front fender loose and rattling

[DimitriT]

I know this is not exactly a major technical issue but its annoying and I want to fix.

The front fender's rivets have gotten a little loose and the fender will rattle around when I got over a bump. Has anyone found a solution? I'm thinking of inserting a couple of C-clips on the inside rivet heads to tighten it up.

I guess I could take the fender off and bang on the rivet head with a hammer.

[steely]

Mine does this as well. Has anyone found a solution for this? I am thinking of trying to tighten the rivets with a hammer as well. If that doesn't work, I will have to see what else I can figure out.

[Dink]

I have some lovely button head hex bolts and nylock nuts, these would replace the rivets nicely, IMNSHO:-D some large washers underneath wouldn't hurt either.

Dink

[steely]

Outstanding idea Dink! Thanks!

[gsgeezer]

loose rivets

A dab of weatherstripping cement, or rtv, from underneath, of course, will work, too.

[snowbeard]

Are all yours the chomed kind? I never had the problem but then I installed a ratty old chrome one and it makes all kinds of noise over bumps...

I'll look into those rivets!! thanks!!

[steely]

Well, I tried to take the easy way out and just tack weld the fender to the support. The chrome is now toast where I put the welds, I screwed up a perfectly beautiful fender. Fortunately, I am going to be painting this one black. Yes, it is the chrome fender.

[txironhead]

Well, it wouln't be very pretty, but you could just drill the rivets out and pop-rivet new ones in.....wish I had my brother's air guns for aircraft brads and rivets.

[DimitriT]

I drilled out the rivets and replaced since with 6mm stainless philips head screws and hex nuts with washers and lock washers. After a few weeks I lost one on the road and went back and added loctite. They're not chrome but they're shiny enough not to be noticeable.

While I had the fender off I also took off the rust and painted the underside.

[spchips]

I tack welded the arch to the fender (in about 8 places), which like you said burns the chrome so it looks lousy.

I shaved the rivets clean off, did a little bit of bodywork to clean up the weld spots, and painted it with the bike.

I like the look, although it's not quite stock (no rivets and painted fender).

However, no one except us here will know the difference.

[Big T]

A bit of epoxy on the underside does the trick. Just clean up the area with a wire brush