Attaching glass fiber gt flares, How to, tips, and help. Options

[corpselaurel]

I did a search but did not find anything on the forum.

How do you guys attach the glass fiber gt flares? Is there a site that has some tips etc. I am a big DIYer so I will be doing it myself.

I have heard some rivit them - thoughts?

[Eric_Shea]

I called AIR (the vendor I bought them from) and they were very helpful.

My advice can be long and drawn out but here goes:

1. Body Clamps. I bought two sets at Harbor. Cheap. Leave the outer rockers on for ref. and clamp the raw flares in place on the body. Take a sharpy and mark the edge of the flare and an area roughly 2" out from the edge of the flare.

2. Remove the flare and mark another line roughly 1" in from where the flare edge was marked. This will be your "cut" line. I recommend leaving the very bottom of each wheel well in tact. This is hard to describe but leave the last 1" of original metal that includes where the support comes over (front and rear). You will galss these into the bottom of the flare.

3. Cut.

4. Grind out to the outer mark with a 36 grit pad. While you have the metal off... grind the "inside" of the fender about 3" in from the edge of the cut.

5. Remount your flares and remark the edge for ref.

6. Remove the flares once again and spread the bonding agent. I don't remember the name but it's something like Vette Bond. Check with AIR. It's specially formulated to bond fiberglass to metal.

7. Mount the flares. use the rockers again as a guide and run a screwdriver through various areas of the bonding agent to find your guide. Clamp them down using the body clamps.

8. In step 4 we ground the inside of the fender. You now need to use fiberglass "cloth" (not mat) and bond the backside of the flare to the fender. You may want to take a body hammer and work the fender out toward the flare but not too much... you can crack the bonding agent. If you do not do this your flares will crack.

9. Use the same 36 grit and start working the lip of the flare and the bonding agent. Once you have it down then use MarGlass (indestructable) to fill the groove.

10. You should now have a decent looking shape with very little filler needed. At this point switch over to regular body filler for the minor work.

Note: MarGlass should be worked with a filler file when it is just getting firm. If you wait until it's hard you'll need to get the grinder out.

Others have used rivets and/or screws in lew of the body clamps but I found them too cheap and convenient not to buy them for this job alone.

I can get some pics if you need them.