Was digging around in one of the scrap piles and happened to come across a section of cabin panel from the S-10 that I had cut away during a cabin corner/sponson replacement. Put a micrometer to it and discovered that it was about a .001 thinner than the metal in the indian fender that I have been tinkering with in my spare, spare, spare?? time. Brought it in and down to my basement shop, did some cutting and trimming on it for fit and added some curve to it for shape and it lands fairly nicely against the edge on the existing fender from which the damaged fender tip had been cut away.
Plan now is to walk it out to the main shop and throw some tacks at it to create a preliminary joint. That will let me do some more shaping and see what I get. It does land long against the outer leading edge of the jig that I had created a couple of years back now but the plan was always to go long and then trim it back to where it looks like factory again. This is very much a subjective exercise on my part as I have no patterns or pictures of what it ought to look like if original and intact. The lack and cost of replacements often forced riders to cut or clip away the damage from an accident or incident and just go with a bobbed fender. By estimated measurements, my own fender is missing as much as 7 inches of length after the front or leading fender mounting bracket. This loss, for me, makes this just another case of make versus buy and since buy is mostly a non-starter unless I can find a donor in worse shape that still has its sheetmetal intact, make, it has to be.
Nick
