Flare/Body work question

[gmckey]

I'm thinking about a few ways to go with my 99 LS I just picked up and I am considering going as extreme as possible with the wheel setup.

Let me preface this by saying, I'm planning not on going full out crazy on the cars look body wise. I don't want full widebody with widened rear door panels or anything or any crazy fiberglass/metalwork to make the car look crazy by any stretch. I just want a widened stock look more or less. At most the car will get stockish looking aero like Wald lip kit or mayyyyyybe something Admiration-ish that just rounds out and slightly lowers the body line.

Anyway, cut to my question. I love the look of this W124's flares front and rear. You can tell the body is wider than normal, but it's not like some of the crazy full body widebody conversions out there. I'm guessing the front and rear flares on this car are less than 1" front and rear right?
http://carview-img4.bmcdn.jp/carlife/images/UserDiary/2845413/P1.jpg

And here it is, what is the BIGGEST flare you think is possible front and rear without looking crazy dramatic and going more towards crazy looking that flowing smoothly with the rest of the body. I'm thinking to fit the sized wheels I'm looking at, the flare will need to be AT LEAST 3" if not more like 3.5" for the rear of my UCF and somehwere around 2" for the front. Now I know EndlessNA1 has a 2" pull on the front of his UCF like mine and it's done cleanly and accomplishes exactly what I'm going for. My only worry is will a 3"+ flare look crazy out of place on an otherwise stock bodied car?

PS: Anyone know where I can get the lower vented trim piece (right behind the front wheel) that I keep seeing on Japanese UCF's? Is this an oem piece or what?
http://carview-img4.bmcdn.jp/carlife/images/UserDiary/3129843/P1.jpg

[RASRX7]

I'm thinking about a few ways to go with my 99 LS I just picked up and I am considering going as extreme as possible with the wheel setup.
Let me preface this by saying, I'm planning not on going full out crazy on the cars look body wise. I don't want full widebodywith widened rear door panels or anything or any crazy fiberglass/metalwork to make the car look crazy by any stretch. I just want a widened stock look more or less

its a contradiction in itself...you might want to rethink your previous statement..its gonna have to get crazy if you want to look like the benz in the mag...what they did is extreme and not easy

[Dominik]

On the contrary, that W124 has off-the-shelf fibreglass overfenders by a company called VITT. As far as i can tell, the flares do not go into the doors, and its not a 'blister fender' kit. On the otherhand though, it does involve cutting out the original fenders (otherwise your wheels will just hit them)

As i said in the W124 thread, i can contact the owner of the W124 to find out more about his car, but not sure how much help that will be for your UCF21

[chmercer]

i think he just means he wants widebody, but not like wildstyle with 3 feet of fiberglass on the door.

[RASRX7]

http://2cars.cz/files/extra/w124/w124-04.jpg
the stock rear between the door and stock flare looks really close to handle the size flare in the mag...but basing it all on pics..you might be right..
as Dominik says cutting is a must...

and anything cut is extreme...at least to me.. ;)

[gmckey]

This is what I mean by crazy... this is tasteless but you get the idea...
http://www.quality-autoimport.no/catalog/images/civic-hatc-wide.jpg

or this, more tastefull, still not what I'm looking for
http://www.j-specimports.ca/pics/Ben_Celsior/003.jpg

I realize there will be metalwork involved, just nothing like looks like whats pictured above. I want a flare that looks more like an extreme pull than anything... something that will blend with the stock body lines more or less... I'm just wondering if anyone has seen any cars that pull this off with 3"+ flares and not have it come out looking like it's an extra 3" of crap plastered to the side of the car.

[Dominik]

I think i know what you are talking about... More like what they seem to do on 14 Crowns, and Sentia's. You cant tell its widebody other than the fact it is wider than other cars...

Thats blister fenders, and it works best on rounded cars like the two i mentioned above. It would be hard to make it look 'natural' on the Celsior without continuing from the boot to the front IMO

[gmckey]

Got any pics of said cars Dom? I have my eye on this certain set of wheels that will need 3" more room in the back to even begin to fit any UCF even with super stretched tires... I'm just trying to figure out if it's even possible to fit them and still retain that OEM sleekness that I think gets killed once you start going full 8+ piece widebody with matching front and rear bumpers all flared out and stuff.

[Xotic sC]

don't know what you mean...it's a bit hard to get some flares if you're not planning to touch the door panels?

[Dominik]

http://www.k-break.com/event/13gw_sizuoka/20.jpg
^^^ Thats a bit more obvious, but they get more subtle than that

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/carb0/cr50.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/carb0/cr54.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/carb0/cr56.jpg

[dome1984]

whoa nicest mb ive seen :o could you please post a better image of that mag? would love to draw the car :D

[gmckey]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/carb0/cr56.jpg

This is the closest to what I'm wanting to do. Only, I would want a non-vented front fender to retain even more subtlety. Would it be easier to flare the stock front fender with metal work or simply fill the vent and go from there? I REALLY like the idea of all metal parts though...

With such body work I'd definitely be looking at full repaint along with extensive modification to rear fender panel as well as a bit of smoothing from rear door panel into the flare... I'm guessing for quality work I'm looking at somewhere between 3-4k? Think that's about right? The extent of my current body work knowledge is buying fiberglass parts for my S14 and doing an aweful paintjob in a garage on the entire car. oh yeah, and a bit of body filler work... that turned out like shit too haha.

[Dominik]

That particular one would be mostly fibreglass, not much all metal work goes on in Japan from what i have seen.

And for that kinda work in metal i would have been expecting close to double what you estimated, but thats in Australia... not sure about the US

[gmckey]

Well, I'm mainly talking about cutting and pulling out the fender in the back and then welding in metal to complete the new arches. Smoothing with body filler and everything in the rear is fine, I just want it to be MOSTLY metal. And I'd prefer to just do the same in the front to OEM panels just because the thought of all metal makes me warm and fuzzy inside with a big ol' smile on my face 8)

I'm just sick of cracking fiberglass parts on my old 240... granted, the LS will never be driven anywhere near as hard or as (honestly) stupidly as I did that car. I just got sick of ripping off the front bumper backing over garden hoses (yes, a regular sized garden hose was tall enough to catch and completely rip off my front bumper), catching and ripping off sideskirts over any sort of speed bump, and have the rear bumper decide to fly off on the highway and across 2 lanes of traffic (luckily without getting hit!)

I want all metal and oem panels until I get quality aero (if I get it at all) and mount it securely!

[RASRX7]

talk to the guys in hawaii ..they're doing mad pulls out there..

[gmckey]

yeah, I was looking at EndlessNA1's car for reference... he's running 2" front pull and 1.2" rear pull.

But he's only fitting 10.5j-1 at what looks like 7 or 8 degrees of camber at lowest height which means really, to drive on it on coils (which I plan to right now) it would need an even larger pull to daily drive on it w/ a sensible amount of camber. I do not want to drive with anymore crazier than 6*, I mean, props to Dom but I don't want that much camber daily! I think 4-5* is perfect for that extreme camber look but still retain decent handling and driveability.

Plus, the specs of wheels I'm looking at will extend about 65mm more on the outside edge (~2"). So I'd be looking at anywhere from a 3.5-4" flare realistically. I could tone it down a bit on the wheel specs and only need about a 2.5" flare...

Anyone thing 2.5" pull can be done on the rear of a UCF without cutting? :-\ :uglystupid2:

[elpresidente]

I don't think VITT made fenders that wide. They did make aero which is actually mild, but made agressive by owner. Here is VITT W124:
http://www.vitt.jp/e_te_w124/images/e_te_w124new01.jpg
http://www.vitt.jp/e_te_w124/images/e_te_w124new04.jpg

Maybe it's just stance/fitment that make them more wide appearance.
I lov that W124, best I've seen. Leon wheels make it great!

[One Ton VIP]

In all honesty, you should reconsider how extreme a wheel you want to run... if your objective is to get a fender out as much as possible w/o any additional bodywork (including something even as simple as a skim coat of bondo and spot paint over the fenders/qtrs), then don't expect to get any more than an additional 15-20mm in the rear. Sure, you can pull more, but then you will end up with ass looking fenders that you will have to remedy with... additional bodywork. Endless' car looks nice in pics on the internet, but ask for closeups of the front fenders. I'm sure there's some herpes action going on... you can actually see it in a few pics actually. It sounds like he plans on doing bodywork soon though, so all that will be taken care of... but if you don't anticipate a repaint in the near future, and you go too far, you will end up hating yourself for basically taking a perfectly fine car, and essentially "ruining" it.
http://www.onetongarage.com/van/waytosalvage.jpg

[gmckey]

Oh I plan on doing body work, that's not the issue. I just want to see how much I can flare or pull the fenders without having the blend the entire side in as well. Basically, I want a car that looks as little from stock as possible with it still being wider front and rear if that makes any sense. I'm coming from a 240. It's a pile as it sits now.; I'm going the proper route on this car ;)

I'm planning on full repaint anyways because there are a few little rock chips and door dings I'd like to take care of up front and I want a solid black, not the two tone it has now.

[Yummyriceball]

Hey i have that magazine... that is a really sweet benz...

[hipermax_d]

http://www.onetongarage.com/van/waytosalvage.jpg


i love that picture haha
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