DIY Metal fender flares. Anyone tried this?
 

I found a 00 Miata in the yard the other day ant it got me to thinking about this. I was thinking about a wide body/AC Cobra-esk kinda look.
Slice the areas on the fender and reshape for the desired look. Now you have pie-shaped pieces that you use the extra fender metal from the junk yard to weld into the gaps. There will be some reforming with body and fender tools to get the final look. If done right bondo would be next to nothing.
The scary part is committing to do this, once you start cutting, it's too late to go back.

Anybody thought about or actually did this? Discuss.

Stein did it with his old car project. Saab or something. Looked like a hell of a lot of work.

The Pass has cut fenders

There was an article in Muscle Mustang/5.0? years ago were they did this to a early fox body mustang. It was orange I think, was a great step by step for pie cutting, filling, welding, etc. Looked fucking tits when it was done. I'll see if I can find something on google.

Thanks, I will also try to find some pics/info.

It would suck if your skills can't cash the check your brain wants to write.

Story of my life. :vash:

You aren't considering cutting into that beautiful SE of yours, are you? ;)

I think that sufficiently wide tires for most fit, even more with a roll. If you really need them flared, you can buy a set of flares cheaper/easier than cutting/welding.

Just wanted to see if anyone else has thought about or actually done this. Plastic is fucking plastic. Think 935's and Cobra's.
I gotta about 99 other things to do first, but I still should go cut off the fenders for sometime later.

Eastwood video, makes it look easy. Getting it to transition to the front and rear bumper covers might be tough. In for pics...

Cool, thanks Ken. Looks do-able. Getting the area around the plastic parts to not look stupid is going to take some thought. Then getting the paint to look as good as OE would be harder than the fab part.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1386953289

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Looks easy.

Lol that looks anything but easy

I have done this on quite a few classic muscle cars.

It is a lot of work. Not hard, but a lot of work.

To be honest, the hardest part (which really isn't that hard) is keeping it symmetrical.

The box flares on the subie look like a ton of work. Looking at a Miata, we have way more sheetmetal on the fender itself and don't have the doors or bumper cover posing the same problem.

Box flares make every car better. Just as soon as I say this, someone will prove me wrong. The Internet probes the depths of every topic...

Ehhh I'm trying to picture how awful box flares would look on an NA.

The pie cut method really isn't difficult to do. We used to do that when building Top Sportsman cars to fit the 17"x34" to 17"x36" tires on them. Granted, we didn't have the inner lip/pinch welds to deal with, since we ran carbon or aluminum wheel tubs.

Been there, done that.

Front fenders: Piece of cake. If it takes you three hours before you're smearing bondo you're just not trying.

Rear quarters. An utter nightmare, and that is coming from a man who owns a stomp shear, bench shear, two brakes, a bandsaw, full selection of Fournier mallets and a beater bag, a planishing hammer and english wheel, a plasma cutter, several Mig and Tig welders, a shrinker/stretcher, body saws, snips, belt and disc sanders.... You get the picture; I'm fairly well equipped. The problem is the inner fender wells. Cutting and spacing the arches is straightforward, but reconstructing the inner fender wells will take days of bullshit and fuckery if you don't want it to come out looking like Frankenstein. Or Hustler's arm.

Beware children, that Eastwood video makes it look like a walk in the park so you'll buy their awesome tools. Its not.

Speaking of their awesome tools, I have their Fender Roller, and have been able to get quite a bit of room just by an old school Roll and Pull. Not Widebody Room, but still a bunch of space.

Do you think there would be any advantage to take the sawzall to the junk yard and cut some big, already the same shape chunks of fender to use for later? Miata's are hardly ever seen in yards around here and don't stay very long before they get crushed.
Meanwhile I can try the fender roller and see how that goes. How hot did you haveta go with the paint?

Honestly, no. I seriously doubt that you'd be able to cut anything even remotely usable out of the rear quarters standing in a junkyard with a sawzall, and even if you did, about the only piece of that that might be useful would be a section of the inner fender well, if that. You already have arches.

If you're really committed to flares, I have a set of real JDM Nopro M2 flares sitting in a box up in the storage barn. Starting the job with a set of flares is a MUCH simpler process. You'll still have to reconstruct the inner wheel well, but you can bend and weld the excess metal from the outside of the quarter in to form the inner fender. (Because of course with flares you have to cut back the fender skin underneath..) You'd cut the inner wheel well away, then cut slits in the outer skin up to the desired bend line, then bend each slit in so that it can be trimmed and welded to the cut inner fender well. Repeat 20 or 30 times, make a shit ton of little filler pieces to weld in between the slits, and grind until it all looks good enough to glop up with undercoating. Apply flares, profit. Simple. Simpler at least than doing all that metal work where it'll be finish painted and on the outside of the car.

I don't play that heat it to save the paint game, and if you're talking about hacking your car to pieces with a sawzall, I would think that not damaging the paint in the process isn't your primary concern. I just go at it with the roller, a soft faced mallet and dolly, and a higher regard for my tires than the possibility of the paint cracking when you fold the inner edge back on itself. Shit happens. throw a little clear nail polish over the crack if it really bugs you.

Oh friend, you are woefully underestimating the metalwork, and especially skill, required to pull this off. The paint work is childs-play compared to the fabrication.