The original Luego front mudguards on my car have cracked near the fixings, with hindsight they should have been bonded to the stays to avoid stress points.

I could get them repaired, but the edging on them isn't the best either so thought I'd also look at replacements - but - 17" wheels limits the choice somewhat. Is everyone else still running with the Luego originals or has anyone found other options that fit well on 17" wheels? I've seen a picture of 1 car with Dax Rush mudguards on, look good and I've tracked down a pair, but they're mighty expensive.

What size tyres are you running, our front arches on the Furore are suitable for 225/45/17 or anything thereabouts. We always bond in place, so much neater than bolts & as you say doesn't raise stress points. I don't normally sell them separate to a kit, but can get a price if they're of interest.

Russ

Hi Russ

I'm running 205/40 - 17's, so sounds like yours could well be suitable - if you could get me a price and some pictures please, that would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Geoff

Same as these, shown here with edge trim in place, they come in gelcoat finish which may have the odd tiny blemish, I sometimes paint them satin black just to make them less conspicuous. I have some from stock


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They are slightly tapered, narrower at front & wider at rear, difficult to measure exactly due to curved adge, but approx 235mm front, 250mm rear


£80 a pair + P & P, would need to check on P & P due to being rather bulky

Thanks Russ. I've found someone making a copy of the Dax Rush ones and I prefer that style so have decided to go with them, but thanks very much for taking the time to post those up, much appreciated.

No worries

Well, driving along today and had a cycle wing bracket break on me! Hasn't done much damage, I was lucky. It didn't go at an obvious point - it went about an inch after the tube is squeezed down to flat, about 2" before it goes under the cycle wing. It's a clean break but I'm surprised it went, it's quite thick wall tubing used. I guess they do get some hammer, it's the nearside that went, that wheel getting a worse time of it near the gutter of our beautifully paved roads!

Before I weld it back up, has anyone else had them break?

I can't think of any obvious way to mitigate it for the future.

I had both sides go, on consecutive trips out when I first bought my Viento.
I welded them up, but one snapped again at a different weld.
I gave up on that design, and bought some much sturdier ones that also replaced the offset aluminium "top hats" in the sierra uprights.
The downside with that, is now I have very little adjustment for castor in the front wheels.
Having said that, I was happy with handling before, and now I'm happy that my arches are staying on!

What did you replace them with Stu?

GBS made me a pair. Luckily I'm only a couple of miles from them so I took in my whole hub/wheel/upper wishbone and they mocked it up so everything ended up the same as it had been.
It's their standard Robin Hood wing bracket, but they then weld in a steel mushroom with an offset wishbone mount.
It's so much tidier now, but I cant recall what I paid.
I've never uploaded pics here, but I can try, or u2u me your number if WhatsApp's easier.

Thanks Stu. Don't worry for the moment. I might see if I can add a 3rd stay to the existing bracket - thinking that if 1 goes there are still 2 left! Another alternative is the Dax Rush brackets.

I've got new cycle wings on order, just glad this happened now, I'd have been gutted if the new wings had got damaged. There's a small crack in the current ones as a result of today's incident, but nothing serious.

Got fed up with my Luego supplied wing mounts breaking so made my own out of thicker materials, haven’t had any breakages in about 12 years now

Trying to post some pictures, hopefully this will work....


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[img]https://ibb.co/7KsbkYY[/img]

Nope - try again.....

[Edited on 10/5/20 by Feltwell]

Success!

So, that's where mine broke - did yours go at a similar point? I'm thinking that as well as welding it up I could add an extra piece of bar to the inside of the flat section and weld that in to strengthen it.

Looks a bit rough in the picture as it had some foam rubber stuck to it, not sure why.

[Edited on 10/5/20 by Feltwell]

when you weld it up, think about a) heat zone causing a) weakness in the material and b) sudden material thickness changes which will concentrate stress.

Never got mine on the road so can't comment any more.

Mine broke the mounting plate( Cortina uprights) and at the point yours have broken

Same here, where yours went on both sides,
and at the mounting plate on my passenger side.

Thanks Gents, that gives me a good idea of where the weak spots are.

Got the car apart today to repair them, I can see the construction now all the tape and powder coating is off, MikeR is spot on - the tube is squashed down over an inserted flat bar, the point the two meet is clearly where it will flex the most and that's where it broke, classic stress fracture.

A straight butt weld wouldn't hold on it's own, I've done that but also shaped a 3" section of 4mm bar to straddle behind & across the joint and welded that in place. Not the prettiest and not a long term fix, I've stiffened that section and it'll do for now but it just means it will flex further up instead and eventually fail there.

So, I think new brackets is in order. Looking on the forums it seems a really common problem across lots of 7-types. I've new cycle wings on order, they're carbon which will hopefully make them a bit lighter than the fibreglass ones and lessen the forces involved, but the fibreglass ones aren't exactly heavy.

Kit Car Direct have been really helpful with the cycle wings, they do a bracket but it's the same design as the ones I've got that have failed. The say they've had no problems with breakages though.

I want to take the car into ProComp to get the steering geometry and suspension set up - I see on an old post they've made brackets for Cortina uprights, so I would have thought they'd do Sierra, may even be able to ask them to shape them to fit the new wings and avoid these stress-prone joints.