Hi guys. I haven't been in here in a long time. I noticed a few people are getting wider fenders for their FC's. Mostly front fenders, though, not the rears. I can understand - the front fenders simply unbolt while the rears actually require modification. Some people might find the idea of cutting up their rear fenders intimidating. No fear! Since I just did mine, I'll post some pics. Hopefully this will encourage some of the other FC owners to go for it.






The rear fenders are two sheets of metal which are bonded at the lip by spot welds and glue. We need to cut off the lip in order to separate the two sheets. I used a cut-off wheel to do this, although a cutting tool with a reciprocating blade is faster and probably better.





Here is the bottom of the fender after cutting. The outer sheet is vertical, but the inner sheet slopes downward at an angle towards the outer sheet, joining at the lip we just cut off. The outer sheet is the body panel. The inner sheet forms the "curve" of the wheel well. We are going to hammer the inner sheet upward and outwards until it meets the outer sheet further up. We are going to change the shape of the wheel well. In order for the inner sheet to bend into the new shape easier, I made a few slits in the metal with some tin snips. You can see the slits I cut in the picture.





Hammer the inner sheet upwards and outwards, "raising the roof" of the wheel well. The edge of the inner sheet will naturally start to pull away from the edge of the outer sheet.





The inner sheet is now meeting the outer sheet about two inches further upward from where it used to meet. You'll see that the inner shape of the wheel well has changed significantly. The top no longer curves downward towards the opening - it's now mostly flat. Right now it looks kind of ugly, but that's okay. We're not done yet.





I placed a tiny dab of structural adhesive between the two sheets of metal, then clamped them together to keep them from moving. Next, I drilled a hole through both sheets with a 3/16" drill bit and riveted them together. Note that any rivet capable of being fastened by a hand tool (as opposed to a pneumatic rivet gun) is relatively soft and could possibly work itself loose over time. It "should" be okay, but I used the structural adhesive just in case. Cosmetically, the area is structural - it is secured to keep the panels from changing shape. It is not structural in the sense that it reinforces the frame. It's going to be covered by the wider fender, so you don't have to make it ultra pretty. It is important that you secure it though. The noise of the two panels rubbing alone will drive you nuts, not to mention what your surrounding bodywork will eventually look like if you don't.





The inner and outer sheets are finally riveted and glued together. We can now trim the excess. In this case, I took it all the way off to the crease.





At last, the recirocating blade has arrived! Cutting is now 10 times faster.





This is how much vertical clearance I had in relation to the fiberglass fender before trimming. Note that 1/2" - 3/4" of fender has already been trimmed to separate the two sheets of metal.





This is how much vertical clearance I had afterwards - more than enough to clear a 2" wider rim moving up and down from normal use. I carefully tapped the lip slightly outwards again as well.





Lastly I coated everything with POR-15, a really rugged rust resistant coating. I made sure to completely seal in both sides of the rivets as well. All that's left to do is wait until the POR-15 dries and then seal the inside seam with weatherproof sealant from inside the car. The new fender will simply rivet over the entire panel from the outside. I'll post pics of the completed car later.



I hope that helps some of you. For the record, the wheels going under these have a 125mm (5") dish. That's gotta be some motivation! Thanks to Kell for the help. Please don't make fun of his Honda engine.

 

Nice man. Most people here would say, impossible. I read a book bya metal fabricater who did a complete wide body for a Mercury (Capri?) the Mustang's cousin. I'd say your doing a damn good job based on what he did and what you did. Hope to see the finished project soon.

 

Wow, way to innovate Good pics and stuff too. Thanks for taking the time to share this with the board. I look forward to seeing the finished product!

 

Thanks. I'm not really innovating though. This has been done a zillion times in the past by guys 2,000 times more talented than me. I think it's important to share though, and explain things well enough that anyone can do it. Not enough of that goes on in the forums nowadays.

 

Always nice to see stuff explained in laymans terms (even though I've done this before, '67 mustang sedan)

 

did you keep the rivets on your car? you never took a shot of how they look when they are done

 

I think MIG welding would be the way to go, If it was a sheet metal replacement going on there.

 

Got an outside pic so we can see how you're splicing it together in that department?

 

in for later

 

Exactly. Damn good write up. Where did you buy your widebody kit from?

 

Interesting. I look forward to seeing it when it's done.

 

what widebody kit are you going with? In the finished product are you going to leave the rivits exposed? Are you planning fiberglassing and bondoing the new fender to the body around the edges or what?

 

Hi. In answer to your questions, the rear fenders are from M Sports. I went with the 50mm version, but skipped on the front fenders. I didn't like the cosmetic vent they have on the front fenders. I had this feeling like that vent was going to be cut out and glassed into millions of Honda fenders in the near future, if it hasn't already happened. APC initially was going to import M Sports, then they went ahead and made their own molds and copied their stuff. Kinda sucks for M-Sports, but I just heard APC might have declared bankruptcy? If so we'll see what company eventually buys out their assets. Anyway, for the front fenders I went with the Mode 5 fenders from Mariah Motorsports which are nice and clean.

I've read a lot of comments concerning the fit and finish of fiberglass parts from both Mariah and M Sports. I went ahead and ordered them both anyway, mainly because I'm realistic about the fact that no fiberglass part is ever going to fit like a factory part, and they all need some manner of body work. My Mariah fenders actually fit pretty good right out of the box. I think it's a plus that I had to drill my own mounting holes. As for the rears, the M Sports passenger side fit very good. The driver side is sort of warped, but I got it to fit. I am going to rivet the rears on and just paint over the rivets. The M Sports fenders aren't easily blended into the body, mostly because of the way the wrap around the edges of the car. In Japan, I hear people buy them to cover up fenders damaged from off-road excursions rather than fixing their car. The fenders are designed to hide damage, which would explain the way they're constructed. They normally extend all the way down to the bottom of the car, but I cut the bottoms off since they hit my body kit.

I actually used to have a DiMoS wide-body kit. The M Sports kit fits better than the DiMoS kit, but is less fancy looking. The M Sports fenders are actually smaller as well. I don't mind slightly wider, but I don't like it when the car takes on a really obvious peanut shaped profile.

Also, someone mentioned mig welding the panels together after I cut them. I could. In fact, I have a mig welder right here - but I would also have had to strip the paint and I didn't see the need to do the extra work. Riveting is fine; no one is going to see it from the outside. Besides, I knew I was going to start this thread and I didn't want to give anyone the idea that you need a welder. I think it would be cool if people just went out and did this kind of stuff more often. I'm not the first guy by far to put on wide body fenders. I just want people to feel like they can do it if they want to, because it's easy.



From underneath. You can see that the rivets are hidden by the fiberglass fender. There's a lot of clearance here.






What the body looks like with the fender on and off. I haven't permanently attached the fenders yet. I still have more body work to do. The car currently has a candy red paint job and I have to sand a lot of that off before the paint gets too thick. I'm going to paint the car blue with a gold pearl next. (That's actually not as garish as it sounds.) I'll paint the car next week and post pics when I'm done.

 

Where did u get that front end and how much? I like how it looks. I might come back to this thread in the future when i have enough money to do a widebody kit.

 

I bought the entire R-Magic "To Bounds" kit about 6 years ago. I added the two slits in the bumper myself. At the time, I paid about (I think) $3500 for the kit, shipped from Japan. It was pretty expensive. I don't know what it sells for now, but the last time I was at SEMA I saw that Bozz USA had picked up the line for import. I think the kit is still kind of rare in the US, most likely because of the price. I only know, for sure, of one other guy with the same kit, and he works at HKS USA. I'm sure there are others who have it, though, but I'm in Hawaii and I don't get to hang out at car shows and rotary meets. I think that the Aerodyne car has an R-Magic kit also, but the version without the round headlights.

You might might try giving Bozz a call. The last time I looked, R-Magic had dropped the price of the kit, but I'm sure it's still pretty expensive. It used to be super popular in Japan, but now it's considered an "old" look. It's not a crap kit though - the headlights actually sit in a machined bracket which allows the lights to be aimed. It came with all new wiring and relays also. The lexan covers over the headlights aren't installed in the pic.

 

well, i can't figure out where to look...i dont have a thing to translate

 

Bozz is in Norcal, Fremont I think.

 

Don't know much about Bozz. I searched "Bozz Performance" and found both their web site, and a website that says Bozz sucks or something of that nature. They looked very professional at SEMA in 2003 though. They appeared to be well-funded.

 

Excellent thread, I watched my bodyman do my wide-body and he followed much the same method, but he welded rather than riveted but I agree it makes no difference since they are not visible.

I am wondering about how you plan on covering the exterior rivets you plan on using. Are you going to spread them out evenly and just paint them or filler over them first.

 

Be careful, when molding the flares. If you use too little filler, when you do your final paint the filler will expand slightly(even properly sealed), and the rivets, and the edge where the flare meets sheet metal will show. Be sure to completely cover the rivets with filler after grinding them down, also carry the filler all the way to the leading edge of the tail light opening. I learned this the hard way on my widebody. I was trying to use as little filler as possible, and it blew up on me literally. Carl

 

there is no plan to mold the rears, just rivot and paint

 

Bozz, or the Bozz sucks people were well funded?

Looks great. I've been thinking of going widebody on my 7 also. I just need a way to fit some bigger meats (335 or so) under the back, and this is a pretty good indicator that it's not too bad a task, should be doable by my friends and I.

Beautiful car BTW.

 

I just found this link on rxecret7. They don't list the FC parts, however. I checked my records and I actually paid a bit over 4K for the kit and spoiler when I bought it, not $3500. Their prices appear to be right in line. The front bumper with the headlights is just killer expensive. It's also worth it. The bumper itself has a cutout for the lights, so visibility is really good. A lot of drop in "conversions" don't actually provide a lot of useable light. I've never done business with rxecret7, but I think I talked to that guy once or twice. He seemed really cool. I'm sure you guys on the forum know more than me.

 

Actually, if you can help it, don't use body killer at all. I've used a flexible bonding epoxy before and sanded it to match. When I did that job, however, I didn't use rivets. I used a big bead of Duramix to glue the fender on, and sheet metal screws to secure it in place. After the Duramix cured, I backed the sheet metal screws out and patched over the holes. Fenders are always going to flex while driving. Still, that's a good point, Carl. You need to overlap the panel when you blend it in. I'm not sure about a thick layer of body filler, however. As a rule of thumb, you're not supposed to use a layer thicker than 1/8". Still, there are other fillers than just Bondo. They sell semi-flex stuff, and stuff with a lot of long hair fiberglass in it, so the rule of thumb doesn't always apply.

Again, I'm being practical and just leaving the rivets showing. Painted, it doesn't look so bad. The Signal Auto 180sx and the Team Julius cars we had here in Hawaii had painted rivets, and you really couldn't tell. Come to think of it, Kazama's Kei Office car was like that too. Until I saw those cars, I wouldn't have considered painting over the rivets. Really, it wasn't too noticeable.

 

A couple people emailed me asking where they can get the rear flares. I got mine through a friend in Japan, and he doesn't actually sell parts. I did, however, find the same part listed on the Raretrick website. Again, I haven't done business with these people, but it's an avenue you can explore. I have the 50mm flares. Kell with the S2000 powered FC has the 30mm flares. BTW, the 50mm ones come with a piece that fits over the gas tank door. The 30mm does not.