Vance Vanz
Well-known member
Carbon Fiber Rear Fenders for Camper - Shaping Core Material
I was originally going to try and make the rear fenders match the front baja fenders exactly-ish, but they just looked weird, like caca poopy
. I decided to incorporate some of the basic design elements off of the front baja fenders, while also holding/incorporating some design elements from the camper. The rear fenders are a blend of both. The intent is to provide some additional contour/detail to the camper and tie in the truck/front fenders with the camper more, all while not being something that looks out of place or out of balance. Let's just call them my subtle-baja rear fenders.
Some may be thinking who really cares, they are just fenders on a camper. For me, the rear fenders are the last composite design element left on the build that can significantly add to the aesthetic of the camper.
Related to matching the front fenders, I used/maintained: the 1-1/4" high flat inner trim front face, overall height of the fender at the the center of the fender, taper in the fender (front to back) and larger radius on the top front corner (in the design of the rear fenders). I also gave the top of the rear fenders a little ledge/edge to match the flat-ish top edge of the front fenders and kept the rear fenders longer/wider in total length to give them a subtle baja look/match the wide overall length of the front fenders.
Related to matching the camper: I kept the overall inner edge design/contour angular/the same angular shape as the wheel well box and angular aspects on the camper. I also rounded off all of the edges on the fender to the same radius that is on the corner of the fairings just below the fender. In addition, all of the edges on the camper are also rounded off/radiused.
The thickness of the core material (3/4") was also chosen for many reasons: not to wide to look out of place with the contours of the fairings/skirts, not to wide as to hang out too far/way past the outside edges of the rear tires, are proportionate/almost exact to the distance the front fenders are wider/extend past the outside edge of the front tires and are almost inline/just inside the width of the front fenders (while looking down the side of the entire length of the camper). Additionally, the 45 degree taper at the very bottom of the fenders (taper into the fairings/skirts) also looked best at no more than a 3/4" thick core material.
These are all examples/reasons why this stuff takes so long to design, not to mention build. The slight taper (front to back) in the thickness of the rear fenders/core material (3/4" thick at the inside edge and 3/8" thick at the outside edge) could only be partially cut with a table saw. The remaining width/still attached piece was cut using a hand saw. I then had to hand file and block sand the entire hand sawn/filed transition surface flat/smooth with the section cut using the table saw. It took forever to hand shape (flatten/smooth out) this transition down the entire length of the core material needed for both fenders. So many details.
Here is the passenger side. The only difference is needing to cut short/shape the left side of the rear fender to account for the entry door.
Time for bed 🤫
I was originally going to try and make the rear fenders match the front baja fenders exactly-ish, but they just looked weird, like caca poopy
. I decided to incorporate some of the basic design elements off of the front baja fenders, while also holding/incorporating some design elements from the camper. The rear fenders are a blend of both. The intent is to provide some additional contour/detail to the camper and tie in the truck/front fenders with the camper more, all while not being something that looks out of place or out of balance. Let's just call them my subtle-baja rear fenders.Some may be thinking who really cares, they are just fenders on a camper. For me, the rear fenders are the last composite design element left on the build that can significantly add to the aesthetic of the camper.
Related to matching the front fenders, I used/maintained: the 1-1/4" high flat inner trim front face, overall height of the fender at the the center of the fender, taper in the fender (front to back) and larger radius on the top front corner (in the design of the rear fenders). I also gave the top of the rear fenders a little ledge/edge to match the flat-ish top edge of the front fenders and kept the rear fenders longer/wider in total length to give them a subtle baja look/match the wide overall length of the front fenders.
Related to matching the camper: I kept the overall inner edge design/contour angular/the same angular shape as the wheel well box and angular aspects on the camper. I also rounded off all of the edges on the fender to the same radius that is on the corner of the fairings just below the fender. In addition, all of the edges on the camper are also rounded off/radiused.
The thickness of the core material (3/4") was also chosen for many reasons: not to wide to look out of place with the contours of the fairings/skirts, not to wide as to hang out too far/way past the outside edges of the rear tires, are proportionate/almost exact to the distance the front fenders are wider/extend past the outside edge of the front tires and are almost inline/just inside the width of the front fenders (while looking down the side of the entire length of the camper). Additionally, the 45 degree taper at the very bottom of the fenders (taper into the fairings/skirts) also looked best at no more than a 3/4" thick core material.
These are all examples/reasons why this stuff takes so long to design, not to mention build. The slight taper (front to back) in the thickness of the rear fenders/core material (3/4" thick at the inside edge and 3/8" thick at the outside edge) could only be partially cut with a table saw. The remaining width/still attached piece was cut using a hand saw. I then had to hand file and block sand the entire hand sawn/filed transition surface flat/smooth with the section cut using the table saw. It took forever to hand shape (flatten/smooth out) this transition down the entire length of the core material needed for both fenders. So many details.
Here is the passenger side. The only difference is needing to cut short/shape the left side of the rear fender to account for the entry door.
Time for bed 🤫
