Hey guys I just did my dust shields last week and saw an awesome hack that saved me a ton of time. Instead of using staples I used 25lb galvanized wire. I cut a 6" piece off, and I bent it around a set of vice grips. Leaving one end 1 " longer. I got some black silicone adhesive and liberally applied a bead to the back side of the new shield. After putting in in place, I drilled new holes in the center of shield through the inner fender. I ended up redrilling all my staple locations sqaure to the edge of the fender opening. From factory most of the staples are at a 45° angle. I would push my longer end of my hand made staple through first followed by the smaller end. On the inside of the fender I grabbed each end of staple with a small needle nose vice grip and while pulling down fold the across each other. After all staple locations are done just buzz across the center of each staple with a small cutoff wheel and there you have it. Easy rust proof staples in a fraction of the time. This took me less than one hour for both sides by myself instead of 2 hours with 2 men. Good luck all
My car is getting a n engine detail right now so I don't have it. But, here is a picture of the engine bay to see the top side. The upper right one is still at a 45° angle. I have since redone that one so they all are Square to the fender. If I were to do it again I would disregard the location of all the original staples and equally space out all the staples. 4 across the top and 2 on each side!!
I took about a 8" piece of galvanized wire and bent it around a pair of vice grips. I laid it over my vice and hammered the corners square. I cut one end about 2" shorter than the other. I took my new shields and made a small bead of black silicone adhesive where they lay on the inner fender. I used the factory layout of the screws, but I should have evenly spaced them out around the shield. I drilled new staple holes working my way from the center to one edge. I put the smaller side in first and then the longer side. From inside the wheel wheelwell I pulled one wire towards the other hole and fold the other wire towards the first wire and fold flat beside it. When folding each wire I found that pulling the first wire with a set of plyers and folding it helped the wire really snug the shield to the inner fender. Both sides took me about an hour total. The drivers side was a little tough with the steering column. All in all it was pretty easy. Good luck
My drivers side came out a little better. I may pull out the passenger side top staples and redo them
Looks great! One tip I read about was to put masking tape on the engine side so that when you drill the holes they show up well. Then you don't have to hunt for the hole when you put the staple in.
I recall using tacks intially to make the hole in the shield using the original holes and hold position from below.
