homebuild flares

[porsche735]

Who out there has done their own flares? I am not looking for someone grafting already done fenders on, but more of how you have gone about extending an existing fender. Here is what I did for my old 914, but the 911 is much more complex. Looking to extend SC flares out to fit 16x9 rims with 1/2" spacers...

[porsche735]

Ok, so I bit the bullet and went for it. Here is the progress so far... I hope to complete both sides this weekend...

Chris

[drcoastline]

Wow Chris,

What is the objective behind doing this? Are you making a custom profile or will the flares have the turbo profile?

What are the little cirlces on your welds?

Are your welds hammered or ground down?

[porsche735]

I am doing a custom profile with a more "haunchlike" 997 fender as opposed to the bulbous turbo flare. I am only moving them out about 1" from stock SC fenders which let my skinny 245s fill up more of the wheel well...

The welds from welding on the SC flares are flap wheeled down and the circles are where there were pinholes I need to go back and weld again and regrind...

Thanks,
Chris

[drcoastline]

Thanks.

Looks good I'll keep watching.

[oneblueyedog]

Here's something wild...
Metalshapers Assoc. Community Sites

Looks like you are on the ball with yours.

[euro911sc]

You didn't want to hammer and dolly it out? There was a fellow who took the vertical edge at the end of the fender and dollied it out to meet the curve of the flair. Gained an inch or so it looked like. 16x9's fit with 245 rubber already with no work. A little pulling and you should have been able to get another 1/2" in there for your spacer. Looks like you are going for a good 2"+ with that work!

[giovanni86]

very good idea...

[porsche735]

The metal in the flare area is already very thin ( I can tell I blew through it a few times welding...) and I did not think I could get the shape I wanted hammering it out. Here is the progress from this weekend. I had planned to get these completed, but life gets in the way....

Chris

[Busterblond]

This is fantastic.. there are some very good idea's here... gives me a little hope on my own project . Don't worry about life slowing you down ...its just giving you more time to think out the process ... and thats a bonus.. Buster

[porsche735]

I have been sherking my posting responsibilities. Here are pictures of the rear fenders completed as well as what I did with the front fenders. I think they came out pretty cool looking. Exactly what I had envisioned...






With the mocked up front end...



A longer view...



With the rear wing...

[vintagecarlover]

flat out awesome!! awesome, awesome, awesome!

quick question, why the large cut and reweld on the rear quarters? the flairs i understand but not the big cut...?

[porsche735]

The big cut was because my car is a 1973 which was made of rust held together by little bits of metal. The quarters were well rusted in a few spots and I thought I could get away with the Carrera fenders as they were and keep an RS-like look. But, then we decided to add some spacers to the rear and the tires did not fit well at all....hence the beginning of this post....

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I am trying to get the car done for the first event of the season at the end of April. I know, it looks like a big push to get it done as it is still a stripped chassis and I am shoehorning a 3.2L engine into it....;-)

Thanks,
Chris

[911Freak]

You sir have a pair of huge brass ones! Well done! About half way through I thought "oh no" but you finished it off well and it looks killer! Kind of like ST flares on the rear. Cool!

What are your plans for the car? Club racing?

Post up pics as you complete this build!

[porsche735]

Thanks! The flares came out very nice I think. My Dad suggested we sell the template we made for the front as he was very happy with our work.... We will be priming the car this weekend and I should be able to get some better pictures of the car. Its kind of hard to see the curves with all of the different colors going on. I have to get the car primed this weekend or I have no shot of getting the car done by the end of April.
Yeah, we will be doing PCA and PRC racing as well as Time Trialling. It is built to Spec 911 specs. In fact I just got off the phone with the rules guy to make sure I am building it within spec.

Thanks,
Chris

[jamesjedi]

Those rear wheels look wider than 9's. Great to see this approach. Keep the pictures coming.

[porsche735]

James, they are 16x9's with 1/2" spacers in the rear. Here are some pictures getting it ready for primer on the exterior this weekend. Man, it has been a long time coming... Will be nice to hit a day I don't have to grind and weld.....;-)

Chris

[drcoastline]

Nice work 735.

Let ask you, Does it matter that the engine was out at the time you welded up the flares?

Also I see where some of the sheet metal was hanging inside the flare you were building up. Was that trimmed off later?

[porsche735]

Thanks. When we did the flares, I removed the torsion bar, put the rear torsion tube on jackstands and put the springplate back on. This allowed me to raise and lower the wheel to test travel. I also adjusted the rear to 0 camber and straight ahead to make sure I would be fine. The car can literally hit the floorpans without the tire hitting the flares... I will be fine...;-) I just hope that doesn't happen...;-)

There is no metal hanging on the inside at all, not sure what you are seeing. I came up with a pretty good technique. We cut the filler metal to size and bent it like we wanted. Then we placed it into position and welded one edge to cut fender lip. Then we tack welded every 2-3" including the corners. I then used a cutoff blade and cut the line between the tack welds. I dollied the metal between the spot welds together and welded in a few places, making sure not to capture the metal I cut underneath with the weld. Then I went back and cut the tack welds which allowed all of the metal underneath to be removed. Dollied up the metal at the tack welds, welded them, and I had a perfect match. Worked like a charm... Hopefully, you followed that...;-)

Chris

[drcoastline]

Yep, Followed it all perfectly. It was seeing was the section you had tacked on I could see the piece of flare still underneithe. But as you stated you later went and cut along the tack welds so the piece I saw would have fallen out.

Great work keep posting.