I know many people have recently taken an interest in fender flares around here, myself included. I know you can get the flares off of a VW Rabbit, and FIBREMAZ is selling some very well made carbon fiber ones as well. But alas, my heart belongs to these....



Well, I went on a search to find the fender flares that are on this car. I have seen several people mention that they are 240 ZG flares. So I took that small lead and ran with it. I stumbled across a page on thezstore.com, selling fiberglass 240 flares. I am not sure if these are the correct flares or not, but they look extremely similar to me. Best part of all is that they are only $189. Add $20 shipping on to that, and you are looking at a very, very tempting deal....



http://www.thezstore.com/store/merchant.mvc?

So do you guys think that these are the flares on the lovely Tornado Gray FB above? They look darn close to me. Obviously there is going to be some trimming required, but for $200 I'll do what it takes...

Thoughts fellas?

Jamie

 

I say buy em and do a write up. If they fit i will probably be right behind you

 

Mike, I was kinda hoping you would do that!!! LMAO They look really similar to me. Almost enough to convince me to try it. I'm not entirely sure how you flare a fender though. Probably because I've never done it. Do you cut up your old fender and then bolt this on or what? I'm definitely liking the flares, but right now my car fund is hurting a little bit. Maybe when I get the suspension on Rosie put back together I'll look into this as my next project...

Where's Wacky when we actually need him for something? A lot of good those 10,000 posts are doing us....

 

I've heard the rumors that the Z flares will fit as well, if you don't mind taking the $200 risk then go for it. I like the look of that car a lot as well, gotta love the JDM look haha

 

Whoa! Check out what I just found....

http://classicdatsun.com/new/ZG-flares_inst.html

 

Any without the bolts exposed? I am probably the only fan of those style.

 

I like the bolt holes showing, which sort of surprises me. I'm usually into hiding everything as much as possible, but not so much with these. I like the utilitarian look of the bolt on flares....

 

They look sweet, but I can't bear to see the Z-car from the instructions with all that exposed, unprotected steel. They're not my cup of tea, but a gorgeous car. If y'all do this, please tape off and prime that steel with some rust bullet or POR before screwing up / on your flares

 

I have seen that write-up before, pretty amazing how it looks all done

 

I have pics of how to cut the rear fender lips out, taken during the widebody install. When someone gets to the point of actually installing these, I'll post them. Nice find of the Z flare install writeup. I agree with most of it except how/where he made his cuts and joined the inner to outer fenders.

 

Can you elaborate Scott? How would you have done it differently? Also, if you could post of those pictures of the widebody you mentioned that would be awesome. I'd like to see what all goes into this before I commit to it....

Jamie

 

I would have cut more out of the fenders jsut in case

 

this has been known for a while, but no one has tried and seen if the Z flares will work. IIRC, manntis was going to but he left the forum.

 

just see if the company has a return policy.. if they do buy them see if they fit if they dont send them back...

 

I'll need to dig through my pics to find, but the main difference is cutting the inner fender 1/2" lower than the outer fender. That leaves a lip that can then be hammered and dollied back up over the outer fender. This keeps the shape better, even though it's hidden and provides better protection for the tire if needed. If one chooses, a few tack welds and seam sealer will take care of the new joint. Trying to weld the entire arc of the wheel well can easily distort the fender, all the way to the 1/4 glass, as I found out.

 

Nope. I think they would look MUCH better without the bolts showing.

 

So what you're saying is that he should've left a little bit more of the inner fender when he was cutting? (See picture attached) That way instead of folding it up to meet with the bottom of the outer fender, he could've wrapped it all the way up and over, so that it would overlap? It would fold up and over and be about where the red line in my picture is? Then tack it in 6-8 places and seal it up?

Jamie

 

Yeah exactly, that is what i was thinking

 

I agree, the way he went about it leaves a lot of uneven edges and lots of places for water/salt etc to get in. He mentions seam sealer which is obviously good, but you would have to use a ton of it they way he cut his fenders...

 

Exactly.

 

Woah! thats one neat job!!
What did you use to roll the inner fender up like that?? It just looks too neat!
Are you going to completely weld the inner fender to the outer one? or will this distort the panel??

 

Rolling the lip up is easy with hammer, dolly and some experience. I did weld mine and warped the fender all the way to the 1/4 glass, that's why I recommend seame sealer and a few tack welds.

 

thats a japanese picture. in japan they have flares that are made specifically for rx-7's.....actually they make flares for almost any car invented in japan. so because of this they dont usually use z car flares on rx-7's......in the states most people who have flares do use the z car flares mostly because the z car for some reason was way more popular and it was a common body modification....not so much with rx-7's.....keep looking around and you will find flares MADE for the first gen. look up fibremaz in these forums.....he's got some that look real good man and they will fit for sure.

 

man those are sick

 

Scott,

So I'm guessing that you put your dolly inside the fender and then hit against it with the hammer, very slowly all the way down in order to fold up the inner fender? How much extra length do you need on the inner fender in order to be able to fold it up and over like that?