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Joe the Plumber

Member Since: 18 Dec 2013
Location: Midlands
Posts: 907

2014 Defender 110 Puma 2.2 HT Fuji White

Wheel arch liners

Over the last few weeks, I've been steadily sorting out the protection for my front and rear wheel arches that Land Rover should really, on a brand new �24,000 vehicle, have fitted as standard.

I've bought Gwyn Lewis's front arch liners and mudflap relocation brackets, and they are first class. I've replaced his zinc coated fastenings with stainless ones, but otherwise they've gone on just as he suggests:

Click image to enlarge

I bought an 8' x 4' sheet of the 3mm black plastic (�36.00 from Oadby Plastics in Leicester) that he uses and have now made a pair of complete rear arch liners that are held in place using the same holes as the existing arch trims, albeit with different plastic fasteners, and with steel brackets which I've fabricated from 1" angle iron and 1" flat strip (salvaged from an old bath - check my username!)

You could have the brackets galvanised, but I've used Bilt Hamber's Electrox primer and Aldi's equivalent of black Smoothrite along with BH's Dynax S50 on top, so they'll last a while I hope:

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

The new fasteners (from eBay) are the type on the left, with the original LR items on the right. The new ones have the advantage that they're longer to cope with the additional thickness of the liners and also have pins that you can pull out rather than having to knock them inwards to remove them. I can't post a link to the eBay advert as they were some that I received in error last year (for �3 for 30, the seller told me to keep them) and I've no idea what type they are.

Click image to enlarge

You can hopefully see a couple of them in place in this photo:

Click image to enlarge

I've also made two flaps to protect the rear of the front bumper which are fitted behind LR's existing liners:

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

The rear liners have been extended using a second piece of the plastic which I've bent to the same curve as the standard arch trims using a hot air gun while it was clamped between two pieces of angle iron in the vice. It bends easily once it's hot, but you have to hold it at the angle until it cools or it tends to spring back.

Were I to do the job again, I'd make the rear liners with the additional part to bend round to match the arch trim all in one piece, but I didn't think of it until after I'd cut them. The holes for the plastic fasteners are slotted to make it easier to line them up.

The plastic is easy to score and snap with a Stanley knife, or just score and cut with tin snips. I used ordinary HSS drill bits to make the holes. The accuracy of Gwyn's CNC cut parts obviously isn't there, but I don't think they're too bad.

The rear brackets for the rear liners are fitted onto the original two rear bolts on the ARB brackets. The front brackets for the rear liners are bolted onto the chassis where there is a steel retaining strip that holds the lower sill and body to the chassis. I don't know if the station wagons have these I'm afraid. I was determined that I wasn't going to drill holes in the chassis for any of these fittings. The front brackets were 'entertaining' to weld up as I did them off the van and guessed.... I got there in the end, with only a lot of swearing.

All the new nuts, bolts and washers I've used are stainless.

I'm sorry the photos are rather poor. The reason is I'm a rather poor photographer! If anyone wants to see more, I'll try to take some better pictures and post them up.

As the van will never go off tarmac in my ownership, I'm happy that these will all be robust enough to last for many years, but for some green laning, they might prove vulnerable to damage. Gwyn's would be fine though.

I hope this is of interest.

Last edited by Joe the Plumber on 16th Nov 2018 7:58pm. Edited 1 time in total

7th Jun 2014 3:45pm

Natlas

Member Since: 20 Mar 2013
Location: West Sussex
Posts: 460

2013 Defender 90 Puma 2.2 XS CSW Aintree Green

Nice job Joe, I want to get round to doing something like this.
Cheers,
John. 2.2 90 XS
88" Series One
Old Norton

Minerva

7th Jun 2014 6:03pm

LandRoverAnorak

Member Since: 17 Jul 2011
Location: Surrey
Posts: 11324

That's a cracking job, Joe.

I'm sure that there must be a market for this sort of stuff and I'm amazed that nobody has developed a kit

Darren

110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak

"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia

7th Jun 2014 8:13pm

EddieB

Member Since: 08 Apr 2013
Location: Durham
Posts: 57

1994 Defender 110 300 Tdi PU Firenze Red

Nice work, looks like you've taken your time with these. However, due to low down nature of the brackets, are you not scared these will get ripped off as soon as you go off-road? ( assuming you do).

8th Jun 2014 9:12am

Joe the Plumber

Member Since: 18 Dec 2013
Location: Midlands
Posts: 907

I refer you to the last but one sentence in my original post Eddie!

However I very much appreciate your kind comments, and indeed those from everyone.

I did briefly consider going into production, but I simply wouldn't have time.

8th Jun 2014 9:31am

Mo Murphy

Member Since: 01 Jun 2008
Location: Letchworth Garden City, Herts
Posts: 2227

1984 Defender 90 BMW M57 3.0 Diesel HT Auto Pennine Grey

Nice job Joe. Always nice to see someone make stuff for their land rover.
Mo The Land Rover 90 - Many are called, few are chosen.

50 Shades of Pennine Grey

10th Jun 2014 8:25am

Joe the Plumber

Member Since: 18 Dec 2013
Location: Midlands
Posts: 907

Thanks Mo. The Mk 2 version would be better, but those will have to do for the moment or it will never get on the road! I've had it nearly three months and still haven't driven it.

10th Jun 2014 4:41pm

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