Pettit Rear Fender Flares - Install notes and pics.
 

So I installed the pettit rear flender flares to be able to run the 12.5 CCWs rims and 335 wide tires.

Here are my install notes and pics:

First you should do a test fitting to make sure they line up well and mark off where the mounting holes need to go, et. I had to trim some material off the very bottom/inside edges of the flares to get them to seat right on the body. I am talking about the inside ot the 2 bottom corners, that go in towards the center of the car.

http://www.myrx7.com/images/trackcar/damian_wb_1.jpg


http://www.myrx7.com/images/trackcar/damian_wb_2.jpg

Then what I did was mark about 2 inches up from bottom edge of the fender and draw a smooth curve down the the sides like the mark shown below:

http://www.myrx7.com/images/trackcar/damian_wb_3.jpg


It helps to cut off just the bent lip of the fender, like you see in the pic above. I used a nice sawsall that my buddy Bruce let me use.

Also in the pic above, you can see the hardware I used to fasten the flares to the body are called 'rivet nuts'. They allow be to bolt the flares on/off relativly easily. they are kinda a pain to get mounted in body, but work out very well.

Ok, now I cut from the edge of the fender up to the line i made, with about 2" spaces beween cuts. It ends up looking like flower pedals. Then I bent the outer fender shell pedals to the out sideadn then grabbed the inner layer fender pedals and bend those to the outside, so that they layered on each other a bit, forming almost a new fender liner shape. You can see what I mean in the 2 pics below.

http://www.myrx7.com/images/trackcar/damian_wb_4.jpg

http://www.myrx7.com/images/trackcar/damian_wb_5.jpg

After that is done I test mounted the fenders again and made sure that the metal 'pedals' didnt hit the fenders in a way that would keep them from sitting on the car well. Here is a pic of how they ended up looking with the new fender flare on:

http://www.myrx7.com/images/trackcar/damian_wb_5-2.jpg

And here is a pic of the sheet metal fender liner I added to cover the slots made from the cuts. Also, be sure to paint up any open metal edges to keep it from rusting.

http://www.myrx7.com/images/trackcar/damian_wb_6.jpg


I posted many pics of the final results in this thread:
https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...ht=damian+wide

http://www.myrx7.com/images/wb3.jpg

Very nice! Looks like one fun car to drive!

Looks good Damian, but there is no way I would ever take a sawsall to my car... You're braver than I!

i think the huge question everyone has but pettit cants answer. what sizes/offsets can we use?

I had to go through the same thing this winter when widening my car. The only thing I did different was weld the seam back up to keep some rigidity between panles since I'm doing a bit different setup. Isn't it funny just how much better the car looks with 315 to 345's under it :) I'm just now going through the wonderful pains of putting a cage in my car, fun stuff.....

-S-

looks good

Sean,

Glad to hear you're making a little progress on your car:D
Any progress pics?

Victor

Nice writeup again Damian! Still think you have one of the most bad-ass cars on this site.

Any word on when some new vids might be up!?

Victor: How about some progress pics of your car!

looks like the right rear fender next to the tail light and a little of the bumper is damaged

Yeah I'll post up some stuff just not sure what section yet, also I wont put my pics in damian's thread.

-S-

Thanks for posting this. Excellent info.

What offsets are you using?

In my opinion, the Pettit fender flares ruins the smooth lines of the RX-7, unless you do a lot more body work to smoothen it out like the Camo/Endless RX-7.

thanks
 

I looked at all the post about this in the past. It is good to see how people do it. one more time thanks!!!

http://home.satx.rr.com/mr3plus1/Project57.jpg

Did you cut the underside of yours like that? I know I left a much smaller lip than you, but that was to keep it looking as stock as possible. I also molded mine in and filled in that extra gap between the flare and body with a layer of fiberglass.



On a side note here's how I did mine....

I first cut out about one inch from the wheel well so I could remove the lip. Then I progressively hammered (a LOT) and made cuts where I needed to in order to flatten out the inside roof of the wheel well. I welded it all back together....

http://home.satx.rr.com/mr3plus1/Project54.jpg

All that bare metal got covered with rhinoliner to prevent anything from rusting if it got caught inside the flare. It also helped seal up any small air holes left from welding. Here's what it looked like with the original chopped off piece wedged into its original position.

http://home.satx.rr.com/mr3plus1/Project56.jpg

Here's the inside of my wheel well....

http://home.satx.rr.com/mr3plus1/Project69.jpg


Not to hijack your thread. For anyone reading this, take into consideration Damian rivited his on and Im molding mine in. His is a lot more practical whereas mine is just for looking cool.


Good job man. Ive always loved your car. Im curious on the offset aswell. I could probably call Pettit up, but I hate talkin to that guy. He just talks my ear off.

My wife is out of the country with the camera :)
But I think I might head up to check on the car Friday. :icon_tup:


BTW (just so I'm somewhat on topic) - Damian, the car looks great!

I would not do it to my street FD:



Just the track FD:
http://www.northstarrotaries.com/for...web_brick1.jpg

But the track car is anotehr story :-)

Well, I run 18x10 (285/30 tires) with 7inch backspacing in front

and 18x12.5 (335/30 tires) with 7inch backspacing in the rear


Call John at CCW, he knows the numbers :-)

The backspacing for the rear rim stays the same as an 18x10 with normal fenders, since you can not go in any further or you will hit syspension parts, so the added 2.5 inches just going outward, keeping the same rim offset.

uhhh, its a race car :-)


that is from a spin in the rain i took at RoadAmerica in the one lap of america, out of turn 13...ther rear kissed the wall.... front took a nice tag there too :-)

Wow, lovely FD :)

I want that ass.

mean!!!