Original Fender Flares

[Ricky Slade]

I have seen posted on the site, repairs which were made to the existing fender flares. Does anyone know if donor sheetmetal for this area can come from opposite wheel wells. The rear edge of the front flare appears to match exactly the front of the rear flare. I realize there may be some differences in the flares due to the belly pan and the rear fender not being the same. From all my measurements it appears a drivers side front flare utilizing the rear portion could be donated to fix the passenger side front section of the rear flare or vise versa. Same goes for the two reverse sections. Any experience out there. I am just trying to use salvage sheetmetal I already have, rather than obtain the absolute correct piece.

[sawdust]

Just maybe, someone with photchop experience could 'cut & paste' to verify this. MTCW.

[heimue]

You brought back some memories from a long time ago (15 years +). I heard something that the rear "flares" from a VW Golf 1 can be used pretty easily on a GT, if you turn them around (Golf right rear on left side of the GT, Golf left rear on right side of the GT). I'm not sure whether the rear Golf's flares go on the front or rear of the GT. I never evaluated this, just remember i heard it a looong time ago.

Dieter

[Ricky Slade]

Hey folks, I got good news. I took a gamble and it works. First I made a cardboard template of the wheel radius. This was checked against the reverse opposite side. Evidently the metal stamp for the front and rear flares has it similarities with the nearest side of each flare respective of passenger and driver side. However I removed the rear portion of the driver side front flare to repair the front portion of the passenger side rear flare. Sounds complicated. I had to get it right in my head also. Check out the pictures and realize this is just rough mock up over existing metal work. The real advantage to using a front fender to repair the rear flare, is that front sheetmetal does not have an inner double lip welded to an inner well. The sheetmetal is one thickness with no need to clean up in order to make the repair. One rusty donor GT just made a valuable contribution. I will post some better pics of this when completed. Check out OPELSUN on this site. His repairs are top quality. He actually gave me the idea.

[Phoenix]

You could have made a mold out of sprayable polystyrene foam and checked it against the "adjacent" fender but since its a donor car anyway, it really doesn't matter.

Thanks for giving everyone valuable info.

[Ricky Slade]

Actually I did make a fairly accurate example of the flare with cardboard both the curvature and radius of the metal. Never thought of foam. I knew the flare needing the repair was distorted. It did not look correct. The bondo would have been an inch deep if fixed as I originally found this car.. This is definately going to work. The donor piece is beadblasted and ready for the install this week end. I will post some welded in-place pictures.

[Ricky Slade]

Okay its done. The driver front fender flare has been used to fix the passenger rear flare. It does work very well. Actually after welding it in place it surprised me how correct it fit. There is no doubt now about the body panel being stamped with the same mirror image die. I hope someone else can benefit from this little trick. I was not convinced until after it was welded and I took this picture. The radius is dead on. Measurements were taken before and after which all worked out within one sixtenth of and inch.