Fender Flaring?

joeythesaint · Jan 10, 2006

What if, rather than tubbing, you flared the fenders instead? Something along the lines of the Porsche Carrera 4.

This idea came up over a pitcher of beer the other night, while figuring out how to fit the biggest possible tires on the rear of the II.

Here's the thought: cut out the curve of the rear fender well; bend a piece of, say, 1.5" pipe to fit the curve; cut a track in the pipe and slip it over the cut edge of the fender well; fair it in with copious amounts of Bondo; paint to match. Fill it with a 315/60, and it's still street legal.

Where's the flaw in the plan? Seriously.

dmoody · Jan 10, 2006

The biggest problem with that type of flare is it doesn't give you much room for suspension travel especially if the car is lowered.

d

393 Boss · Jan 10, 2006

I have done a set of bubble flares in the past on a cobra II and others for 15x10 wheels, wish I would of took pics now lol. Clearance will not be a problem as long as they are done right (bubble and not like most van flares). I have flared many vehicles for big tires over the years. IMO roadsterII on this board has a really nice set made on his car not to mention the rest of the car is super trick looking.

joeythesaint · Jan 10, 2006

Boss, how did you do your bubble flares?

Blue Thunder · Jan 10, 2006

I plan on installing 3" wide flares on my II in the near future. I have 275/40ZR17s on the back now, so I'm hoping to fit 315/40ZR17s with the larger flares, front and back.

393 Boss · Jan 10, 2006

It can be done a few diffrent ways, using the original wheel well, section cutting it every 3-4 inches and reforming it by hammer/dolly and welding in gaps or using metal rod for a new lip, taping cardboard to it from body and glassing over it to make a scratch built flare. Some fender lips from other cars could be used too. MAS fiberglass had some nice prebuilt stuff we use to use years ago. I will see if I can find some MAS adds

you can check out some of my own flared cars, these are are maier flares.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/703264
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/705486/3
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/703264/3

joeythesaint · Jan 10, 2006

I want the scoop on the 3rd one. What the hell is that? VERY cool!!

393 Boss · Jan 10, 2006

It is a "scott injection" setup on the madmax car which used some decent sized wheel flares too.

http://www.madmaxmovies.com/ I made my own version for my blower engine.

I just remembered also that I have an old can-am / imsa style body flare kit for the mid 70's camaros/firebirds that I started to fit/graft onto a mustang II years ago but never finished, the body styles/shapes are suprizingly simular in some ways, come spring time I will mock it up again and take some pics. this is the kit I used less the nose part. On a mustang II it looks quite nasty mean lol.

The MAS bubble flares are/were simular to these, I don't think they have a web site.

I am sure that these are the MAS bubble wheel flares here, these are for the rear of a camaro/firebird. I am sure they could be made to work on a mustang II body depending on how big of a tire is used

393 Boss · Jan 10, 2006

I don't know if this has been posted here before but here is a awsomely flared out, tricked out II race car using I think 17inch wide rear wheels and 12 wide wheels up front.
http://www.nzmustang.com/History/Racecars/PDL2.htm

joeythesaint · Jan 10, 2006

That Mad Max car is unf----ing real.

itsaMustangtoo · Jan 11, 2006

Where's the flaw in the plan? Seriously.
How bout with the copious amounts of bondo

joeythesaint · Jan 11, 2006

Well, most of one door panel and the cowl are already bondo -- as I found when I prepped the body for paint last time. I'm not building a $70,000 street rod, here.

393 Boss · Jan 11, 2006

On that note... after 30+ years of being in the autobody trade, I have seen/heard my share of guys complaining about not wanting filler/bondo in in/on there cars which has always been a bit silly. Fact is that most of todays fillers are so good and the tech is so advanced you could make a car out of most of them alone. Fillers are so good today they are used in/on many diffrent things/products today, not just cars. As far as using lots of filler or having thick filler is NOT a problem what so ever as long as it's done correctly by being mixed and layered properly and not all put on at once.

Though the years I always got a laugh out of guys saying they want new quarters panels because they don't want any bondo in it, fact is in most all cases we still need to use filler after instalment anyway lol AND even many high fill finish primers on the market could be considered as bondos too so it's really no big deal if it's "thick"... as long as it's done right, it could outlast the sheet metal on a car.

joeythesaint · Jan 11, 2006

393 Boss said:
On that note... after 30+ years of being in the autobody trade, I have seen/heard my share of guys complaining about not wanting filler/bondo in in/on there cars which has always been a bit silly. Fact is that most of todays fillers are so good and the tech is so advanced you could make a car out of most of them alone. Fillers are so good today they are used in/on many diffrent things/products today, not just cars. As far as using lots of filler or having thick filler is NOT a problem what so ever as long as it's done correctly by being mixed and layered properly and not all put on at once.

My father-in-law is a boatwright, and while I learned most of my basic tool and bodywork skills working on this stupid car, I honed them by spending two years in his shop. Modern fillers are amazing. When I say "Bondo" I mean it to refer to any of half a dozen types of modern resin filler that I have access to. Kinda like "Xerox" refers to any copiers, I guess. My bad.

Power Surge · Jan 11, 2006

Another option, is to use one of the old body kits they used to use on the IIs for IMSA and other road racing. I don't know if they are still available new, but I see them around for sale from time to time.

roadsterII · Jan 11, 2006

You could always modify a monroe handler's flare kit too.
Anyway, when I first started the roadster, I had built flares along the lines that your talking about Joey. Built out of tubing and sheetmetal (piecut pieces) along with reworking the inner fender for clearance. After I had them both done and the mud work was done, I cut them off. I felt they didn't flow well with the II's bodylines. My new flares are all sheet metal and don't hang out there as far so now the rearend will need to be narrowed. Attached is a early picture of the roadster with the tube frame (sorry about the little bit you see of it, but you get the idea).
If I was to do it over again I'd buy some new back quarters and build the flare on them off the car, rework the inner fenders once the old quarter's off then attach the new quarters in one piece. It would be easier to weld the inners this way amoung other things.
My two cents.......

78CobraII · Jan 11, 2006

itsaMustangtoo said:
Where's the flaw in the plan? Seriously.
How bout with the copious amounts of bondo

Heh, heh, heh...a buddy in high school put huge flared fenders on a Beetle convertible. They covered the G60 tires pretty well and looked good...until he rolled it. Next time I saw it, it had chunks of Bondo missing so big you could put your fist into the holes! It was fun while it lasted though...

393Boss...how did you survive that wreck in the '73!?

The "Handler" kit was available through Maier Racing for about $1300 last time I heard. Its a race weight set, so you have to ask for thicker fiberglass if you're going to drive on the street (and want it to survive ).

That Firebird kit is in the IMSA style which was real popular in the late 70's/early 80's. I think it still looks pretty good on the II. The PDL race car looks so much like Charlie Kemp's MII IMSA racer that its hard to imagine they weren't related in some way.

78CobraII · Jan 11, 2006

This has got to be my favorite "stock-looking" Cobra II. Aside from the fiberglass hood and fender flares and BBS wheels, it looks almost factory.

The rear flares look like something that Maier or MAS sells.

It would be really cool to reproduce the Kemp Cobra II look with a street MII rather than dropping MII sheetmetal over a racecar frame. The street car wouldn't sit as low, but it would still look pretty good.

Reproducing the Kemp street "GT" protptype would be cool too.

393 Boss · Jan 11, 2006

There is another company (bodypart unlimited) that sells the monroe kit, they got pics of parts at the bottom of the page. The problem/or not with this type of wide body kit is that it is a bigger job to do VS a standard bubble flare. Simple bubble flares IMO tend to show off the tire more which is more my taste.
http://www.showcars-bodyparts.com/must7198.html

78CobraII, the wreak I got into when I was a kid was a hard lesson learned and a very bad time in my life.

All this flare talk... i am going to phone MAS and order a new catalog lol.

joeythesaint · Jan 11, 2006

Remember, anyone can restore a classic, but cutting one up takes some balls.

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