overfenders: Cutting the stock panel

[Vlad]

Has anyone here ever installed fiberglass overfenders on their car? I ask, because I am wondering how high to cut the stock sheet metal. The plan was a little above the body line. However, I was talking to someone who said that going up to high can be bad.

Not sure how to take that. I did not think it had any structural importance to the car.

Tried searching, but that didn't get me far as everyone seems to do it their own way. Plus, I doubt most people doing this worry about that stuff before they begin.

This is how I was going to do it.
http://zilvia.net/f/chat/259419-cutt...ml#post3348453

[sil8y]

i have. dont go that high. you only really need a couple inches. any further up and you will have to build a filler panel between the inner structure and the outer surface panel. and you dont have enough wheel travel to need to go further. i can go as low as i want with 17x10+12 wheels and 285 rubber. and only used the 30mm overs and just pooched em a bit. the 50mm rears require stupid wheels with stupid offsets to fill them out.

[Vlad]

Do you have any photos by chance? I keep hearing that part plays ko part in the structural integrity of the car, and that it doesn't matter if you go above the body line, as long as you weld the inner and outter pieces together to seal it all back up.

I would juat rather play it safe, and hear from someone that isn't a zilvia member...

[sil8y]

ill add a pic to my profile in a sec. i took it up to just below the body line, pinched the inner and outter together, and welded it up. easiest tub ive ever done.

[logr]

I just cut mine 2 days ago and went an inch or so above the body groove. It depends on how low you want the car and how tall of tires you are running. The way I did it, and it worked well, was to mark where I wanted the bend and cut straight through with a jig saw about 3/4" below that. I then bent the outer fender in to the marked line. After I had a nice flange on the outer fender, I put slits on the inner fender(for the radius) and bent it to overlap the outer flange.

I was planning on welding the whole seam but man is that a bear to weld. I ended up welding most of it and seam sealed the whole thing. With a coat of paint, it looks reasonable. Be sure to prep to bare metal before bending if you are going to attempt welding.

I used flares and the body still looks good above the flares. Before the cutting began, the body was resting on the tires so I figured I needed 3.5" from there, minimum.

By the way. I used standard rear ZG and extra wide front ZG flares for mine to get wide tires covered all the way around. It looks more balanced to me. I will try to get a pic if you are interested.

[Def]

Something like a Hobart 125 or 140 can weld the fenders in one pass with 0.023" wire. Just set the heat to one and the wire feed to around 4 and make a cursive e motion. When you get a little burnthrough just loop back over it and keep going.

[logr]

.03 was the smallest wire I had on hand and my welder is more suited for welding skidder blades 2" thick but I did get the job done.

By the way, the wide ZG front flares are still not as wide as the regular rears due to the shape of the body. The front fenders curve in a bunch and the rears are pretty flat. The Jendosa rears are both right rears that don't fit well on the left but are doable while the JDM wide fronts are side dependent and fit much better. I have yet to get a response from Jendosa on 2 separate questions over a week ago.

[sil8y]

[Vlad]

Thank you guys for all the help. I'm going to just take a plasma cutter to the metal, and weld the two pieces together after. I figure I can go a bit above the body line, since no one has said that it would have any detrimental effects.

This is the car. It's somewhat low, but nothing crazy. The new tires are RS3 in 255 and 265.

[sil8y]

nice lookin car. caution on the filler neck side with the plasma cutter. which overfenders are you using? i went with origin 30mm. ...ehh, needed some smoothing out and trimming.

[Vlad]

Origin 30mm. Should I know anything special for painting them?

Also, did you shave down that lip that's on the inside? I need to trim it down a bit, but I'm scared of shaving it all the way down, so that it can retain some strength.

[sil8y]

not really. scuffed, sealed, base, and clear. no adhiesion issues or anything. like is said though, they did need edge trimming and a block n fill. too wavey for my taste. fit alright and at least the body line is straight. ive seen others that have a really bad body line. hard to fill a groove like that and keep it straight. and i did not take the inner lip down. ...yet. if i do, ill only take half at most. im sure structure issue will result in taking too much out.

[Z28ricer]

No need to cut any of the arch out.

[Def]

Thank you guys for all the help. I'm going to just take a plasma cutter to the metal, and weld the two pieces together after. I figure I can go a bit above the body line, since no one has said that it would have any detrimental effects.

This is the car. It's somewhat low, but nothing crazy. The new tires are RS3 in 255 and 265.

haha - in what universe is that "somewhat low but nothing crazy?" You'd get about 6" in an off at the track before you lost half your FG body work.

[Vlad]

I think the body kit makes it look lower. It's most likely not THAT much lower than your car. The front tires are about the same size as a 255/40, (I have 255/40 RS3's I need to put on) and go up maybe half an inch into the fender. I recall you saying yours were just about even with the top of the fenders.