Screw on Flares Options

[joea9146]

I have seen some pictures of 914's with Screw on Flares.
Is that a special flare that is designed to screw on... What is the material
is it FG? What is the fit like ? Anyone have close up pictures of what this looks like and
what is the process to install ? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/MDB2.gif)

[Randal]

OK, but I have strong opinions on this subject, which won’t be seen as PC.

Being a novice fabricator I didn’t even attempt to install the Patrick Racing flares/front bumper/valances. But knowing what I learned from the process, i.e., (first) going to the wrong people, the easiest, least stressful and most financially prudent approach - to get it done right the first time out of the box - is to have Tony at TC Design put them on.

Alternatively tow your vehicle down to Phoenix and have Jim Patrick install them.

Either of these two approaches will make you a lot happier and again, from my view, there is nothing like a road trip as compared to a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

However, if you’re a competent body fabricator and are going to do the work yourself, here are some issues:

First the basics: Recognize that putting the entire package on the car is more art than science. Even Tony at TC Design, who absolutely knows what he is doing, noodled on the front bumper and valances (a lot) before beginning the exercise.

Also he didn’t install them separately as per conventional wisdom. He did a lot of cutting and shaping and made the front one piece by pop riveting the bumper and valance together. It did come out nice as all his work.

The second thing to note is that putting the flares on the car has a difficulty of say 1. Matching the flares to the bottom valance changes this difficulty to 3. Matching the bottom valance to the front and rear bumper/valances changes the difficulty to 6.

If you move anything it affects the fit of another piece. Not easy stuff.

The flares can fit nice, but you need to get the “new” trimming instructions from Jim Patrick. They helped. BTW Jim communicates well and provides as much information as he can, but there are no written instruction.

Also to do the job you’ll need to get a set of cleco fasteners and pliers. These fasteners hold the flare/bumper/valance on temporarily when you making adjustments.

I also believe the only way to ensure that everything fits correctly is to mock up the entire project (cleco fasteners) to see that everything is perfect. The added wrinkle is that d-zus fastners will end up holding the front bumper and valances; getting these integrated into the mock up is challenging.