'Budget' Wide Body Project on 1980 SC

[flat6pilot]

Originally I wasn't going to do a thread on this but later changed my mind. I'm already about 5 months into the project and I'm getting ready for the painting stage.

I'll start from the beginning:

There is nothing special about this build other than trying to keep $$$ to a minimum. (i.e. keep the while-you're-in-there under control.) Some of you high dollar guys might find this thread boring.



My goal is to have an RSR 'tribute/inspirational' feel, but with a 'bolt-on' look that many might identify with the RWB cars from Japan. My intention isn't to make it look like an RSR or RWB, just pull some ideas. While the flares will be bolted on, I'll be using 17" Fikse Fuchs to bring a little RSR look back to it.



The project car is a 1980 SC that already has some engine modifications, so I won't be doing anything more to that as she undergoes some cosmetic surgery.
* EFI
* Low boost turbo setup (~320whp)
Suspension still has the torsion bar system.
Brakes are stock.

I'm picking my battles one at a time. Upgrades to the suspension and brakes will follow on a later project.

This is both a street and track toy. It had some accident history in the past so I don't feel too bad about cutting into it.


Here's how it looked when I started: (OCT 2016)




Betterbodies 'Super Wide 930 Turbo' fenders were ordered (outside of the 'kit'). I believe they were quoted as 10.5" wide in front and 12.5" wide on the rears. Here's how they looked when they arrived:










I was pretty happy with the quality. They had a pretty good fit over all, but will need trimming to complete.

Next post: Trial fitting and alignment.

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[Rodsrsr]

Subscribed.

[Queefchief]

Ive been waiting for this build!

[Lukesportsman]

sub'd

[YermanCars]

A little inspiration....

[flat6pilot]

Originally Posted by YermanCars

A little inspiration....

You were already part of the initial inspiration, thanks!

[Cook&Dunning]

Perfect timing on this for me - looking forward to this. Subscribed

[flat6pilot]

Disclaimer: I’m not an experienced body guy and have no idea what I’m doing. However, there’s a first time for everything...

OCTOBER 9th, 2016

The flares came with quite a bit of extra material around the edges. I presume it’s like this for those planning to mold them into the body. I don’t, so I’ll have to figure out how I’m going to make a nice, even radius cut. More on that later.

When I first began planning this project, I thought I could get away with painting the flares and bumpers separately and leave the existing paint on the car alone. I taped the area around the wheel arches to protect the paint and started eyeballing the flare location. The vertical position was pretty set, as the Better Bodies flares had a lip at the bottom to guide them into position. The lateral position is what I had to get right so I spent quite some time fussing over it. The front and rear bumpers hadn’t arrived yet so I couldn’t make any permanent decisions.




I started with the rear flares first: I spent a little time getting the center of the wheel arch and hub lined up to use as a reference point, going back and forth from the right side of the car to left. I wanted to get it 90% close before the bumpers arrived. I knew if I was off, the rear bumper would be cock-eyed on the back. I had to make reference marks on the flare so I could check how far laterally it was from the edge of the taillight (reference mark #1). I also used the bottom edge of the door as a 2nd reference mark. I did this so I could continue to check it side to side. What I was doing was trying to get the center of the flare arch to line up with the wheel hub. Admittedly, this would be easier if I already had the new wheels that I hadn’t yet ordered. But to order the wheels, I needed to get the flares on and measure how much offset I would need to fill the space. It’s the classic chicken and egg dilemma: Do I fit the flares to the wheels or the wheels to the flares? Remember: I have no idea what I’m doing.









The front flares seemed to line up pretty good overall but in hindsight that proved to be false. I got them close but continued to get the rears dialed in first.








To be continued...

[scotricker]

sub'd. you're a effin genius !

[mikl911]

Sub'd can't wait to see how this comes out. Would like to do this too my 78 SC!

[Cory M]

Damn, that's wide! You may want to get your final wheels and tires mounted and use them to help guide the fit.

[JackMan]

Agreed. You really need to get your wheels and tires on it before committing to affixing the arches to your tub.

[flat6pilot]

While I was waiting for the bumpers, I continued to check the rear flare placement over the next few days.



I think overall I was less than a ¼” off at any given reference mark side to side…



The photo gives the illusion that the right side is wider than the left. It’s not…




The bumpers finally showed up on October 15th.
These are the Rennspeed RSR front (11”) and RSR rear (13”). I thought these were well made. They come with mounting studs to attach to the original bumper location. I've since removed my 'crush' tubes and solid mounted my previous fiberglass bumpers with a mounting flange. I'll need to make a new set for these front bumpers.



The rear flare/bumper combo looks like it meets up nearly perfect, but it’s only because the flare isn’t seated all the way to the body.





Once I had the rear bumper on, I held it in place with some C-clamps and made some final adjustments to the flare location. Again, this took several days of scrutinizing. After I was happy with the location I needed to know where to make for first attachment point. I had to decide how the radius was going to look so I got a pencil and a length of string and started drawing…





It took me several tries of getting it ‘exact’ (even?) followed by a little artistic flair to make it look right.




I took my ‘template’ and moved it over to the other side, but discovered I would run out of material if I continued. Figures. I went back to the other side and shortened my string length and started over…




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[flat6pilot]

Now that the radius was determined, I needed to drill some holes. I took some bolt hole spacing inspiration (used the radius inspiration from this, too.) from here:



I counted 11 bolts (I’m not using skirts so I added one underneath), measured the distance around the outside radius and divided by 11. It gave me something like 6.5”. That was my bolt hole spacing.

Transfer to the flare:



Measure 6 or 7 times then drill once for each hole…
(Notice how much the bumper sticks out past the flare.)

[mikl911]

Awww the suspense!

[flat6pilot]

Once I was able to make it through the first flare, we moved over to the passenger side.

This went pretty quick for the most part, but ran into a slight fitting issue while my helper held the flare and I drilled holes.

The flare has quite a bit of flex so you have to position it where you want it by 'cupping' it slightly so it fits flat along the body. It's kind of hard to describe but image holding a metal bar horizontally in front of you and trying to bend it into a U shape. That's what you have to do to the flare...just slightly, so the bottom edges sit parallel to the floor. Anyway, we didn't do enough of that, and as we started drilling holes on one end, the other end of the flare was way off when we finished. (We noticed it about halfway and stopped)








I was feeling pretty froggy at this point so I decided to cut some excess material off to see how it would look. I wasn't 100% sure on the arc I drew so I gave myself an inch or so leeway.



Pretty rough cuts but you can kind of see the direction...



That's really rough...

[flat6pilot]

The flares were still rough-cut and the pencil lines I drew were not as defined as I liked them to be. I was basically doing this freehand so I needed a better method than just committing to it using a black Sharpie.

Instead of a Sharpie, I used black pinstripe tape so I could make little adjustments if I didn't like what I saw...
In hindsight, I should have done this before I drilled holes. Oh well, remember I'm making this up as I go.









This worked out really good. I could trim off any excess with my air tool and sand the rest up to the tape line.

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[flat6pilot]

Trimmed and edges sanded:











Am I boring you guys yet?

[jimtweet]

Pm sent

[Queefchief]

LOVE the write up! I so want to do this!