Anybody grafted flares onto a car ?

[70 gsconvt]

I have a 1978 Z28 that I want to give that "race car on the street" look. Kind of like the beautiful 1973 Camaro that's on this site.

Anyway, I'm going to run 315/35R17 tires out back and 275/35R17 tires up front. I test fitted these exact tires on the car and they will work well and look great. I just need to add about 1" to the fender well lips for good clearance. I will be dropping the suspension about 1.5".

I've been looking at cars on the road and many of them have fender well lips on them that would work well on the car. I made of template of the shape of the wheel well and plan on hitting the junk yard to see if I can find a perfect match for the shape.

Has anybody else done anything like this? I have reasonable welding skills and figured I could just tack it to the fender, cut through both and then weld the new one on. I just don't think I have what it takes to pound out the fenders to get what I want without it looking like a "hillbilly backyard" job.

[70 gsconvt]

Nobody's done this? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

[elitecustombody]

Why do flares if you're only adding 1 inch? Slice the quarters,bring them out and weld a strip for added width,

[skatinjay27]

the fronts on this car are from a 2005ish mustang
http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showpost.php4?p=226411&postcount=60

[elitecustombody]

the fronts on this car are from a 2005ish mustang
http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showpost.php4?p=226411&postcount=60

2nd gen have completely different style/shape wheel openings compared to any generation mustang,so it would be a lot of unnecessary work ,when original metal can be easily widened

[smcox1]

Just use the existing fenders and cut them and stretch them that's what he did on the blue mustang he has an entire build thread on protouring its the $5000 mustang build

[skatinjay27]

2nd gen have completely different style/shape wheel openings compared to any generation mustang,so it would be a lot of unnecessary work ,when original metal can be easily widened

yeah i know how the shape of 2nd gen wheel openings are;)
i wasn't disagreeing with you, i was just showing him an example of of a car that used junk yard flares like he was thinking about.

[70 gsconvt]

Thanks for the replies. I don't care for the blue mustang's look that much. I guess I'm looking to do subtle so that someone will really have to look twice to see that's it's not factory.

Is pounding/stretching the metal out that difficult? I have good mechanical skills, but really haven't tried much in the metal fabricating area. Maybe I'll go find an old fener or two and give it a try.

[70 gsconvt]

Went to the yard today to look around. I found a 2001 Caddilac Eldorado and it has the same wheel well shape. So I grabbed a fender for $20. We'll see how things go.

[elitecustombody]

why are you wasting time and money on something that will require more work than simply cut existing fenders and just add a strip of metal?

[70 gsconvt]

Can you tell me where I'd cut them to push out the fender well lip out 1.5" without distorting either end where it mounts? Or would I slice it up the middle at the top of the fender well and pull it out and fill in the space with new metal?

[elitecustombody]

Cut right where the flare starts coming out of the body,leaving the ends attached all the way at the bottom, you will also have to cut the wheelwell as well ,pull the fender out to your liking and weld a piece of metal shaped like crescent moon

[70 gsconvt]

Sounds like a good idea. I just don't want the fender well lip to start going down towards the ground when I do this. But I guess if I'm just pulling it out about 1.5", it shouldn't drop much.

Thanks for the idea.

[elitecustombody]

With 1.5" out it won't drop down much at all,it'll be just fine

[70 gsconvt]

Well, I tried it with a piece of wire and bent it to the shape of the fenderwell. It looks like the lip would drop about 1/2". So that's not horrible. Perhaps I'll give it a try here on the passenger fender. The biggest problem is the fender vent that is relatively close to where I need to cut.

[70 gsconvt]

Well, I cut the fender. It did drop the lip just over 1/2" of an inche. That was with me pulling it out about 2". I found that a fender from a Grand Am, which has a pretty good flare on the front wheels, will fill the moon shape quite nicely. And it's already pretty much the shape I need. Now I just need a welder.

I'll try and take some pics and post my progress, but it's been pretty easy so far.:D

[DETON8R]

Bump to the top!!

I'm starting to look at flares for my next project. I like the idea of cutting flares off another car and grafting onto my project. The wheel openings have rot on the edges, so I need to rework the sheet metal on the openings anyways. And the rot means that I can't have someone beat out the existing sheet metal to the desired shape. I may be altering the wheel base too, so sheet metal surgery is going to be part of this activity no matter what.

Does anybody make sheet metal flares that can be worked and welded into existing sheet metal? Or there is always cutting them off another car.
Possible donor that have the look I'd like is the 2000's BMW M3/Z3.

This is the look I am shooting for, see the photos. 1.5 to 3 inch wider is what I'm looking for.

BTW, I don't like the look of the plastic/poly flares that are common on 4-Wheel Drives and SUV's, in particular the ones that look like a plastic bolt on, that really isn't the look I want. And I'd consider grafting fiberglass as long as it doesn't look too much like a hack job/bondo art project gone bad.