Was able to get some work done on the car this weekend, not as much as I would have liked, but managed to get the passenger rear flare set up in a way that looks good to me, and I can fully cycle the suspension. I outlined what I did below, so hopefully it can help someone with thier project in the future.
First attempt was to form a new fender lip, and then match the flare to to the lip. Seemed like a good idea, but in practice I couldn't get it work. Maybe if I had a second set of hands, but not sure to be honest.
Gave up on the lip first, and decided to start with the flare, then add the lip. I set up the flare with about 2.0" of clearance from fender lip to the tire. Used some hose to maintain this distance to the tire. After a couple of attempts at fitting, it seemed to work the best starting at the rear of the flare, lining it up with the belt line, and then wrapping it around the tire.
This works pretty well up until about top dead center of the flare, then the curvature is too far off. So ended up having to section the flare to continue with the wrap. Multiple sections required, but it lets you keep the curvature correct where the flare intercepts the body, just need to fill in the sectioned areas with new metal.
Once wrapped, the Outside flare lip wasnt straight with the car body, it was angled poorly on the fwd side of the flare. Took the measurements from the tire sidewall, and cut the flare lip so it was straight.
Next was making the new fender lip. Honestly, wimped out here and since I wasnt sure if this was going to work I just grabed some old 4" exhaust tubing and used it to save time. Multiple cuts allowed me to bend it as I needed around the tire, and maintined the nice radius. Good for a quick compound curve for mock up.
Pictures are below, sorry I'm not a posting wiz so I hope they come out OK. Everywhere you see painters tape is a modified/new area of the flare. I just used the tape to see the finish product, so my eye wouldnt by drawn to the unfinsihed parts of the flare.
Fender lip is a bit too far out for my liking, but overall I think it looks pretty good. And before anyone asks, the wheels are spaced out by 2" to achieve this fit.
Let me know if there are any questions. Plan is to mock up the driver side flare to make sure I can get it to match before I spend anymore time on the passenger side flare.
Dave
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