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*whew* Rims finally arrived. It took 6 months. I put off mounting the fenders permanently until my wheels came in just in case I had to do more bodywork or modifications. I still have some leeway as to how I can attach the fenders. Also, I have some leeway on what tires to run as different sizes have different sidewall profiles.
The wheels are Volk SF-Challenges 19x10.5, -9 offset for the rear, and 19x9.5, -3 offset for the front. The black face color is an option, but it's a special order and they charge for it. I went with black because Volk rims tend to spawn knock-offs very quickly. In fact, they already make fake SF-Challenges. The real Volks have a special design where the rectangles and Volk logo around the inner edge are embossed and polished. This is better than having rivets, IMHO, because a lot of knock-off companies now replicate that look using stickers that look like rivets on the outside edge of their 1-piece, cast wheels. On the other hand, Volk paints the centers and then machines off the top layer of paint before clearing over it - a process that's not duplicated cheaply. From the test fitting, it looks like I'll be running 245-35-19 tires in front, and 275-30-19's in the rear. Clearance is super, super close, but then, I measured them out that way for minimum gap and maximum dish. The dish on the rims measure a true 4" and front and 5" in the rear. I figure, if you are going to order custom rims, you might as well go for the gand slam. =)
all of that work and you are just gonna run tires as wide as someone could with stock bodywork, yeah I see yours are 19"ers though. Still, I'm surprised you cant fit more width in there but maybe the 19" wheel has a tire height that makes it difficult?
I give you props for posting this on the forum, its guys like you who share info with great pics that really help people out. I'm so tempted to widebody my FC, mostly to put the power to the ground (LS1 swap) I'm in need of 315's out back on an 11" wheel. With only the money for the widebody and DIY installation so far, I'm gonna put it off until I can afford some 17x10 front and 17x11 rear wheels like those from CCW or possibly some SuperAdvans.
Nice thread! your car is lookin' great! keep on updating us!
Yikes! The pictures on the front page disappeared! I uploaded them onto rx7club instead of hosting them myself because I figured that rx7club would generally display faster. I guess the pictures expired? I'd like to edit the front page posts to link to my pics, but there's no edit button. I think that disappears after awhile also? Maybe I'll make a web page and link the page when I have time.
Owen: Thanks for the compliments man. Yeah, I'm not running anywhere near as wide a tire as I can. I probably won't until much later. Originally, the plan was to stuff 315's in there asI used to have a 3-rotor for the car. I had a bunch of stuff happen, and consequently, that plan got shelved and I really don't know when I'll ever get around to finishing it. So for right now, I don't need big tires. I just went out and bought cool rims. Actually, for SF-Challenges there wasn't much of a choice anyway since they're not regularly offered wider than 10.5. It's not a waste though. Almost no one making huge power has only one set of rims. A set for the street and (likely) more than one set for racing is pretty common. I'll get around to that if I get around to finishing my engine.
What options for flares to fit 16 X 12 wheel, beyond Tri-point Engr? What is the mm size need for 16X12s?
I'd think you'd need another 2.5" to fit a 12" wheel on the FC in the rear, so, thats what, 65mm? give or take a few? I dunno if you can fit a 12" wheel under the 50mm rear flares but it mostly depends on tire width and spacing from the rear suspension.
www.raceonusa.com makes a tripoint replica kit for very little money. Ive seen one locally being installed by a friend of mine (Rx-Ben) and it fits ok, some big gaps where the front fender meets the door but otherwise fine for the cost (under $600 shipped for the 4 fenders). they sell the 4-fender kit with a front lower bumper piece, on ebay for like $750 shipped.
yeah I hear ya, no need to roll wide, sticky rubber on the street and get into trouble on an offramp at 120+mph... right?! maybe when my taxes come back I'll just buy the race-on-usa kit. I might as well do it before prices go up or they disconmtinue it, that would suck. another local (soloIIdrift) used mariah wide front fenders and they were poor quality and the body shop had to re-do a lot of the surface on the fiberglass, that cost him some $$$$. so, its good to see some other options now for the FC guys!
Ok, I finally found time to resize my pictures and put them up on my server. This post is a repeat of my first post, but with pictures this time.
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 reciprocating 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.
no there are not any other solutions for the rear since it is actually a quarter-panel that is a piece of the chassis and this is because the car has a unibody design/structure.
this is a great thread, nice work man, nice pics!
is it done yet?!?!?!?
I haven't looked at this thread in 20 years. The car now safely resides in Las Vegas with it's new owner, fender flares still intact. I noticed that the photos I originally attached are missing, and I am unable to edit the original post to upload new ones, so I'm just going to quote myself and repost here. Actually, it seems I tried to fix it and the photos disappeared again. Maybe the third time is the charm? Photos seem to be hosted by the forum itself now, and allow for much larger files. While I'm at it, I'm also going to fix some of what I wrote that turned out to be incorrect.
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. [EDIT: the outer edge of the inner sheet is going to have to spread wider when you hammer it. If you don't cut slits, it won't do what you want.]
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. [<-- EDIT: This is wrong. You can totally use a hand riveter, but you probably don't want to use aluminum rivets.] 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. [EDIT: poor choice of words. You're just joining the two panels together for what comes next. It is [i]not structural in the sense that it doesn't 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. [EDIT: Also learned the importance of completely sealing this from the inside when I did a burnout and tire smoke started getting into the hatch.]
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. [EDIT: I can't believe I was so broke *** I skimped on buying good tools. The proper tools are worth it.]
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.
[EDIT: LOOK. AT. THAT. PHONE. I bet if I still had it, it would still work.]
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. [EDIT: Don't forget to plug any gaps in the sheet metal on the inside if there are any.] 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. [EDIT: I have no idea where the pictures are. Most of the photos I have from this time were on film.]
[CONT]
I hope this 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.
[EDIT: Kell Komatsubara passed away in 2020, taken far too soon. Cancer sucks. He taught me more about cars than almost anyone.]
[EDIT2: Pics of the wheels. I went too large in hindsight. Back then, I just wanted to build something crazy. I had Volk SF-Challenge forged wheels, 19x9.5 -3 in front, 19x10.5 +11 rear with 94mm dish in front and 106mm in the back. (Notes I found has the rear at +11. and if so, I posted the wrong offset further up in the thread. I actually don't know which rear offset is correct. It's been along time.) The sparkly black color was something custom that I had agreed to, sight unseen. We were a Mackin dealer, and I'd learned to trust my guy Eddie Lee who was Mackin's sales manager at the time. Ed had great taste, and all the wheels I got from him for my personal cars were some special color or another. Eddie left Mackin in 2016, but took what he learned from his time there and went on to co-found Titan-7 forged wheels. I have Titans on my current car now. Still miss the FC though.]
looks simple enough to do, how the heel do you attach and mould the fiberglass fenders to the bodt though . . .
I actually glued them on with panel adhesive and then blended them in with semi-rigid seam sealer on the edges before body working it. The panels are still on as of 2025 with no issues. I had a lot of friends questioning using adhesive at the time, but fast forward to 2025 and a great many new cars on the road have panels that are largely glued together.
