I like the look of SC flares on the 914. Brad says you don't get as much room for rubber as you might think. So, for you guys who've had this done, how much tire have you been able to fit under there?

About this great looking Rabbit flared 914.... Are there any pictures yet of it with appropriate wheels/tires? I'd really like to see how the final product looks.

If I'm going to finish the body and paint on my car this spring/summer I've got to start making some decisions quick.

Post away my friends.

-Ben M. (welder in one hand and debit card in the other)

Forgot to mention that I am not a fan of the GT flares. (Sorry)
John Kelly's flared quarters are my favorite by far, but aren't avalable yet.

Rabbit flares for $100 (questionable fit/appearance)
SC flares for $400 (gotta get bumper extensions too)
Bontempi quarters for $800 (but I don't really want fiberglass)
Kelly flares for $800 (fabulous but not imediately available)

What to do, what to do?

-Ben M.

Pull a Mueller and flare them yourself....

All you need is a sawzall, a hydralic jack and a welder

Are looking at only doing the rears?

I think the cars look best with matched flares, front and back.

iirc, Dug (from the roadglue board) bought a 914/6 w/SC flares on it. Dunno what tires he runs, but he might be able to tell you more.

kim.

I'm pretty sure Dug was running 245/50 or 245/45/16's in the rear on 8" rims when he had the BBS wheels.

The rear flares that he has had not been installed correctly or they used way too much 'glass on them. The fenders had to be 3/4" thick or thicker.

He has now gone to different rims/tires and possibly has fixed the flares.

Hey Mike, you've got a short memory! Remember, I'm running 245's under Messinger flares. the grandady precursor to Stein flares. They did turn out fine, but I don't like the "bubble flare" style so much. Looking for something smoother. Here's a crappy pic.

-Ben M.

Ben,

The PO of my car fitted 911 fender wells (I wouldn't call them flares), to my teener. They look exactly the same as my old 69' 911E. The lip of the fender is not "flared" as much as the later SC. I think

I was running 8X16 Fuchs with yokohama 008s, 245/45. The fit was tight, but I never saw marks on them from autocrossing. However, on the street, hitting a severe dip in the road, they would "chirp".

I'm now running 8X15 fuchs with Hoosier A3S03s, 225/45. Since Hoosiers are larger than others, it's still a tight fit. Just enough room to slide your finger between the tire and the fender opening. But the tire is inside the fender enough that it does not touch the fender when the travel is compressed.

I would think an SC flare would provide even more room. If you're autocrossing, you might want to check and see if this modification is allowed in the class you want to run in.

I'll try to post a pic.

I mentioned this on another post but... for those thinking about do-it-yourself flares, I'm working on a possible kit of tools and instructions with templates to make your own flares.

I've got a car lined up for the experiment to see what is possible, but the plan is to make flares similar to my weld-in flares that require lots of elbow grease but no welding.

This would be accomplished by using a small hand held leather bag full of sand (shot dolly), and a mallet. You stretch the metal into the shot dolly raising many small stretched bumps. The next step is doing a little smoothing with a slapper and dolly, then use my shrinking disc (part of the kit) to heat and shrink the high spots closer to the ideal surface (see my drastic shrinking album). Do some more stretching with the mallet and shot bag, and repeat until you have the shape. I won't do the kit unless I think it is a fairly intuitive thing for the average do-it-yourselfer.

I will document everything with lots of pictures. Making flares for 914s is slow going for me with my other work, so this is a way to get more people into flares without having to wait so long ( I'm about to start my 4th set) This method requires a lot of repetitive processes, and will be hard work, but I think the reward of building your own flares will make it worth it to some folks.

The kit will include a shrinking disc, a shot dolly already filled with sand, and possibly a mallet, and slapper as well. Other tools needed would be a grinder for the shrinking disc (the higher the rpm and amperage the better) a couple of dollys, and maybe a body hammer, a bulls eye pick (see my shrinking disc album). Also with the kit would be steel templates to help with the shape, and pictures with text describing the the techniques used.

I will be working on this for next few months, and then I will have an idea what is possible, and what the kit will cost. Here is the link to my albums:

http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/community/comm...d=9990093068868

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

Here is what we did...

Thanks for posting Joseph. I've seen the pictures of your car here before - very nice. I like it. Thanks for the info on tire sizes. That's exactly what I'm looking for.

-Ben M.

Another view...

The car on the track (numbers hadn't come in yet)...

As some may know, I used a method similar to the one described above in John's post. It is definately doable and fairly quick. It's some hard work, though. the benefit is that you decide the final shape.

Personally, I don't much care for the GT fenders either. Too boxy. I could live with a toned down version like taking the flares and cutting them down so they stuck out about half as much. But it's the high corners of each flare that needs to be softened, IMO. John's flares are very nice.

John, maybe you don't need to roll out the whole fender from door to tailight. Your shape confined to the wheel arch area would be excellent. Sorta like an s curve that blends back in. Copy that?

Joseph (735), I like that.

I love John's stuff. Have enjoyed following it for some time (thanks to his posting progress pics at his site), and if I were doing a custom 914 (or ghia!), I'd be all over them.

Joseph, that car looks sweet. And it's yellow. With a black bumper. (for goofy reasons, I'm collecting pics of yellow 914's in general, and black bumpers as an interesting option)

I've attached the last page of what I believe was porsche's homogolation papers for the 914. It shows some flare ideas I've not seen before. (I have to find the web reference to where I grabbed it -- the document is in german and french) Food for more thought.

hth.

kim.

Thanks. It's not much of a concours candidate, but it's a great autocrosser. Like many cars, it looks better in a photo than it does in person. I've grown to really like chrome yellow. Some day it will be re-painted and it will either stay chrome yellow, or become silver.

It's a '75 and I ditched the big (and to me, ugly), heavy 5mph bumpers for fiberglass ones (90lbs savings). They will get painted when the car does.

If you have a site for all the yellow car pics, you oughta post it for everyone to see.

No worries on the concour front. It's the "first impression" sort of image I was looking for. I don't have that many pics -- it would be a bit of a lame website! Chrome yellow is definitely a great yellow. And what I was looking for was that first impression sort of pic that showed either a chrome or black, early style bumper. Not that many around!

I do have a silver one -- and since I love silver porsches, it's a favorite. I posted pics of that one in another thread already.... but it does have a new front valence --- perhaps that's an excuse....

kim.

Oh, the captions for the photos:

Photo 7, part number 914 552 901 00
tableau de bord simplifie -- simplified dashboard

Photo 8, part number 914 503 905/906 00 elargissement des ailes avant -- expansion of the "wings" before

Photo 9, part number 914 503 907/908 00 elargissement des ailes arrier -- expansion of the "wings" after/behind (I'm guessing a bit on this one) (my french officially sucks badly -- wait till you see my German -- Andy will punt me from this board in a heartbeat)

So drop into your local porsche dealer (or mayby PP :-) and order up some of these parts -- may get an interesting reaction :-)

kim.

avant=before, front.

So, the translation should be "enlargement of the front fenders" and "enlargement of the rear fenders" --the pictures hold the clues.

meursalt,

Hm. I think I pointed that out. See the caption for Pic 8 -- The avant part was pretty easy. Heck, even the internet translators get that one more or less right. "arrier" (with a circumflex accent (if I called that correctly) over the "e") is the part that I was less clear on. From context (and gosh darn it, I did peek at the pics), I knew it was the rear. But I didn't have a source for an accurate French translation. Hence the caveate.

So "wings" is certainly wrong too - too literal -- most probably "fenders" as you point out -- ain't seen wings on a 914 for a while --- hmmm... hold it... that's the Monster Garage thread



kim.

Actually, here's a better move --- no need to depend on my crippled translations!

Here's the page of the doc I was decoding from.

porsche735,
that's exactly how we used to widen the rear of the karman ghia's!
way cool ...

Andy

krk,
those pages a VERY interesting. where did you get them from ???

Andy

Andy,

Now you're gonna make me work. I should have bookmarked it, but I didn't. I've got all the pages locally -- they came from a german porsche page on a link I followed from something posted here. (I will eventually reconstitute the steps, but it wasn't instantly reconfigured when I just tried it.....) It was a page that I've been to quite a few times tho -- just not in the obvious section (pics/etc)

I can post the lot (or sent 'em to you for a more structured post). Happy to share 'em.
Let me know.

kim.

kim, just ZIP em up and email them to me. that's fine ...

use:

914@sirandy.com

thanks,
Andy

Alrighty. Hm. Tar ok? Oh... windows stuff... I'll get it.... :-)

kim.

haha, TAR is fine too.

zip, gzp, gz, rar, tar, arj, ace, hqx, sit

whatever, i'm not a windows guy per se, i'm a computer guy!

Andy

Andy,

Got it. (I'm just being an a**^H^H^HBrad)

Files sent. Lemme know if it works.


kim. :-)

got it. works!
yes, i will have a look in my "spare time" haha. looks good so far. i'll probably start a new thread with this tomorrow ...

thanx,
Andy

Cool. You have spare time? Excellent. (You can guess how mine goes from the massive progress that's been made on all of my projects!)

I should have pushed this your direction earlier! A new thread is the right idea. (There was an earlier thread on flares that almost-but-not-quite seemed like the right place to post this. Funny that I end up hijacking Ben's thread -- I wonder if there's anything about brake lines in that doc.... "hi Ben" :-))

Back to fender flares.

So I love GT flares, but I agree they aren't the most asthectically pleasing design. It's probably a history thing.

Must have....

kim.

i agree. but you get used to them. they kind of grow on ya.

you're right about the history thing:
racing rules had it that you had to keep the line of the original fender-well.
so they made a "box" that had the original lip. those germans ...

good thing i spent quite some time in france,
will help with the translation ...

Andy

Ben,

Sorry, but I can't help with sizes for you - haven't bought tires for my SC-flared 914 yet. Have 8X16 fuchs for back there. Don't know if 225s or 245s are the answer yet.

Looking to drive her back from PA this summer - dunno if you're near I90, we'll likely be passing through. Still looking for some niggling parts to get her done: a fan housing for the carerra alternator, a pair of chrome bumper rubber tops, and one of the early air filter housings.

Gary

It's true. I found it funny that the doc is principally a German document, but there are bunches of it that are French phrases. My French and German are nearly equal (you don't wanna know what that means) so it took a bit to do a scan. i am very intereasted to see what a real linguist comes up with!

Back to flares -- I drove a GT style 914 for my first 5 years in CA. I *loved* it. It was silver like &deity. meant them to be. A wonderful style -- but it is a little outrageous and will attract a certain amount of attention. (not like a RED ONE will... lol)

There are more subtle ways to go....

kim.

Zeke wrote:

"John, maybe you don't need to roll out the whole fender from door to tailight. Your shape confined to the wheel arch area would be excellent. Sorta like an s curve that blends back in. Copy that?"

Hi Zeke,

That would end up being a more bubble like shape. I prefer the blended look of a longer flare in the back. More work, but a smoother "is that modified?" kind of a look. By the way, the forward edge of the rear flare ends up 6"- 8" back from the door.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

Just want to thank everyone who's been posting on this topic (and it's child threads). All interesting and useful stuff.

-Ben M.

Andy,

I don't have the link for the source, but I notice that there's also a copy at Bowlsby's can am site:

http://members.rennlist.com/914_canam/

He may know where he scarfed it from if it matters....

kim.