Defender Rear Wheelarch Lining

[Defender200Tdi]

Got tired of the constant racket from stones hitting the unlined wheelarches on my Defender. Sounds like gunfire in the back when you're travelling along fast dirt roads. I tried giving the wheelarches a good thick layer of shutz stuff, but the constant battering from stones soon blasted it all off, and it didn't work very well anyway. So, I got a bit more serious about the job and bought some rubber matting to line the wheelarches. It wasn't a difficult job, a few large body washers, some small self-tappers and a bit of work with the cordless drill and stanley knife and it was done. There are some handily placed strengthening ridges in the wheelarches that you can screw into, that way there are no holes or screws poking through inside the vehicle.

Here's the front of the wheelarch:

http://www.aulro.com/albums/album37/IMGP0596.sized.jpg

And the back:

http://www.aulro.com/albums/album37/IMGP0597.sized.jpg

It's made a huge difference, not only stopping the machine gun in the back, but general road noise from the BFG M/T's has been cut significantly too. I'll let you know how it lasts!

Paul

[holtie]

sounds/looks like a good idea mate. Might have to give her a try myself.

[bigbugga]

Looks good.

How do you think it will go once a good soak has passed under it?

Will the water drain out from behind the rubber or do you think it will sit there till it dry's up?

[Defender200Tdi]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>How do you think it will go once a good soak has passed under it? [/b][/quote]

I thought about the water problem and, although it shouldn't matter much with everything in that area being aluminium (even the ribs), I wanted to keep it dry if I could. I actually used the rubber matting as one piece for each wheelarch. Instead of cutting it, I folded it and also made sure that it was wide enough to not only hang down and fasten to the inboard side, but also fold over and down on the outboard (flare) side. It's also long enough to reach from the bottom of the leading edge of the wheelarch to behind the plastic plate thing that covers the back of the tail lights. If you get my meaning??? style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif Even if they're completely submerged I think the water should drain out since the rubber is held away from the panels by the width of the ribs (about 10mm), both at the top and the sides. At least, that's the theory. :roll:

It may yet go pear shaped, but we haven't had enough rain here to wet the roads since I did the job. Time will tell eh?


Paul

[VladTepes]

I don't have that problem at all with my Defender.

But then again, I don't have any wheelarches. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif