Flared arches - WIDE

**MGZR-TDI-MK2** · 24-01-13, 20:29

fitted new wheels recently ( finally lol. )

but they are 17" staggered wheels with 8.5" fronts and 9.5" rears.
both front and rears were sticking out the arch so i needed to do something.

after long consideration i decided to have a crack at rolling / faring the arches. here's how i got on:

FLARED ARCHES

Front arches

the fronts needed to be brought out approx 15mm to clear the wheels. To do this i first grabbed a short scaffolding bar and after watching several videos on you-tube put the bar in between my wheel and arch and repeatedly rolled it back and fore increasing the angle and force each time which eventually rolled the arches pretty nicely.

then to get more flare i grabbed a set of mole grips and bent the arch lip out and used a hammer to tap any dents out to get a smooth curve on the lip.

Here's some pics: (CLICK ON EACH TO ENLARGE)

Rears

The rears were allot more tricky as there's a double skin and if i messed it up, its not as simply as swapping the wings ha. but i decided to go for it none the less. thankfully the gamble paid off.
first i folded the inner lip back out on itself, then hammered it flush with the curve of the arch. This got the inner arch perfectly smooth and curved. but this did not create a flare.

So i then wacked hell out of it from inside the arch with a large lump hammer. then eventually flared the arch out approx 10-15mm but at the same time made hell of a mess with the rear quarter.. but i knew it would need some filler / fibre-glass etc so wasn't worried.

Here's some pics: (CLICK ON EACH TO ENLARGE)

after applying a skim of fibre-glass n filler the arches turned out pretty good, very wide now compared to a standard ZR arch. the standard flat lips are now gone and its curve all the way to the edge.

Here's some pic's of the car with filler etc: (as it stands now)

as you can see it looks a mess, and needs a respray again.. but i was planning on a blow over anyway so not that bothered.

RESPRAY TIME:

spent all last week re-spraying my car

It needed a complete re-spray due to the extensive arch work i did, and the rear bumper was modified by fitting a diffuser. I have a mate who owns a repair garage and he lets me work on my car there so i only have to pay for materials and i do all the work, inc painting the car. so doesn't cost me hardly anything (Before you all say i must be made of money ha)

here's some pics of how i got on before paint: (CLICK ON EACH PICTURE TO ENLARGE)

With all the body work complete, i then primered the whole car:

Now i had the car primered, i wet flatted it all with 600 wet and dry to get it all smooth ready for paint. then stripped it to paint it all. Removing the doors and bonnet etc to ensure i get paint inside all the reveals as i'm not 100% sure the new paint will be a colour match with the old paint.

Here it is stripped:

Here it is during paint:

With all the bits painted, all that was left was to rebuild it. this takes time as care must be taken not to mark the freshly painted parts. here it is going back together:

In total i spent solid (long) days at the garage and even slept there for 2 of those days as i needed to get the car done. I had to take a week off work to do it, so not really my ideal way to spend a weeks annual leave but now its done i'm happy :=p: and i'm going to enjoy the rest of the year taking it to show and stuff.

Hope you liked the post