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After losing my patience with our 1965 Clark Cortez motorhome, my love for our RV was restored once we got our clutch working. This lead us to continue our restoration and our next job …
When our Cortez arrived to meet L and me in Virginia, we were amazed at how clean the underside of the RV was. That being said, it had spent the last 10 years in a garage somewhere in California so it should have been.
However, after months of driving up and around the farm in all weather conditions from torrential rain to intense heat to inches of snow, the underside of the Cortez was looking rather muddy, especially behind the wheels.
Two areas that were particularly bad were the storage box behind the front driver’s side wheel and the shut-off valve for the black tank behind the rear driver’s side wheel.
Because this was only going to get worse, I took off a day to work on the Cortez. The task was simple: make mudflaps for the RV.
Previously, I’d ordered rather large lorry (or tractor trailer, for colonials) mudflaps and picked up an aluminium bar and a pack of self-drilling bolts. Armed with my supplies and tools, it was time to set up in the garage.
After getting the front passenger side jacked up and the wheel off, measurements began for the front mudflap.
Then I used a retractable knife to score the plastic before snapping a clean edge at the size and shape desired.
It was here while trimming a notch for the fuel line I almost severed my finger off.
Okay, the knife did just hit my nail, but it could have been more serious!
After the edge was snapped, a strip of aluminium was cut to match the length of the mudflap and pre-drilled at measured intervals for the self-drilling bolts.
To mount the mudflap to the RV, I first used a self-drilling bolt and drilled it through the chassis before removing it. Next, I put the bolt through the aluminium and mudflap then reinstalled it into the chassis. Moving along each of the pre-drilled holes, I secured a self-drilling bolt in each location.
With the first mudflap mounted, the wheel went back on the Cortez before the motorhome was lowered off the axle stand, and I got a chance to admire my work. Happy with the progress, I repeated the job on the front driver’s side without issue.
Moving to the rear mudflaps, it went well too — The only difference was the width was wider due to the arches being a little deeper.
All in, the custom job took around two hours and got us the perfect-sized mudflaps for less than $40.
