Mud-club
Vehicle & Technical => Range Rover => Topic started by: Yoshi on April 15, 2009, 18:16:52
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I got me hands one some 90 spat thingumies, and just wondering how easy it is to fit them to a rangie.
I know that people have fitted them to a discovery, but cant find any pics etc..............
Anyone done it?
ATB
Dan
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what are spat thingumies?
Cheers,
Nick
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If you mean the arche extensions then quite a bit of work, they are obvioulsy a different shape.
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Yeah, them things! lol
But i dont mind chopping the wing, although doesnt look like i will keep the rangie atm, as i want a 300tdi disco!
But its still something i would like to know about cos i am gonna stick these things on sommat! lol
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The main thing I would say is trace the out line of the aluminium pannels on a defender onto car board and use that as a template of where to fold the aluminium pannels on the RRC or Discovery. Mark the line from the enplate and then cut an inch or so inside of the line and bend the excess inward so you have a lip to mount ont to.
Assming this is for a 4 door RRC/discovery then the rear doors are the most awkward part. If I put rubber arches on again, then I would cut out the steel skin from the rear doors without removing any of the aluminium pannel. Then bend the aluminium inwards to create the lip and then upwards again up against the steel door skin and povrivit the two together. Trim any excess aluminium skin once your sure you have enough to rivit to the steel securely.
Trying to bend multiple curves in a sheet of aluminium is not easy so cutting slits into the lip your about to bend (so you end up with multiple tabs instead of one continuious lip) will make bending the lip easier, but the finished lip will not be as strong.
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The main thing I would say is trace the out line of the aluminium pannels on a defender onto car board and use that as a template of where to fold the aluminium pannels on the RRC or Discovery. Mark the line from the enplate and then cut an inch or so inside of the line and bend the excess inward so you have a lip to mount ont to.
Assming this is for a 4 door RRC/discovery then the rear doors are the most awkward part. If I put rubber arches on again, then I would cut out the steel skin from the rear doors without removing any of the aluminium pannel. Then bend the aluminium inwards to create the lip and then upwards again up against the steel door skin and povrivit the two together. Trim any excess aluminium skin once your sure you have enough to rivit to the steel securely.
Trying to bend multiple curves in a sheet of aluminium is not easy so cutting slits into the lip your about to bend (so you end up with multiple tabs instead of one continuious lip) will make bending the lip easier, but the finished lip will not be as strong.
Would it not be better to cut the aluminium neatly to size needed, then bend the steal on the inside to make tabs so your hiding any mess. Im thinking about doing it to, as i dont want to pay the premium for the proper spats.
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IIRC the defender spats have a lip that sticks out agaist the outside of the aluminium pannels, which hides the bend in the pannel on defenders. As long as the pannels can be bent neatly enough then they should do the same for you.
Where you would cut through the rear doors there is a gap of around 10mm between the skins (except at the ends) and because of the shape of the main body there is only about 6mm between the steel door skin and body. The steel door skin also had a another piece of steel weled to it other part ot the cut line for holding the windo mechanisum. Bending the steel will be more difficult and will only produce a 10mm lip to fit the spats to where as the aluminium bends easier (may still require annealing first) and yo can make a bigger lip by extending it into the gap between the door and body to get a bigger lip for fiting spats to and would probably be stronger due to being bent a second time up agaist and rivited onto the steel skin.
If you cut away the inner body enough then potentially the aluminium lip could be made much longer, but I would advise trimming this part of the body as little as possible becasue its so close to a seat belt mount.
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Thanks for the advice guys!
This isnt happening now as rangie is for sale and the disco i replaced it with is an XS and so has every so slight wheel arch extenders lol