I'm in the planning stage of my street-legal, road-race 67 LeMans build. I'm not talking about using a baseball bat and rolling them out, I'm talking like adding 2-3 inches of Trans-am goodness.
How does one make fender flares? Good ideas? Bad ideas? Links? Most of what googles gives me is links to bolt-on plastic 4x4 stuff for trucks.
Maybe not quite this extreme, but I'll give you this for inspiration:
There are lots of methods.
The Vorschlag guys built their challenge car's flares by hammer forming the sheet metal for tops, cutting a flat piece of sheet for the sides, and tacking it together/in place before proper welding.
JThw8 usually makes his from coremat fiberglass. He cleans and waxex the fender REALLY WELL, lays glass directly on the fender, and peels it off. (He uses lots of wax so the fiberglass doesn't stick well.) The fiberglass fender is then bent to the desired amount of flare. Extra glass is added to fill the gap.
http://www.misfittoysracing.com/Yugo/flaretutorial/
The scAries/special K guys used the same method I used to make my grill shell and cowl; a hand bent frame covered in whatever unloved bit sheet metal that's lying around. I think they used a file cabinet for their flares
I used a box fan and a washing machine for my grill shell, and a freezer and a washer stand for my cowl.
BTW, back in March, I told Dave that the magazine should do a "Fender Flares On A Challenge Budget: Three Ways" type of article....it is the sort of thing that's an easy article (just have each team write up their method in detail and write a few filler/transition paragraphs) that's technical, useful, and cheap....what I'd love to see more of.
I would love that, I am hesitating on several flare jobs on my mutts.
I made a basic spiderweb framework for my MGB Sebring out of those 18" long steel wires that hold insulation in place, filled with spray foam, shaped, then layed fiberglass over it. I did this on a parts car then used that as the basis for my molds.
Her's how we did them on Randy's Camaro:
Started with a framework of wire tacked in place. Randy did these with 1/8" wire IIRC. In this case, the look was something in between 80's DTM and the factory Z28 flares -
Then I skinned them -
On that first one, I welded the sheetmetal to the wireframe. On the subsequent ones, I blacksmithed the sheetmetal around the outer wire with a hammer and dolly -
The one I welded is probably ready for paint easier. The ones that I rolled the edge will take more bodywork, but may end up with an ultimately nicer finished look.
I need to add some updated to this thread but here's the tutorial on how I did mine. they are not done yet but you get the idea I just have to finish weld them.
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/metal-box-flare-construction-thread/30763/page1/
Dammit. Now I've got unhealthy (and ultimately unlikely) thoughts about the '67 LeMans ragtop under small pile of crap in my garage.
nocones wrote: I need to add some updated to this thread but here's the tutorial on how I did mine. they are not done yet but you get the idea I just have to finish weld them. http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/metal-box-flare-construction-thread/30763/page1/
Your thread helped inspire me to say "Yeah, I can do that."
I borrowed someones mg sebring flares and pulled some copies.
Are you mounting the splash, or did you pull molds, and then mold your own?
I pulled molds, then the flares. Sort of figured a high probability of destroying the flares at some point.
I bought a roll of ABS that dirt track guys use for body panels and I am going to try to form some up using a heat gun. My thinking is that a little contact won't cut a tire down and I see they use something similar on jeeps and pickups from the factory. Has anyone gone this route? I have done a few tests to see if it holds shape when it cools but I have not had much luck with stretch/forming it like you would do with an english wheel in steel to make it "flare".
JoeyM wrote: The scAries/special K guys used the same method I used to make my grill shell and cowl; a hand bent frame covered in whatever unloved bit sheet metal that's lying around. I think they used a file cabinet for their flares
That's exactly what I did on the ScAries with one addition. I too made a wire frame and welded it to the body first as Dave did. Made it much easier to position the flare and do any final tweaking to the flare itself to make it fit. Plus, I could tack it to the frame as necessary to help make adjustments to the fit.
I found another car with similar wheel openings and a complete steel flare - lots of them go over a seam in the bumper these days. In my case, I used a Mk 1 Rabbit but other people have used Omnis. Bought some patch panels, cut the flares out (cost the same as a junkyard piece of steel) and welded them in.
In reply to DILYSI Dave:
I want to do this exact same thing with my 79 firebird. You have a build thread?
thunderzy wrote: In reply to DILYSI Dave: I want to do this exact same thing with my 79 firebird. You have a build thread?
Car is mine, Dave is co-driving it with me. Here is my build thread on NastyZ28
http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showthread.php?t=184672
Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions. Randy
81cpcamaro wrote:thunderzy wrote: In reply to DILYSI Dave: I want to do this exact same thing with my 79 firebird. You have a build thread?Car is mine, Dave is co-driving it with me. Here is my build thread on NastyZ28 http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showthread.php?t=184672 Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions. Randy
Thanks, I didn't have anything else to do this morning.
Keith wrote: I found another car with similar wheel openings and a complete steel flare - lots of them go over a seam in the bumper these days. In my case, I used a Mk 1 Rabbit but other people have used Omnis. Bought some patch panels, cut the flares out (cost the same as a junkyard piece of steel) and welded them in.
Similar to how I did the flares on my buddy's MGB GT recently. I used Nissan Maxima front fender sections, turned around and put on the opposite sides. Gave a nice, smooth flare with finished edges:
The phone book method of flares
skip to about 10:40
In reply to oldtin:
Well I've never seen that method before...
Not sure how that technique is any better than rolling :) but I guess thats not the point. Just like cut springs are not better than actually lowering the car
Great replies. Sorry it took me so long to get back in but my laptop went kablooey.
One of my concerns will be not just covering the wheel, but allowing the wheels to move in them. I could just tack on some sheet metal or fiberglass to the existing bodywork, but I'll probably be fitting 315-355mm rubber out back and similarly meaty gummies up front. The rear won't be much trouble - I can extend the tub to meet whatever flare I do. The front might be an issue since the wheels turn.
I really need to get the car out of the field and into my garage so I can do some measuring... but I don't have the garage yet.
oldtin wrote: The phone book method of flares skip to about 10:40
Well, that's a little brutal. It looked like one of those books was a Haynes manual, too.
curtis73 wrote: One of my concerns will be not just covering the wheel, but allowing the wheels to move in them. I could just tack on some sheet metal or fiberglass to the existing bodywork, but I'll probably be fitting 315-355mm rubber out back and similarly meaty gummies up front. The rear won't be much trouble - I can extend the tub to meet whatever flare I do. The front might be an issue since the wheels turn.
Curtis, those flares do add room for wheel movement; a huge amount of the original bodywork is cut away before the mounting.
http://www.misfittoysracing.com/Yugo/flaretutorial/attaching.htm
You'll need to log in to post.
