Honda Civic Front Fender Mold

General Composites Discussions Composites Talk
#1

We currently make a rivot on fender flare for 92-95 and 96-00 Honda civics. We were throwing the idea around of producing this as an entire fender. The questions I have is with all the hard angles I think the lay-up would be relatively hard.

This is currently what we are making, It consists of the flare over the wheel and the air dam at the back of the fender.

my biggest concern is the back of the stock fender V’s in where the door goes behind it when open. and the top where it bolts to the car L’s down from the top of the fender.

what would be the best way to go about making a full fender with every angle involved here. and sorry if the wording in here is funny. Im not honestly the best with words.

Thanks Everyone

#2

It’s doable since I"ve seen plenty of these sorts of parts. It’s really a matter of making a good mold first off. Like you’re mentioning, those returns for the bolts can be a pain. ANother option is to insert a metal or plastic piece in the layup for the connecting points rather than do full fiberglass bolt returns. It can be a pain to keep the fibers neat and avoid resin filling or voids in the sharp radius. I would take a look at what other people have done and either do the same or improve upon their techniques.

#3

Definitely doable, you’ll want to use bolt on flanges and pressure intensifiers in the tight corners.

#4

It is a very straight forward mold. That style of fender is very similar to what I run on my car; however mine is a clamshell.

To build this mold with all of the flanges near the door and hood, I would have a 3 piece mold. The main body of the fender would be the large mold. The flanges of the fender alignment points by the door would be another small mold section, and the fender mounting points that are by the hood would be another small mold section. That way, you could remove the smaller molds and release the part. You would have a lot of hard angles, so if you wanted to do it all at one time, infusion or pre-preg would be best because you could get all of the fabric down in those hard points. You could also add the sections like the mounting points at the top of the fender as a separate add on piece after you have made the fender.

Nice design btw.

#5

Thank you guys for the info. Wildcard do you happen to have any picture of you mold that you would not mind sharing? I understand if you do not want to show the mold off.

And thank you for the compliments.

I will put up some more pics so you can get a greater Idea of what I am working with here.

#6

Here are some pictures of the mounting points I am talking about



#7

Yah, same as any other fender I’ve worked on. I like to make a seperate mold for the top bracket along the hood. Just a small mold section that allows me to be able to remove it from the larger mold for easy demolding of the part.

The attachment by the door I just have apart of the larger fender mold.

The one by the bumper, that particular one looks like it has an indent and bolt holes. You may be able to make that one as apart of the larger mold as well, but if the overhang is too much you may want to make another section of the mold so that it doesn’t cause demolding problems. However, it looks like you maybe able to have both the door bracket and the bumper bracket apart of the main mold because if you demolded by releasing the door bracket area first, then the main fender, you should be able to pull backwards enough to escape the slight overhang thereby releasing the part. Still, use your best judgement. Make the mold in a way that will allow you easy part demolding. Try to avoid bending the part out of the mold.

#8

Here are some pictures of the new set of fenders I have been working on for my 96 civic. This one is not completed yet as you can see. But it shows a better portion of whats being made.





#9

Looks good. I’ll be finishing my fender sides either this next week or the week after. They have the same style tire vent.

#10

Its getting there slowly but surely. The car has so many thing I need to complete that me and my A.D.D. have been jumping from one part of the car to the other.

Now that it is finally above freezing and I do not have to start a fire in the shop every night I should be able to focus more on the flares and getting my car all finished up.

This is the car they are going on

#11

Good to see someone else workin on their mighty EG civic.
I wouldnt get too hung up on the returns in the back of the gauard/fender. Just make your mounting tabs separate and bond them on after. The V in the back of teh steel fender is just for strength, but you can easily acive this with extar reinforcement or a section of foam which is sandwhiched in between the layers of fibre glass. Ive attached a photo of what Ive been doin to my EG.

#12

Really digging it man! thats a good looking setup. you running a type r?

I feel like I have seen that car before… somewhere

#13

Im in New Zealand mate, bottom of the world, so maybe not.
:slight_smile: