rhm

Here's an interesting problem. We prize NOS and nearly NOS parts, the ones that haven't been manufactured for years and have, somehow, survived in new or nearly new condition. Right?

Well, one of the reasons parts remain NOS is that they were defective to begin with.

Consider, for example, the black Bluemels Club Special fenders I bought on ebay a few years ago. They're not NOS, but they're in great condition. There's just one little problem, which you can see here:



A fender mounts to the fork by a steel piece that is riveted to the plastic fender. But the steel piece is a good 1/8" off center.

Minor defect, but it's impossible to mount this fender well. It's invariably off center somewhere. And a bit twisted.

So... how would you fix this?

And what other strange defects have you found in NOS parts?

nlerner

I'd drill out those rivets and use a different bracket or fork crown daruma.

Neal

cudak888 

My favorite is an NOS Campagnolo Nuovo Record seatpost bolt, rounded off on one side and chromed that way.

-Kurt

khatfull

Funny, the bracket looks centered on the fender based on how much fender is left on either side of the bracket. However, the bracket doesn't line up with that center ridge in the fender. Looks like that center ridge is molded screwy to me.

JunkYardBike

Agreed. And you haven't bolted your bracket vertically square.

rhm

You may be right about that, but I don't think so. I'll have to take a look. The photo doesn't show this, but the fender is twisted, either as a result of storage or having being mounted on a bike in such a way as to not hit the wheel.

Yes, that's because of the twist. Mounted square, wheel hits the inside left front edge of the fender.

I think the off-center bracket is the primary problem, and in turn caused the twist. I'll probably fix the bracket the way Neal suggested, though I'm not sure what to use for rivets. Once that's done, I'll try to remove the twist. I think if mounted properly and left in the hot sun, the fender will gradually take its correct shape.

BluesDaddy

First drill out the rivets. Then drill new holes in the fender, slightly forward or aft of the old holes, but close enough so the bracket will cover the old holes. Use a small piece of flat steel or aluminum on the underside to reinforce the new holes since they'll be close to the old holes. Then just use a couple fat pop rivets or bolts like these to put it all back together.

Chombi

Yes, I do believe that a good number of "NOS" items sold today were most likely called "seconds" by our LBSs when they were new. Ran across one myself recently. Some of them might even be a collection of good parts put together from maybe defective components, Heck if it was put together well, looks great and works, there's nothing wrong with that as far as I'm concerned. As long as it's not overpriced.

Chombi

Sixty Fiver

The black Bluemels are rarer as they tend to be far more fragile than the white ones... have seen one nice set of black ones while I run across a lot of white Bluemels that tend to be in far better shape.

HandsomeRyan

How about more rivets? https://www.harborfreight.com/hand-ri...set-38353.html

rhm

Yeah, I can do pop rivets. But they always have a kind of stud sticking out of them on the hidden side, don't they?

I also have some rivets I got for leather work; they might work, though they're not quite the right look.

khatfull

rhm

Yes, I know something is very screwy here. The bracket is off-center. The fender is twisted. And from looking at a macro photograph taken from only a few inches away, with all the concomitant foreshortening, it looks like the plastic extrusion is also asymmetrical. That would explain a lot, and you may be right. I don't think so, but I will indeed check.

Michael Angelo 

"There are no trash cans on a production line". Parts that are not perfect are
Still sold. It's the only way the part can be warrantied, if it's thrown away the manufacturer takes an immediate loss.

khatfull

It looks like they centered the bracket properly but that molded ridge isn't centered. That twists the fender against the bracket and it goes to the right which is why you have to mount it to the left to get it centered over the tire but then it's not centered in the fork.

Fenders, the most frustrating accessory we deal with I think

repechage

Maybe there was a reason it became to sit on the shelf so long.

cudak888 

"Good enough for government work."

-Kurt

-holiday76

that reminds me, if you purchased a 1995 Chevy Beretta or Corsica there is a small chance a few of your driver side dash bolts werent installed properly. Sorry about that.

Of course, if you own a 1995 Beretta or Corsica there is a good chance it's sitting in your back yard on cinder blocks and it has huge pieces of Dupont paint missing from it.

that's all I have to add except that I'd re-rivet that fender. I have a few rivet guns.

HandsomeRyan

Nope. They pop off to be (nearly) flush.

TacoPropelled

Good enough for the girls we go out with.

ftwelder

The "nail" in the rivet has a small flaw that causes it to fail in a certain place on the nail. Choosing the correct "grip range" will prevent exposure of the remaining piece of the nail. Rivets come in several different types, sizes and materials. I would say, 1/8" X1/8" (diameter of hole/grip range) aluminum nail with aluminum dome head rivet, perhaps a large flange. This the most suitable product for the application from what I can tell from the image. Steel/stainless nail MAY have to high of a threshold and bust the plastic.

RV stores often have small quantities available of high quality POP brand rivets.

sailorbenjamin

I was engineer on a ship that the owner/captain was getting ready to sell. It had one of the first computerized autopilots and the thing didn't work right from the very first. I won't bore you with the laundry list but the problem I had to face was that the electronic compasses "fade" after years whether they sit on your boat or on a shelf. The loal rep said he had 3 of those compasses on his shelf, NOS and he's sell us one for $300 but he was pretty sure it wouldn't work any better than the one we had.
Then my contract expired and it was the next guys problem.

JohnDThompson 

Campy 1010B dropoout, faces machined, drilled and tapped for Portacatena, but never stamped with "Campagnolo."

cudak888 

Love it.

-Kurt

rhm

I love happy endings!