This project turned out to be far more complicated than I expected. The original wheel well was a piece of rounded 0.04" aluminum with thermoplastic walls. Welding was not an option because the materials is just too thin for my skills. So, I used an octagon design, calculated the angles and bent the cover out of 0.040" on my brake after cutting the material on my table saw. The side walls were cut from 0.025" on the table saw and cleaned up on the deburring wheel. One side served as a template for the other side. The walls were joined to the housing using some angle 0.5" brackets from home depot. Everything was riveted together. Getting the cut outs for the brakes was the challenging part. I wanted these openings to be as small as possible so that I don't get a huge draft, which might not be so bad depending on what was for dinner last night! The pulley bearing assembly (from a previous post) was mounted on top after trial fitting in a few locations. The total assembly is about 100 grams heavier than the previous. There were about 50 rivets to hold it all together. The mounting tabs in the front and back are also separate pieces. Altogether there were about 17 pieces that had to be cut, shaped and deburred to make this contraption! Installing it was a major pain. It had to be installed and removed several times to get all the mounting holes and axel bushing holes in the right place. The wheel well is installed first, then the brake mounting blocks, then the brakes, then the wheel and bushings (together), and lastly the axel. The tired must be deflated before inserting into the wheel well, then you can inflate. You can adjust the brakes after the wheel is installed. Let's hope I don't have to service this any time soon! There goes another perfectly good weekend. Next up is the engine mount!
