One cool (and apparently pretty wild) dude called Crazy Frank came up with a very neat, strong and definitely righteous solution... the Crazy Frank Fender...
They are a great idea and gaining some recent popularity here but there aren't many of these beauties in Oz. A few enterprising individuals build them from scratch. Victor in SA is one and a number of others are keen to get there hands on one. One such guy is Jarrod who seeing Victor's build put up on these forums put in his request.
So why not build a few at The Chopper Shed. Victor was keen to leave his chopper with me to use his guard as a pattern and his shovel to set it up to Jarrod's requirements. Victor's chopper is lowered at the rear by a couple of inches while Jarrod's is stock. Victor runs a 16x5 whole Jarrod is fitting a 4.50x18. After a few emails and phone calls we set up Victor's rear wheel to match Jarrod's dimensions.
Here the wheel has been chocked up to mimic full compression and some spacing added for the extra diameter of the 18 incher. Top piece of guard (measured off Victor's guard) has been cut and rolled and laid on the spacers...
Next the sides are cut out of 3mm plate...
A couple of hours on the net produced a pile of photos of CFE fenders and I decided to use a slightly different mounting system to Victor's, but keep the rest of the fender close to his, because Jarrod reckoned it was just setup he wanted. Support bracket made from 5mm angle carries the weight of guard and passenger...
First side blocked up and tacked. On the left top you can see the two 10mm pieces of threaded bar for the shocker bolt and rear support bolt...
Second side done and both supports tacked on...
Short rear curved section cut out and marked with parallel lines to make bending more accurate...
Rolled in partly opened vice...
Taillight and number plate panel measured up and curve marked out...
Unlike the CFE fenders on the net, taillight is set forwards as Victor has done. First bend is done in bender. You can use a couple of pieces of angle in a vice to get the same result. Second bend is done in vice using a bluntened cold chisel. Takes some practice t get the hang of this method...
Welded in and taillight mounted. Piece of metal being held is to contain a few tools, globes. fuses, tissues etc...!
Side view...
Now to make the seat base out of 3mm aluminium; stiff yet easy to bend and light. Designing a simple seat mounting system took some thought and discussion with Jake and we ended up with a super cool arrangement... two pins at the front of the guard and a couple of bolts at the rear. Here a couple of brackets have been welded in to take the pins...
Aluminium is marked out, beginning with two parallel lines marking the widest part of the seat. A centre line is always essential if you want to get things right...
First bend and overall length marked out...
More measuring gives us the basic outlining including the slightly narrowing passenger section...
Getting the front curve even. Draw in one side, trace it and poke some little marks in the ally with a sharp instrument...
I generally cut the ally out with a jig saw my dad bought in about 1962. Still functioning a hundred percent after much hard work... Ally needs to be firmly clamped to bench top or it and jigsaw with bounce all over the place usually resulting in a bent or broken blade...
An angle grinder with 1mm blade also works well if lubricated with wax. For curves use your left over small diameter blades...
Main curve done in a sheet metal roller, but it could just as well be done using the method shown here where I am bending the small curve, wedging it between a piece of rectangular tube and a piece of water pipe...
Hammering a depression in the nose to accommodate the shovel's backbone that sits higher that the seat rails...
Fits nicely...
With the seat base installed, I can make up a pattern for the taillight cover...
Metal being cut out with small angle grinder disc. As I said don't throw them away...
Cover is rolled at this angle (perpendicular to guard centre line...
Welded in and seat base trimmed...
Now we can do the locating pins at rear of rider's section of seat. They are made from 8mm round bar...
... welded to a piece of 1" flat bar riveted to inside of seat base...
Next job is the rim around the guard... made from 8mm round bar. We start by welding it in the centre so it can be folded around each side... or gee wiz... we could hang indicators on it. What do ya reckon Mr Plod?!!
this job is a two person one. I heat and bend, Jake checks for alignment and tack welds as we go....
The rim is faired into the support with a bit of flat bar suitably ground to shape. Jarrod will mould the rim for a smoothly curved finish...
The rear seat bolts can now be set up. They don't need to screw into the seat, just hold it down. The angle of the front pins means that once the rear bolts pass through the seat base, the seat can't move. Here Jake welds the nuts on pieces of tube... (one on left is done)
After a bit of careful measuring, the number plate panel is drilled and the tubes and nuts welded in place. You can see how the system works in the last photo...
All that will show on the outside are the two bolt heads beneath the tail light...
Sissy bar mounts are made of tube to take a 16mm (5/8th inch) round sissy bar. They are prebent at the bottom and then slash cut to provide a neat finish. The pins will be welded in each tube as a stop for the sissy bar...
Lining the sissy bar mounts up was just about a three person job, but Stu was in the kitchen, so Jake and I just had to get it set up ourselves...
Job pretty much done. I just have to do a bit of grinding on a couple of outside welds, drill a hole for the wiring and glue in a piece of plastic tube under the guard to protect the wires. This will be done first thing in the morning and then they'll be wrapped up and posted off. Hopefully Jarrod will be happy with the job. I'm sure Crazy Frank would approve of his legacy being continued into the next millennium.
