Repop rear fender

[panster]

Can someone tell if a genuine rear fender sits central between the frame rails?

Hi all, can someone tell me if a genuine rear fender sits central between the frame rails? (behind seat, above chain guard). I'm trying to fit a repro (V-T) '54 fender and it wants to sit over to the left of the bike, (lots). If I loosen all the mounts, fender, oil tank etc, and centralise it, the rear frame stays are miles out. I know this is hardly unusual with A.M. parts but it would help to know if it should be central. If so I guess I'll have to move holes about and use spacers to get it near enough while I wish for an affordable genuine fender to surface. Before you ask, yes my frame is straight.
Thanks guys,
J.

[mbskeam]

hello,
I don't know if a real OEM fender is on center ,but my repop is but I also had to do some tweaking of brackets to get it to fit on center line of the rear tire and in the frame up by the oil tank, these braces will bent the way you need if you just muscle them into place, and when you go and tighten them up if it moves then tweak some more.
if theses are not painted I would add some metal strips (12GA) to the backside of the fender where the top brace meets the fender, this will stop the crack you WILL get from the edge going on up, this sucks to find after your nice new paint job :'(.
the other problem is with the rear lift up part and how the 2 half's meet, when you tighten this up watch how much it pulls the lower part of the fender out of alignment, this is from the metal tabs not being square with each other, my fix was to build up the tab mounts with weld and grind down until square, and with the bolts tightened up it did not move it around. how many hours do you have.....LOL

mbskeam

[panfreak]

Hours?
I removed the rivets on one rear strut that goes to lower section and had to refab one 1/2" longer and rerivet so fender would be straight. Then I had to dolly the bend in lower section where it meets at hinge so both sides lined up nicely. Also dolly'd the crap out of the chainguard area to smooth wrinkles. Added a couple more tabs on the inside to hold wire. Drilled for tail light.... body work...
Let's see... I figure a repop fender was a good 8-10 hours to get it nice. Thank Christ my labor is free.

[panster]

Thanks for the replies, at least I know I'm not going mad,
or doing something wrong now.
I think I have got a particularly bad fender here, with the front
bolted down correctly,the rear stays don't come close 'till the chainguard area starts to buckle under pressure !!!
The fender I was using, (Knuckle style repop), lined up perfectly.
This is a swap meet fender, so no return to vendor, at least it doesn't
owe me much money.
Thanks again for much valued advice,
J.