Hi guy's,
I quiet fancy building a convertible morris minor for the summer and I was wondering how to flare the wheel arches to give it a more purposeful stance.
Has anyone got any tips, not really sure how to go about it.
The obvious way would be to fit flared fibreglass wings, but I don't know of anyone who supplies them for the Minor. That would be the ideal as it would make an easy bolt on job. Might be worth asking around in the owners club.
Otherwise if you were welding I'd be inclined to unbolt the wing, pull it outwards to where you want it, then weld in a new inside edge and flange to connect it back to the body so it's still bolt on. That way you'll keep the shape of the wing and wheelarch. A bit of filler and I could imagine that looking quite good.
I'd buy a new wing from somewhere like http://shop.morrisminorspares.co.uk/ and modify it til you get the shape you want. At least that way you're not going to knacker the one on the car!
If you get one front and ont back one shaped, you should be able to get some fibreglass ones made using the wings as a mould.
Another option for the arches is to have them rolled....
Basically you bolt the tool onto the hub and roll it around pushing the arch out a bit on each pass. Doing it this way you should need minimal filler and probably no welding.
Thanks for suggestions guys.
I like the idea of making some GPR copies, maybe to sell?
The moggy wing as a 90o flange running around it's extremities. Should I maintain this flange on the new section? I'm guessing yes otherwise there would be a sharp/weaker edge. Am I right?
Jim
You'd need to keep the flange - the wheelarch would just flap around without it. It'll create a problem with moulding though - you might need to make a mould in 2 or 3 pieces so it will pull off the GRP panels.
Cheers sclurgess,
Is that Beetle low enough? Sure you couldn't drop it an extra inch?
I see you widened the arches by adding material to the body side of the tube. The look I'm after is more like the mog below where the outside edge of the wings have been flared. I think this car was for sale not too long ago, should have brought it, shes a beauty
That's a cool looking Beetle sclurgess. Being really nicely done too.
The wheelarches on the Minor in the photo aren't completely to my own taste (I'd prefer something more rounded) but they would be a lot easier to do than the Beetle wings.
It should be easy enough to buy rear wheelarch repair sections from a 1980s car (something like a Ford or Vauxhall would be cheap) and weld them on to create the flare. You'd probably need to do some cutting of the repair panel, maybe have to use two for each wing, but it would save having to make the complicated shape from scratch.
I know Jonathan at JLH, good stuff, but I think he only does flip fronts and oversized wings with the material added at the tube side of the wing...I think.
His suspension and k-series engine converstion are superb though