Dust shields

[Gary t]

picking away on my project, the wheel arch dust shields are in poor shape one very poor. Any suggestions as to what I could use to make new ones? I have 1\4 inch polyethylene but it is white and not very paintable but otherwise could work. 

[EuropaTC]

If you mean the "D" shaped things in the wheel arches that cover the side sill openings, I have 1.5mm Al at the front and 6mm rubber at the rear. 

It's too long ago for me to remember why the difference, probably something as simple as what I had to hand at the time I needed them. The Al is screwed into the front fibreglass with stainless self tappers, the rubber at the rear is just cut to shape and jammed into place. Neither have worked loose, both keep out the road spray/dirt well enough.

Brian

[BDA]

I happened upon some black plastic sheeting. It was so long ago, I have no idea where or how I got it. You might look in a scrap yard, Amazon, or eBay. I know there are people who sell fiberglass sheet on eBay. You might check local plastic suppliers.

[Arizona]

Depending on the condition of the originals I would use them as a mold to lay up new ones using fiberglass cloth (not mat) or maybe even carbon fiber cloth and a marine grade epoxy. Might need several layers of cloth to provide the right stiffness.

[4129R]

You could paint the white plastic with black underseal. Some of my cars had them painted with this.

They are held in place with 5 big pop rivets and washers to one side only.

[Bainford]

When I needed to replace them in the rear arches I used 1" thick styrofoam. I cut them to shape and fit them in place, then secured them with some expanding foam insulation. Once the foam insulation hardened, I trimmed it with an Olfa blade. It looked a bit out of place, being white, but it quickly 'naturalised' and became unnoticeable. At car shows, the well initiated were amused to find the styrofoam, given the lightweight nature of the car.

It was just a 'work-around' at the time, using materials I had on hand on the day before a club cruise, during which rain was expected. However the styrofoam solution has grown ion me, and I will be replacing all of them similarly eventually. Taking a que from Arizona's comments above, I may experiment with adding a cladding of fibreglass resin for durability, though having said that, the existing unit has been in place for over six years and thousands of miles now. Extremely light and easy to fit.

[LotusJoe]

I made mine out of copper roofing material and coated them with Line-X. I used copper because the shop next to me was a copper roof specialty company and I got it out of their scrap bin. However if your interested I kept the patterns and could cut you some out of aluminum.

[Sherman Kaplan]

I would definitely be interested in a set for my TCS.

Thanks,
Sherman

[Pfreen]

I made mine out of 3/16” abs.  Looks and works fine.

[TCS4605R]

I used a piece of .020 aluminum sheet to make a template, then covered the template with wax paper and layed 3 layers of fiberglass Matt over the template.  After it cured,I removed the fiberglass from the template/wax paper, trimmed it to fit, and drilled holes for SS fasteners .

Tom
74 TCS - 4605R

[TCS4605R]

Did the same for the rear shields.

Tom

[buzzer]

I used .5mm ally sheet held in with rivets on the front and rivets and screws in the back (so I can remove if I need to get to the back of the lock closing plate or take out the fuel tanks). silicone around the edges and underseal the lot.

[GavinT]

Does the original "cardboard" stuff have a name? . . a trade name, perhaps?
It looks like the same material used on the closing cover arrangement over the radiator hoses, yes?

[Bainford]

Hhmmm… lots of ideas on how to effect a new shield, but it appears no one is interested in reinstating the original Lotus solution. 

[BDA]

I don't think the original pieces saved any weight but they probably saved money. It's sort of like the jute between the frame and the body or the horse hair stuff on the firewall. There's a limit to how much anybody will go to remain original.