I bought a set of James Duff’s Stone Guards a couple years ago, and finally installed them this last week as I’m winding down my frame-off. It’s pretty disappointing to put new fenders on and spend time and money painting them to have them messed up by “outie” dents, the first time you drive down a gravel road.
Once installed, they are very solid and should work great. The down side is, that although the driver’s side went in without a hitch, the passenger side, shown below, required multiple trial fittings and trips to the bandsaw to trim just enough off to get them to fit. I removed about an inch and a-half from the rear to get it to clear the air vent housing, and over 3/4-inch from the outer side to get to clear the fender. I used a fine Sharpey and placed my index finger with said Sharpey held against where the guard was pressing, and blind traced the guard taking off 1/4” at a time. The material is 18 guage SS, and my metal bladed bandsaw didn’t like it much, and sheet metal shears wouldn’t cut it! (Even though I straightened out the tracing with a straight edge, I couldnt keep wander out of the cut).
I used a 90 degree right angle #30 pneumatic drill and bit, and drilled the guards while clamping it in place, since I had that tool. The instructions call out marking the holes with a Sharpey after clamping and drilling them without the guard in place, but the pneumatic tool is not as fat as most right angle drives, so the SS held the #30 bit easily in place without sliding off-center. Also, there were 4 too few #10 drill-scews in the Fastenal hardware packet.
Perhaps my unit was an early effort, and these problems have been resolved, I don’t know. Anyway, 3 out of 5 stars.
Once installed, they are very solid and should work great. The down side is, that although the driver’s side went in without a hitch, the passenger side, shown below, required multiple trial fittings and trips to the bandsaw to trim just enough off to get them to fit. I removed about an inch and a-half from the rear to get it to clear the air vent housing, and over 3/4-inch from the outer side to get to clear the fender. I used a fine Sharpey and placed my index finger with said Sharpey held against where the guard was pressing, and blind traced the guard taking off 1/4” at a time. The material is 18 guage SS, and my metal bladed bandsaw didn’t like it much, and sheet metal shears wouldn’t cut it! (Even though I straightened out the tracing with a straight edge, I couldnt keep wander out of the cut).
I used a 90 degree right angle #30 pneumatic drill and bit, and drilled the guards while clamping it in place, since I had that tool. The instructions call out marking the holes with a Sharpey after clamping and drilling them without the guard in place, but the pneumatic tool is not as fat as most right angle drives, so the SS held the #30 bit easily in place without sliding off-center. Also, there were 4 too few #10 drill-scews in the Fastenal hardware packet.
Perhaps my unit was an early effort, and these problems have been resolved, I don’t know. Anyway, 3 out of 5 stars.
Attachments
Last edited:
