welding flares, longhood RSR, alignment questions.

[SoCal70RSR]

They're metal flares from Restoration Design... here's a shot of the front after grinding down the welds.

[rennch]

Fernando, how did you fab the part that connects to the bumper?

I'm almost done grinding the passenger flare. Tedious!

I'd love to see a close up of yours...is there any "crack" looking things where the weld is a little proud?

[Zeke]

The old skul grinding disc is just the hard fiber reinforced disc. Careful when you buy them at the home stores because some of them are made for concrete, etc. That's more likely to be confusing in the section where the cutting discs are, especailly if some jerk puts a concrete one on the metal cutting disc peg and you don't see the fine print. The labels are different colors, too. Go slow while grinding and cool with compressed air or a rag.

Now, some of your welds look like they are on top of the metal. When you grind the weld, look to see how thin you are getting. You can see when the thin part heats up and turns blue faster. You will need to reweld those areas. Next, look at the welds at night with a bright light just under the weld. If you see pin holes, reweld. The last step is to use a sandblaster to clean the slag out of those minor cracks you mention. That's just uneven welding and they are little fissures. You don't need any crap in there to covered over with primer and paint. It may come back to haunt you. You can fill some of these flaws with common solder. Make sure that is really clean of all flux, again, before you paint or skim with body filler. I actually go over my welds with lead to make sure they are sealed tight.

[SoCal70RSR]

This is the only close up I have.



It was fabbed out of 16 ga sheetmetal. There is a old thread that shows this piece a little better, sorry I can't find it at the moment, but here are a couple of pics I snagged off of it.





Keep in mind to either bend or weld a lip at the bottom so the front bumper can be attached.

[rennch]

Ok, I have my passenger flare fully ground. Man, that is *tedious* work.

As you can see from the pics, some of the welds have some edge. That's where a couple inches of the panel have warped a bit and left a bit of a "v" where the weld seam is Is this ok? It's pretty light, and I think some filler would do fine there.

Otherwise, for the pinholes I was contemplating welding on the *inside* of the flare so I didn't have to regrind a bunch. I also thought of leading in the low spots, but I have neither the tools, the lead, or the know how. I certainly like the idea though...

[Zeke]

Just clean those out real good, make sure there's no daylight or too thin, and boogie on.

PS, that dark stuff down in there is oxidation, an enemy. Many welders use a stainless wire brush on that. You should have a selection of those, anyway, for any welding.

[klaucke]

You could try shrinking the areas where you have warping to try and flatten them back out, assuming there is excess metal causing the warpage. The procedure involves heating the metal w/ a torch and cooling it quickly with a wet rag -- most auto body books should have a section on this. Also, from the looks of your welds, you were a bit low on the voltage, as the weld looks to be piled up on the metal and not wetted out properly; ultimately not a big deal, but something to possibly amend for next time. If you have a sandblaster, it's a good idea to hit the welded areas lightly before sealing/priming (not too much though, as this can cause warping).

[rennch]

I don't have a sandblaster handy. Do you think a flexible wire brush on a 4.5" grinder will work? Also, would a propane torch work for the shrinking?

[Jeff Alton]

Originally posted by eimkeith
Jeff, that's correct.

BTW, I have some wheel dimension/offset info to start feeding you...

Great, shoot them my way when you get the chance.

Now, lets see some more progress pics of this stuff!!!!

Cheers

[Jeff Alton]

Oh and by the way, thanks to this thread and Michaels thread, I am now waking up at night trying to decide if I should convert my Carrera to widebody....... did I mention I just finished fitting the front and rear bumpers (iroc style) to it, and now I want to buy wide body bumpers and weld flairs........

Anyone know a support group I can call??

Cheers

[Zeke]

Propane torch is plenty for shrinking. Use the tip of the blue flame right on the high spot. Don't move around, just concentrate. When the metal starts to turn color, douse it with the wet rag. It takes time; you have to do it over and over. Cool the rag in a bucket.

[911SCfanatic]

keith, do you have dimensions (depth) for welding an SC flare onto a post-69 early car? thanks.

[alpina]

bookmarked

[rennch]

I have a pretty major alignment problem here. Either I didn't research it enough, or the person who flared these fenders mated them to a non-RSR bumper. Either way, I'm going to have them fixed. What should I do?

Here's what the whole car looks like, then a few close up shots of the fit.












Keith, et al...suggestions?

[Cory M]

it looks like the flare was done to fit a narrow front bumper...

[rennch]

That's what I thought too. So, I'm faced with either buying a narrow or redoing the flare somehow.

[SoCal70RSR]

They were probably mated to an RS bumper... it's hard to tell, if anyone around you has an RS bumper or stock one, it'll be interesting to see how they meet with the fender.

Do my eyes decieve me or is the fuel flap on the passenger side fender? Is that how your tank is set up?

[PcarPhil]

That kinda looks like a ST front flare. You should take some measurements of what you think should be the correct bumper width. It looks like you'll need a bumper that has about 1" less flare per side.

I happen to have an extra front RSR and an extra S front bumper. The S (or an RS) front bumper will probably work well with your front fenders.

[rennch]

Fernando...no, if you look at the text on the hood, you'll see the pic is flipped. Sharp eyes though.

The question is...what would you guys do? Mate it to the RS and be done with it, or fix it so the flares are correct?

[SoCal70RSR]

Tough call, but one thing to keep in mind is what size rim/tire you'll be using up front. A slimmer bumper will show more tire if you're running a wide rim/tire, not sure if that's a look you'd be OK with.