Then I cut some nice 10mm stainless steel cap screws to the right length and polished the heads and washers. However once you fit the rubber trim, the holes no longer line up as the trim has to be compressed to fit snugly around the forks and there is no way that you can do this by hand and get the screws in. You can push for all you are worth but this trim rubber is thick and strong and not shaped. It's simply a straight piece that you have to squash into shape. After a good deal of thinking, I came up with the answer. I padded the new paintwork at the very bottom of the back of the mudguard with clean rag and then attached the two hooks from a ratchet strap to the padded mudguard edge and passed it around the headstock. Then by ratcheting the strap the mudguard slowly crept into place, leaving half of each of the two rubber strips sticking straight forward awaiting the arrival of the front section of the mudguard. All 5 screws were then screwed loosely into place before being tightened up.

Now all I had to do was fit the front half. I repeated the procedure. More rag, the ratchet strap, new captive nuts and more stainless screws. But coaxing the trim onto the edge of the front mudguard requires lots or patience, as the trim has to slide around the edge of the mudguard as you ratchet the mudguard into place. Believe me this is not easy but with care I finally got the front in place and bolted up.

Well there it is, almost a whole day's work to fit one mudguard. But I must say it looks pretty good and no scratches to the paintwork.

Copyright K. Hopcroft  13.10.14 All rights reserved
You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My other Blogs:

1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
 https://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html


Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html

1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car: 
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html 

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html