Group 4 Steel Flare Help Requested

Ron,

I was anticipating the lower front and rear peices to be interesting, but wasn't expecting them to be the fight you indicated they are. I'll take a better look at them prior to working on the driver side rear, so thanks for the heads up.

Dave

Pardon the crap in the garage but for comparison here's my '74 with mocked up rear fiberglass GP4 flare. IMO the steel flares don't have enough outward curvature and too horizontal. The fiberglass has a very different profile and width. I can see where 2" is easily gained or lost depending which flares you have.

Julian

Wow, this flare really curves.

Are you going to leave the edge or blend it into the fender?

quote:

Originally posted by PanteraDoug:
Wow, this flare really curves.

Are you going to leave the edge or blend it into the fender?

It will be blended.

quote:

Wow, this flare really curves.

Looks like a VW bug front fender. Maybe that's where the venders are getting the steel flares from...

quote:

Originally posted by Z06 Pantera:

quote:

Wow, this flare really curves.

Looks like a VW bug front fender. Maybe that's where the venders are getting the steel flares from...

You know, I can't disagree with you on this. If you look at the Tope car, they look like they just got cut of a 'bug. Gee-ze!
Wouldn't it be ironic if that's what the factory did to save time on modifying the race cars instead of starting from scratch?

Doug,

Thanks for the PICS ...but the other night I was searching for the pics from the factory where they first GR4 car they made them over a round bar frame ...think you can find those pics.

Ron

Does it matter how they made them? My point was the flares at some point need to be standardized and I'll betcha' a nickel that the vendors are using dimensions off of one of the know/and/or available Gp4 cars.

I'll look and see if I can find any pics.

I think they are duplicating off the fiberglass version in a 1/2 ass kind way making them in 3 pieces ? but you could be right but if I owned a GR4 car you wouldnt be using my car as the BUCK.

R

quote:

Originally posted by accobra:
Doug,

Thanks for the PICS ...but the other night I was searching for the pics from the factory where they first GR4 car they made them over a round bar frame ...think you can find those pics.

Ron

Yeah, I remember seeing that old B&W pic from the factory. I'm intrigued by the way metal can be formed and crafted. I wish I had the time to learn.
Will

quote:

Originally posted by accobra:
I think they are duplicating off the fiberglass version in a 1/2 ass kind way making them in 3 pieces ? but you could be right but if I owned a GR4 car you wouldnt be using my car as the BUCK.

R

Ron, where is that picture of the flares being made in steel in the factory that you have? I can't find anything like that.

I'm wondering why they would bother to make them out of steel for just a race car? Why not fiberglass and either rivet them on or bond them on.

I think the steel flares must be made on an English roller and in doing that all you can do is come close to something, and seems likely that is fiberglass that maybe was lifted as a mold from an original car?

Race cars first off tend not to be the most cosmetically correct production cars converted over.

There is usually something wrong with the car that the car is resigned to the use as a race car to begin with.

I wouldn't even presume that two of the Gp4 cars are exactly alike to begin with and you guys are trying to make something cosmetically perfect.

Tall order. I've got to wonder exactly how much body filler Halls Super Panteras have in the flares?

Again...best of luck to all.

I understood the factory GP4 cars had fiberglass flares riveted on. Most race cars would use FG where possible, especially in a vulnerable place like a fender flare.

A good resource for GP4 cars is Patrick Hals website, he owns "Andy", "Candy" a couple GP4 replicas and the ADA Pantera.

http://www.detomasogr4.com/cars.html

Julian

I remember seeing the photo too, it is in one of the published Pantera books. I'll try to find it to post it here.

Mark

Got a little more work done this weekend. The rear bottom half flare has a pretty good fit out of the box to be honest, the front bottom halfs are just a total mess.

Got the driver rear flare mocked up so that it matches the passenger rear. Used a bunch of templates, and measurements, and then the calibrated eyeball to check for fit.

I took a good couple hour hit because I moved too fast though. If youre going to do this all I am going to say is Measure Measure Measure! I must have accidently adjusted the turnbuckles subbing in for my shocks and springs at some point, and my ride hieght was messed up. It ended up causing one flare to be longer then the other at the lip. Easy fix at this point, but could have been a big rework if I had caught it at a later date.

Dave

The picture at the factory is a wire form used to get the flares to fit properly around the wheel but they also serve another purpose.The flares have to look the same from driver to passenger side.The idea of the wire form is so that you continue to shape the steel until it fits perfectly on top of the form.An English wheel is not for the novice metalshaper because it will quickly shape the metal and if you have limited experience you will end up with a over stretched piece that will never fit.If you want to tackle a flare I would suggest purchasing or making a leather bag filled with sand and some hardwood mallets.The fiberglass version has much more shape and thats why you are having problems with tire clearance,maybe purchasing a fiberglass set fitting those to the car then using that as a form would be an option