Fender rivets

Production K Models

Fender rivets

Postby hennesse » Tue Jun 26, 2018 1:52 pm

What rivets are used to attach the rear license plate support bracket to the rear fender ?

Are these the same rivets used to attach the inside "stiffener" to the rear fender ?

Are these the same rivets used to attach the front fender braces to the front fender ?

The parts catalogs unfortunately do not show the rivets. My guess is that they are the 8515 3/16" x 3/8" truss head rivets. I'm hoping someone has experience with this "riveting question".
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Rear Fender Bracket

Postby hennesse » Fri Jun 29, 2018 2:55 pm

The bracket has a short side and a long side. Which side goes to the left?

rear fender bracket.JPG
rear fender bracket.JPG (17.95 KiB) Viewed 9818 times

Also, does anyone know the difference between the -52 and the -52A ?? Mine has reinforcing ribs on the short side - could this be the difference?
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Re: Fender rivets

Postby wz507 » Fri Jun 29, 2018 3:10 pm

The right side is short due to the chain relief on that side of the fender.

20180629_140141.jpg
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20180629_140116.jpg
20180629_140116.jpg (40.54 KiB) Viewed 9813 times
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re: fender rivets

Postby hennesse » Fri Jun 29, 2018 7:01 pm

Thanks wz.

My sheetmetal guy called to say my fender was ready, and I realized I had forgotten about the bracket, which was bent. I figured I'd let him straighten it - it takes him about one minute to do what it takes me one hour to do. Then UH-OH, which side goes where??? After I got to his place and was in the same room as the fenders, it was pretty obvious...

My 1954 rear fender had been cut off, and I couldn't find a good used replacement. Scott L. suggested using the V-Twin repro, which would need a little work to make usable. Someone on eBay was selling them for like $118 instead of the normal $250, so I grabbed one.

It took MORE than a LITTLE work. I'll take pictures and write up a technical article. The V-Twin fender is roughly a 1956-later fender, but it can be converted to a 1952-1955 style. The outer skin of the V-Twin fender does not have any holes at the back - so holes can be drilled for either the 1952-1955 or 1956-later taillight and license plate bracket. The inner skin has a large cutout shaped like the 1956-later taillight.

To make it into a 1952-1955, you'll have to fabricate and weld in a plate to fill-in the hole in the inner skin. Once that is done, we find that the inner skin has been redesigned (probably by Harley) to accommodate the different taillight - the inner skin has stiffening ridges, and the ridges are in different places. One of the 1954 taillight mounting holes ends up dead center of one of the ridges, so that ridge had to be smashed flat.

Either the V-twin taillight bracket has oversized (7/32") mounting holes, or Harley used rivets that they don't offer as spare parts. The 8515 fender rivets (3/16) are too small in diameter. They are also too short - they were designed to rivet the outer skin to the inner skin. But NOT the license bracket, outer skin and inner skin. Good luck finding 7/32 truss-head rivets of any length. So this was a custom riveting job requiring custom rivets.

The stock front bracket doesn't quite fit the V-twin fender - the curve on the V-twin is slightly different. So some "field fitting" of the fender will have to be done. This slight difference in curve also tells us that trying to repair a cut-off fender by grafting on part of a V-twin is probably doomed to failure - the slight differences in the curves and position of the side crimps would probably result in a Frankenstein-looking fender where nothing quite matches. Or a Johnny Cash "One Piece At A Time".

Oh yeah, the commonly available replacement for the 59798-52 rubber buffer is a piece of open-cell foam "rubber". This could be a problem as the open-cell foam absorbs water like a sponge. Once it gets wet, it will stay wet for a long time. A better replacement would either be a piece of closed-cell foam (doesn't absorb water) or a piece of actual-rubber rubber. I found a piece of open-cell foam which will probably do the trick.

There was some discussion years ago about what the original was like. Does anyone have an original they could describe? Or remember what an original looked like?


All-in-all, you CAN make a V-Twin rear fender into a 1952-1955 rear fender. If you're good with sheet metal, it will take a lot of Work. If you're not, it'll take a lot of Dollars. But it certainly is NOT a "bolt-on".

Watch for a Technical Article in the near future...
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Re: Fender rivets

Postby starcain » Fri Jun 29, 2018 8:23 pm

Dave, Roger started a pretty good thread on the Rear Fender Rubber Buffer in the General K/ Sportster Discussions under rear fender rubber buffer. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=604.
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Re: Fender rivets

Postby starcain » Tue Jul 03, 2018 8:54 am

hennesse wrote:What rivets are used to attach the rear license plate support bracket to the rear fender ?

Are these the same rivets used to attach the inside "stiffener" to the rear fender ?

Are these the same rivets used to attach the front fender braces to the front fender ?

The parts catalogs unfortunately do not show the rivets. My guess is that they are the 8515 3/16" x 3/8" truss head rivets. I'm hoping someone has experience with this "riveting question".



Dave, Back to your original question, I am pretty sure the same rivets are used for the license plate support bracket as the rear fender support brace. I measured the head width on both as best I could and the license plate support bracket rivets are .450" while the fender rivets measured .460". It was kind of hard to measure plus with the paint! The front fender rivet heads measure .440" and are noticeably smaller.
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License Plate Bracket Rivets.jpg
License Plate Bracket Rivets.jpg (211.7 KiB) Viewed 9680 times
Rear Fender Rivets.jpg
Rear Fender Rivets.jpg (165.45 KiB) Viewed 9680 times
Inside Fender Rivets.jpg
Inside Fender Rivets.jpg (219.62 KiB) Viewed 9680 times
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