Steel flares !! So for those of you who have done this, how many hours would a shop typically take ready for paint ?

I am going to just say done correctly start to finish ready for paint 6 hours per corner.. The welding and grinding are about half of that. Then metal finish, filler, primer, block out..

I'm about to start on mine. Maybe I should time it!

Mine took about a days work each, but I am a novice.

At least 10 hours per corner - butt TIG welded, welds ground flat and hammered smooth, ready for filler/primer/paint. The bottom edges need substantial alteration to fit correctly.

I've seen someone do a complete steel set in 4 days...average results. Not to impressed.
Cost $2,500

Sean in San Diego took about two weeks total with PERFECT results. Aside from flares you need to fit GT rockers and valances.

Are you taking the plunge Eddy?

Yup. What they said...

This is true!
I had to shorten (raise the bottom) the aft end of the rear flares by removing a strip about .75". I wanted to make sure the new flared arch matched the original wheel arch location. Had I not done this, the new flare arch would have been about .5" higher overall than the OE fender. Which would have made my car look 'lifted' even though it was not.

Chris - That would be 24-hours PER corner for you...you will install and replace each corner at least two-times due to a hair-like flaw in the weld!

T

^ditto, there is no way those flares are being installed as-is. They will be trimmed, stretched/shrank and spend some time on the English wheel for sure.

Wait, you mean he's not making them from a flat sheet of steel?

Shocking huh? I think I might have accidentally kicked one of them last time I was there, I'm sure that'll warrant a change of plans for sure.

agree. took me about that much time

I would go with 12-24 hours per fender to do it "right". That is to get them on the car in my definition of right, Everyone's right way is different. For the factory racer look, it was most likely less than 30 minutes per fender. Why because well we here to win races, not beauty contests.

For the level of work people seem to want to now put into these cars, not bashing It, just say it is disproportionate, it would easily take 12 hours, and people would say wow those are really nice. But the best way is to butt TIG fusion weld the joint, no filler rod, and hammer each and ever weld point, get them all done, planish the entire thing and they end up looking like this.

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No filler, no wrinkles, just one solid piece of metal perfection at it's finest.

This guy's work can be found here and here. If these ONLY took 12 hours of shop time I would be surprised.

I know a few that can make the entire fender from a flat piece of metal. They will bring insane prices to the table, but their rates are spot on, it is just it takes insane time to produce this stuff by hand.

What it comes down to is your level of expectation and what your willing to pay to achieve your desired goals. Case in point, I was looking at a Ferrari 250GTO KIT the other day, the body looked great, all the proper bits in the proper places. Got it on the lift and I looked at my friend and said if you buy this car I will beat the living out of you. Everything that was "custom-made" on the underside of the car was pure crap. Fitment was crap, welds were even crappier, and lest not even begin to think about all the other crap I would end up fixing this car. Car was already on the high side of his budget for a fun vehicle. I estimated it would take 80 plus hours, to repair the crapmenship in the car. And that was the crapmenship I could see. Only the original builder knew the quality of work that was done. For me, my level was much higher than the original builder. My friend passed on that dressed up pig. I am sure he will drag some other POS into the shop for review at another date.

Every time someone does a high end build the bar gets raised. What you don't see is the many ways to get to the finish line. I could do it in 30 minutes per side, the repair could last for years or maybe 10 minutes. I could spend 1000s of hours to get everything just perfect, side to side front to back etc.... Only YOU can figure the level you want out.

I built one in the 90s for a friend and he insisted on fiberglass flares, to get them to look correct, I spent way more hours than I documented. Hours upon hours down the drain. Only to have him drop it into a ditch out here, and rip the left rear off. He should have spent the $$$ for steel. And at that time I would have MIG'd them on and we would have been done in like 6 hours per side. The car was being built for him, to his level of expectation, not mine. And he was paying for that level of work. MIG, grind, filler material put in, sand down, then paint.

I would also say Chris and Mark can do them in 12 hours because they have done more than 1 set in their life. Double or triple their time for your first one, and then the time will drop off on the other 3.

When I put 6 hours that is because 95% of the body shops will cut, MIG, grind, fill, prime, block, paint.. 5% will TIG hammer, metal file, metal finish..

I am fine for MIG on my project as my car is in no way original, and I am doing the work myself so time is in no way an issue. I will spend 30 minutes at a time to weld,grind, hammer, weld, grind, hammer until I am happy with it. Keep in mind I am and aviation manufacturing TIG welder by trade with typical weld joints of .015-.035 thicknesses.. If I would have started with a cherry car to begin with I may have Tig welded them..

The turbo flares I did on my 911 I TIG welded were just as much hammering as the ones I MIG welded..

What a superb job!!!!!

When we made these flares, we actually took a factory original green set that Jim Bailey at Brumos had for years and scanned them at the same place that scanned the Ford GT 40 to make the fabulous Ford GT. We found that the flares were off left to right (meaning not mirror images) Back then when they were made things were not as precise as we can get them now. So we combined the left and right scans and then spit out identical mirror images. NOW we have look alike factory GT flares that are identical left to right.

George, you guys don't make them any more? Who is making them now?

I have a set from one of the early group buys, one of these days I will install them.

Zach

Where are these 'new' flares being sold? I might need a set for GT tribute #2

Well with the flares and installation, rockers, valences,match paint,five lug conversion, rims ,tires
Looks well north of 12 grand

At 24 hours per corner, you might be looking at $10K for the install. Sometimes good is good enough.

If you stretchem they take a little more time....

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=132215&hl=

Oh ya,, and install them on a slope nose.

LOL the last GT tribute I did had 12K in paint. Of course, the customer wanted a gold flake in it. Again the customer, not my choice. And it was real gold

yes we make them along with many other metal pieces, we had had the old lansing steel make many parts for us before he absconded with our tooling, then we had to remake much of the tooling and now have lansing steel make many of our parts.

Tim did a beautiful job with the flares and they nicely match the gt rockers and front and rear fiberglass valances and Mikes flared gt rocker panel ends HE makes

I would say that the best fiberglass is the getty design stuff.

thats why i DIY
my time is free

I believe I paid 12 hours per flare on my car. That included butt welding, grinding and paint prep. At the local shop here pricing now would be about $3600 just for flare install.

$75/hr is good. I think our shop is $110-120.

I make the GT rocker flare ends as well. George sells them as well.Click to view attachment

and they are nice pieces, we have of course the brand new aftermarket steel rocker panels we make and to weld these on the ends will give you steel gt rocker panels! (of course the factory never made them in steel) Funny, the factory fiberglass GT rocker panels were not exactly identical, one a bit longer than the other!!

kinda throughs you for a loop when you stop and look at them. Certainly made me stop and think for a minute or two. Again, these were done to get cars on the track, not to be Singer level restomods.

Probably but crazy at the same time..

"How long do you want it to take?"

Body work is one of those things that can soak up a near-infinite amount of time and work. The improvements get smaller as the time goes on, but they're still generally happening. That's why folks who do the super-high-level restorations charge really big bucks for something very close to perfection.

--DD

Wide body huh?.... I knew that huge V8 wasn't going to be enough to deal with...... Your "issues"....

Yes Forrest , I have "issues" you'd never know!
Although ,I was just wondering how many hours people were taking.
Maybe someday! Probably not way over my budget.