Started work on duplicating the complex system of wiring in front mud flaps/spats. Several issues were made apparent on the first, unsuccessful attempt.
I knew from the start that the wire I had at hand was too thin. This fact was confirmed with the first attempt of layup. Bear in mind I have only seen two photos of original ones, and both of those photos were rather vague and did not show the upper portion where it is attached to the mudguard.
First, I tried to make the whole wire section in one piece. Not a great idea. Too hard to work with, and the thin wire I used did not have the ability to retain it's shape to the extent required. I feel this problem would remain, even with a more suitable wire. The bent section on the right, is where the join is. The red stuff is heat shrink tubing, which certainly holds the sections together, BUT one piece of wire must be over/under the other, and when this happens, the shrink tubing actually holds the wire in any shape it gets bent to.
I.E: if you mechanically bend forward or back, it will stay in that position. It can't bend sideways once the canvas is sewn over, but could still bend for'd & aft.
Second attempt. Still same wire. This time I thought about making every wire piece individually, and recessing the ends into a piece of metal, which would be where the flap is attached to the mudguard. This could work OK, with thicker wire. Holes would be pre-drilled in the metal, (In this case, aluminium) for the attaching bolts, upholsterer would then place brass eyelets through the canvas and aluminium, once all sewing complete. The wire would be much easier to work with during manufacture, and any poorly fashioned sections of wire could be discarded without losing the entire work piece. I would look into securing each wire section to the aluminium with a form of glue. Possibly hot melt glue, no higher than level of surrounding metal, so it would not be visible once canvas sewn on.
On my attempt today, you see I have tried to make each lower corner a curve instead of the right angle corner that it will ultimately be. If I have figured correctly, the photos I have seen show a bar of metal across the lower part of flap, just below the end of the wire pieces. This will be copied on final build.
If anyone has any other photos of the structure of these flaps, I would love to see them. Would especially like to see the naked wire piece/s, to see if I am even on the right track. This is one of those occasions where the visual aspects must look correct, even though the actual method of construction could be vastly different from original.
These are the two photos I have seen so far.
