372 replies to this topic

[dirtbag]

Well I've been handed this LX to sort out and make look all pretty. A lot of work has already been done, it just needs some fine tuning here and there before it can be painted.

At this stage it looks like the flares will be the biggest problem, so I thought I'd start there.

The front flares are nicely twisted at the bottom, so they'll need a bit of attention.



The rear flares also have their own issues with gaps and alignment.





I thought I'd start on the left rear flare first. Seeing as it had already been modified at some stage.



To me, the wheel opening was too wide, and the flare dips down a lot in the middle.

I spent a fair bit of time figuring out where the best position for them was, and ended up drilling all new holes except for 1. Let's hope it's right hey : )

The holes closest to the wheel opening are the new ones I've drilled. You can also see I've started long boarding down the hi-fill that's been on the car for a VERY long time. It's good having a good solid base, but it's a bit like sanding the driveway smooth.



Here's the old holes all welded up. I still haven't redrilled the very bottom hole. I'll do that last.



When I took the flare off the door I found this lovely little bracket. It's not that having a bracket there is a terrible idea, but it shouldn't be needed. I'll try and mount the flare so this end sits in the right spot by itself.



This resin was piled into the end of the flare to screw onto the bracket above. I find 4 door torana flares a lot harder to do that hatch flares, and this bracket set up would be plenty strong enough. I just want to try and fit them so it doesn't need to be there.



So after more trial fitting and mucking about I came up with another set of holes for the door flare.



None of these holes need to be here.



The problem with making new holes is having to fill the old ones. The middle bolt that goes through the inner skin as well now has a massive hole after I drilled the new hole. I'll have to make this look a bit neater.



Now we're back to just having one set of holes : )



Excuse this next pic. It's pretty blurry. But it shows all the old holes gone anyway.



This pic shows how much the door flare was lengthened. I ended up cutting about three quarters of an inch off the end to make it fit.



In my opinion it's starting to look a bit better.



Here's the before pic again, just for reference.




OK, now I get to chop up more fibreglass. Yippee, my favourite : )

Like most torana flares I've had to deal with, they seem to curl back onto themselves at the bottom, so I need to fix this.



Since I cut the end off the door flare I'll make a new return for it as well, so it has a neater finish when the door is opened. I also ground out that resin that was added to the end.



Here's the rear of the flare all taped into place.



All glassed up!





I also cleaned up and reglassed the inside of where the rear part of the flare had been lengthened before I got to it, just to give it some more strength.



Oh, and before I took the flare off I redrilled the lower hole. This shows how much I've moved the flare. I hope it's right! : ) I've ground the filler away from the old hole for welding.



Now there's just one set of holes.



Next thing I wanted to look at was the fitment of the front spoiler against the flares.



Nearly fits : ) This will take a bit of fixing, but worth the effort.





Well it doesn't look like much, but that took care of most of the day, but it's a start.

[lxsstorana]

Great work (you must get sick of hearing that).

Look forward to seeing this car develop.

[tsn007]

Who are you !!!!


SUPERMAN ???????

Well done.

[76lxhatch]

Good stuff.

The very first pic showing the front flare is interesting - it looks to me like that twist is not only causing the lead edge to stick out, but moving the inside front of the flare inward. This front inside corner is the spot where a lot of the flares I've seen on other cars have to be cut to clear large wheels, and I've always wondered why as the ones on my hatch have plenty of room and the wheel fouls elsewhere first. I wonder if you can get the twist out enough to clear as-is or whether the flare needs cutting...? :-)

[TerrA LX]

Who are you !!!!


SUPERMAN ???????

Well done.

You better be taking notes.

[GML-31]

honestly why do people with no idea even try to fit a kit? ffs how hard is it to tape the flares in place to get it 95% right before you drill.

[Stinga]

dirtbag needs his own section on the forum...

[dirtbag]

Thanks guys. As for my own section, it would have to be called The Fat and the Furious hahaha...

Anyway, again it doesn't look like much got done today, but I'm happy enough with the progress.


Here's the rear flare refitted after doing the fibreglassing.



Here's the new end of the door flare I made. Obviously it will look a bit nicer with some filler added to smooth it out.



Here's the rear part of the flare where I cut a wedge out to open the back of the wheel arch a bit. It will need very little filler to smooth out.



One problem I came across while blocking the rear end down was this panel under the tail lights. This crack got bigger the more I sanded.



The easiest solution was to just rip the whole lot out. So I did : )



I'm glad i did that because I found a little bit of rust that needs welding up.



Most of today though went into fine tuning the flare, rear guard and door. I think they're pretty much ready for their last lot of primer now so getting a couple of panels ready in a couple of days isn't too bad I guess.

[tsn007]

any more info or pictures on how you welded up those small rust holes at the rear

[benno81]

nice job mate
I bet the flares were brought from raider industry? or should I say rare spares(well up here thats where they came from) just from previous experiance with the way they sat on the car before u fixed them.
Hope I dont get in the shit for saying the name of the business just thought ppl should know.

Just noticed this 4door in the background of the monaro project and went searching and found this thread

Keep em coming mate looks like your work is really taking off If your ever looking for an assistant give me a bell love to come work for u

[dirtbag]

Geez Clint, cloning me would be a step backwards in evolution wouldn't it? hahaha

Benno, I was told the flares were Alpha Motorsports. I'm not saying anything bad about that, that's just what I was told.


Well I did a bit more yesterday. Nothing like spending sunday in the shed : )

I've put this old pic in as it shows how close the door frame was to the rear pillar/rain gutter. This had to be fixed or once it was painted it would hit. You can see it nearly touches.



After some manipulation it looked like this. Excuse my fingers in the shot, I was just holding the door shut.



I love these wheels!



I also welded up that small amount of rust I found in the rear panel.



Then it was time to start on the other rear flare.

Here's an old before shot.





Here's the new holes pilot drilled and the old holes welded up.



This flare is just plain and simple the wrong shape, so I just made sure it lined up at the bottom edges, sat straight along the top (ish) and that the door gap was good. Everything else can get fixed by changing the fibreglass. You can see here the flare is too thick where the two parts meet. It makes the wheel arch slope down to the front. I'll fix this by cutting and reglassing the flare.



Even with me pushing the flare against the door it still had this twist in it, so again, I'll fix it by cutting and reglassing.



Next step was to put the new holes in the door. You can see the texta dots where I've marked the new holes to be. I've had to move these flares a fair bit.



Here's the new holes drilled and the old holes welded up.



I had the same problem as the other door with this internal hole now being too big now the hole had moved. This side wasn't as bad as the other side, but it's still too big.



I just welded in a small plate, the die ground it to shape once welded in.





So here it is all bolted on. Apart from the flare being the wrong shape, I'm happy with how it sits. Today I'll do the fibreglassing and we'll see how it looks after that. Fingers crossed : )



I'll measure the other flare to see if I need to raise the front of the wheel arch or add glass to the rear of the wheel arch to take the slope out of its shape.

[TerrA LX]

More patience than me...

Can you show us how much has to come out of the wheel arch/inner guard with those wheels on the rear please?

[dirtbag]

Hi Terra, The guards on this car aren't cut very far at all. The cutting was already done when it came to me so I haven't had to do it (yay) but I would have cut a lot more out.

This next pic shows how much is cut, and where my finger is is where I would have cut it. I'd just want enough metal there to fit the bolts. To give you a reference, the door isn't cut at all, it's just been hammered (flared) out.



Because this flare was so out of whack I thought it best to set it's new shape while it was still on the car.

After measuring the other rear flare I found that I had to close the rear of the wheel opening in, rather than raising the front to take the slope out of the opening.

SO I made a few cuts on the flare, taped it up then smeared some bog over the tape and held the flare in the right shape until the bog dried. I mixed it hot so it only took a minute or so. Then once it's glassed I can just peel the tape and bog off.



It's not pretty, but it doesn't have to be. Just like me : )

To close the opening up I cut the lip off the flare so I could pull it down.



Here it is taped up. It's not 100% perfect but it's a much better base to work with than how it was before. I've also pulled the lower rear edge in a bit like I did on the other side.



I haven't moved the lip a long way, but I think it's enough to make the flare look normal.



The door part of the flare was hard to shape as it was twisted so a couple of hefty cuts meant I could pull it into shape. It looks really stepped, but I will be able to sand a lot of this out once it's reglassed.




After some sticky crap it looked like this.





With that amazingly exciting work done (haha ) I gave the rear panel, right hand rear quarter and right hand rear door a good block down and fixed a couple of little things. I also tidied up around where the old holes were welded up.



The rear panel had some issues around the fuel filler so I started to fix that too. It's not totally finished yet, I just ran out of time.

Edited by dirtbag, 25 January 2011 - 04:08 AM.

[Ruts]

Hi Tim, great work as always. I was just wondering is it the camera angle or does the door flare sit too far back. When I fit them up I try and have them in line with the end of the sill panel near the edge of the door, just wondering.
Ruts