Group4 steel flares

The stock GT5 came with fiberglass. I have had them for 27 trouble free years. Not a crack or a chip or any other problem.

I've have seen the steel fenders and they are totally inconsistent - some good, some bad some horrible. And all will require a lot more work to fit and many more mods to your awesome paint.

My two cents.

Derrick I purchased mine from pantera performance after speaking to all the vendor they said his was the best fit. Need less to say each one come in 3 pieces and is very time consuming and tedious work. Mine I finally managed to fit the to my liking which lead into new rocker panels and a front spoiler of steel. Would I do it again ? Probably ..the real problem was tire size .. the rears are too wide of a opening and stick out way past the recommended offset/ backspace rim the vendors are going to recommend so I have to save 1" off to bring it in and the fronts the wheel offset is fine but the tire they recommend is too big .... after moking up the supsension and tire wheel combo I had to take the flairs and trim them so the spcing is uniform and correct .. all you need is time and money. LOL

Ron

Derrick You will need the tires and rims before considering anything.I would size the wheels to the fiberglass flares and then proceed to get them made from Keith simms.He is a metalcrafter in our area that can reproduce them exactly to the fiberglass ones.He will just use them as templates.I have already spoke to him about flares and what we are paying for them and he said they would not be a problem.Atleast this way if they don't fit for any reason he will be able to modify them to your liking.I can email you his phone number if you like . Sam

You guys aren't making this easy.... Although the fiber glass ones could make this a lot cheaper and I do like the rivet look, but the smooth lines of the steel look sweet too..
Sam, send me that number just in case. Thanks

http://www.ksimmetal.com/index.html Here is his website ,you can get the contact info there

quote:

Although the fiber glass ones could make this a lot cheaper and I do like the rivet look, but the smooth lines of the steel look sweet too..

You can have your cake and eat it....blend the fiberglass flares to the body. This is what I'm planning to do on my GT4 conversion (and the same as the factory did on my GT5).

I already went through this and initially purchased steel flares, offered them up and took them back, they required a lot of work, in fact so much it would have been easier to start from scratch. Maybe if you get them custom made from a fiberglass pattern they will be better. If so point the vendors to the guy that made them, as the curent crop of offerings are pure scrap in my opinion.

Stock GT5 flares go on without rivets. You can see the joint or fill it. On your blue car that could look pretty sweet and require painting only the flares before they go on. Have a look at my car this weekend. But aside from flared fenders are you adding the front and side skirts too?

Derrick,

Are you wanting to install Group 4 or GT5 flares? The thread talks of Group 4 like that are on my car -- but some people are talking about the GT5 style.

I have steel Group 4 flares on my car. I am partial to the steel for the smooth look -- and my flares were butt welded to add strength to the fenders themselves. Of course it is more $$$, but the look is killer.

Just my 2 cents.

Opps, I should have talked about the wheels and tires. If you go the steel route as I did, I would recommend you get the wheels that you want and then have the flares fitted around the wheels and tires that you want. You will get a fit that is second to none -- otherwise you are going to get the cart before the horse if flares are just welded on without knowing where you are going.

quote:

Originally posted by DeMopuar:
Opps, I should have talked about the wheels and tires. If you go the steel route as I did, I would recommend you get the wheels that you want and then have the flares fitted around the wheels and tires that you want. You will get a fit that is second to none -- otherwise you are going to get the cart before the horse if flares are just welded on without knowing where you are going.

Yeah, that's proabably the most important thing. As others posted, some flares can be funky. Mine were fabricated in metal from the original fiberglass flares from Shell Burger in AZ who has done national show cars. So I know the fabrication can be done, and if going that route just be sure you go with someone you trust that really knows metal work, maybe not PepBoys.

Yes I plan to buy wheels before i do anything as you can get a weird surprise when you go to install the wheels and they are not sitting correctly in the wheel well.
I have a set of Wilkinson 17x8 front and 17x11 on the rear GT5 repo's. I talked to Wilkinson about 18x13 for the rear and moving the 17x11 to the front and I haven't checked for fit on the front as of yet. I may see if a 18x14 is available but now I am getting into a tire issue as there are not many available for that fit.
I was talking to Dave when in Niagara Falls and we discussed about mounting the flares to the body with what looks like a gasket between the body and flares like the the GT5 cars have and rivets or doing the smooth look with fiberglass as mentioned before or steel...
The first thing I have to do is to see how the rear 17x11 are going to fit on the front and if I need to reduce the tire size that are on the rims now and go from there.. Thanks for the replies.

Derrick,

I purchased from Wilkinson the 18 x 12.5 and 17 x 9.5 and I have to say you will have few issues:

You can go another 1" out in the rears if the offset is correct .. but you should tell the vendor what you want but the largest tire for a 18" wheel is a 335 18 30 Michelin Pilot Sport.

A 17 x 11 may fit the front but you will not be able to turn the wheels all the way inless the offset is correct and then the gr4 flairs will have to be pushed out further ?

Just my 2 cents on the research in tires and wheels.

Ron

Thanks for the info Ron you have been a great help. I will know more when I try the wheels on the front. the rubbing won't bother me it's how far the wheel is going to stick out compared to the flare and if there is any contact or trimming required to the front or rear fender opening.

On the front the offset Wilkinson gives you he is 100% correct. He found the happy medium. With a 255 45 17 on the 17 x 9.5 the tire just rubs the inside wells .. and the top of the flair .. it will jsut come in contact ... I think I need a smaller tire diameter then he recommended ..but lets just sayt he tire rubs exactly the same amoount is some extreme locations ..Wilkinson does have it sorted out and utilizes the maximums based on whats avaliable. If we were talking Race tires and customs stuff that would be outside this conversation.

Ron

Hey Guys,
I love the look of a fat and wide Pantera like at 5-S but there is one thing I don't get. If you can already get the biggest tire in production under an unflared car, why spend $10,000 on flares, paint, wheels and tires? Doesn't pushing the wheels out put a lot of pressure on things like wheels bearings and undo a lot of the front end engineering that went into the car in the first place? What's it like to drive a car with the wheels offset that much? Maybe the change in offset is less than it looks like from the pictures. I remember putting on mag wheels we picked up from Sears or someplace back in the 70s and we always screwed up wheel bearings and the cars were real twitchy to drive. Mounting the wheels before the flares sounds like good advice. We call a full wheel well the "C" tit in a "B" cup look. A Pantera should be well endowed.

Korina,

You can fit a 335 30 18 under an unflaired car ? This size tire withthe proper offset also utilizes the maximum offset inward where probably your not too far off the centerline of the rim ? And double roller bearings helps too.

I'm using a 335/35-17 on a 17"x11" rim for my street rims. They fit fine. I think the back spacing is within 1' of my Campy 15"x10" which came on some of the cars. I've seen a Pantera with stock rear quarters that had a 345/30-18. My car is lowered also. Can you get a wider tire than a 345?

I know for me the flares go well with the gold chains -- next up, all the scoops and wings that I can add as well. I like curves too ......

Yeah, I have 335's (17's) under the stock rear fenders. Doesn't rub at all. But I love the look of the flares, so I'm doin it too.

If you are going to large flares and 335/35/17 make sure you measure offset, also in our case we have had to add GT5 spacers 1-1/16 in. Will keep you posted on final fit.
Denis