MadddsciontistJuly 14, 2006
#17068Madddscionce xB flare project (lotsa pics)
Yo! Bein kinda new to the VSC forums, i wanted to write up the proccess i used in my bubble flare project. If ya havent met me yet, my names Mikey. Ive always been crazy about widebody kits and fender flares, but this was my first attempt at doing anything this big. It should be said that ive been doin body work for the passed 5 or so years... All together i estimate the labor involved somewhere between 300 and 350 hours. But ive always been known for my "projects". Most of the stuff on my car has been made by me. And aside from spraying the paint, ive done all the work, from airbags to interior. Well anyhow, ill stop yappin and show some pics:
This is where we start, taken in March of this year. After Bag'n the box, i had major issues with fender clearance. Even after rolling/pulling the fenders and Qtrs. Im running 17x8.5 +20 offset Works. And making things worse, the airstruts were throwing me into possitive camber. I knew i wanted to flare it... And id like to tuck a whole lotta rim. So i knew i had to go with some bubble flares!
Heres an early mock-up of the bubble flare i found. They were a universal flare purchased from Team prototype. Basically just big arches of fiberglass, with no left/rights or front/rears. I knew i didnt want to mold in the bumpers and rockers, cause personally i think that looks just shitty. Plus it just isnt a smart thing to do, just in case. So i split the arches into 3 peices, each to be moulded in seperately.
Here you can see where i split the rockers to be moulded. You can also see how in the rears i needed to cut releifs in the flare to conform it to the smaller wheel arch. Those releifs allowed me to essentially make the wheel arch smaller. These were cut and screwed into place (temporarily). I took care to line up all the seperate peices as much as i could, to get a nice flow from one to the next. You cant get this perfect, but thats where fiberglass comes in...
In this pic you can see where i actually cut about an inch from the fender, and reworked the edge into the start of the flare. This was done not only for clearance, but to give the flare a foundation to be fiberglassed too. The Qtrs were also rollded flat, cut 2 reliefs and pulled out to start the flare (kinda hard to see in the pics) This is the first chance i got to see how wide the flare was really gonna be. I also test fit the Works several times to make sure i had clearance at full drop.
I threw in this pic to show the shaved hatch... This was such a pain in the $#@! Scion sheet metal is about 1 step above tin foil. And I made the mistake of cutting the patch panel out of an Audi hood. Prolly bout 4 guages thicker than the hatch... Even with quenching, it was a mess. ALLOT of metal work, and some duraglass made things all better though.
Here i started moulding in the flares. I used several layers/products to ensure that the finnished product was damn near bullit proof. Started with a fiberglass product called Fiber-all. This stuff is AWESOME! Its like fiberglass in a tube. without having to paint resin on some mat. This is the main adhesion product i used, and it worked great. Bare metal, spread the fiber-all like penutbutter on the flare and reattach it with screws. Within 20 min remove the screws and its already hard. Grind the excess, and on to filler. Duraglass is next. Its a fiberglass product with Talc for better sanding. Stuff is really strong when dry. I actually did almost the entire fender in duraglass to give it strength. Once again Scion sheetmetal needed to be reinforced. After ruff grinding a coat of Rage gold filler to get it smooth.
From joint to joint i spread the Rage across both peices, then came back once it was "clay like" and cut the joint in it with a razor. This really is the only way to get the m to blend almost seamless. Once again the Works were test fit to ensure clearance. At this point i added a 20mm rear spacer (yes its OTG :0)) to kick out the rears just a bit more. In this pic you can see the difference between the duraglass, on the bumper, and Rage.
Next is by far my most favorite product in the world. Spies Spray pollyester. The stuff is just THE only way to get wavy fiberglass straight. Its just a super time saver... I could speak for hours about it... But i wont here. The color difference in the bumpers and body is just the bumpers have been blocked already. Yea, the stuff even guide coats itself for you. But i digress... ALLOT of hand blocking and sanding. This is prolly the 4th time ive sanded just about the entire car.
Heres the clearance of the rear rims and the flares... i took this because people were askin if i was gonna space it out more.
Just a cool F'n shot of how it all flows. Also at this point i added the Cusco front camber plates. To finnally rid that possitive camber problem!
Everything got 4 coats of highbuild primer. Blocked then 2 coats of Vario. Blocked again and finnaly paint! (if your keeping track, im up to about the 8th time ive sanded the whole car.) I actually took it to the Scionlife Mid atlantic BBQ like this. Kinda a suprise cause everyone knew it wasnt ready yet. But I couldnt miss our BBQ!
Finnaly paint. The color was a BIG descision for me. I kept going back in forth between a candy red, and a cream/biege. The color i ended up with was actually kinda a fluke. I had ordered a brand new lexus color, (3R1) a 3 stage red from the brand new IS350. But the color just didnt cover. We woulda ran out of material and i wasnt gonna wait for more. So we went with what we know. About 90% of my work is porsches... And ive always liked the old school velvet red color... but it needed some pop. So we threw in a heavy flake and 4 coats of clear with a gold pearl added. It really makes the color almost a chromabase. It changes with whatever lighting is on it. From purple to red and sometimes even bronze'ish.
Im really pleased with how it all came out. There were times i just wanted to run the thing into a tree. Keep in mind that all the work was done after hours, nights and weekends, after ive worked my full day. My friends excitement really kept me goin though! Hell, they even came and helped me Block out the primer some. All together it took about 4 months, a lil less. But seeing people go WHOA! Makes it all worthwhile.
Here it is at Englishtown NJ. One week after paint. Judging was screwy, but somehow i took home first place mild and third place wild xB. The trophies are fun, but the expressions i get are the real reward. I hope you all got a feel of what went into this. And just how crazy i am... But its all in luv. Thanks again for the warm reseption, and i hope to meet more of ya soon. >Mikey
View original BBCode
Yo! Bein kinda new to the VSC forums, i wanted to write up the proccess i used in my bubble flare project. If ya havent met me yet, my names Mikey. Ive always been crazy about widebody kits and fender flares, but this was my first attempt at doing anything this big. It should be said that ive been doin body work for the passed 5 or so years... All together i estimate the labor involved somewhere between 300 and 350 hours. But ive always been known for my "projects". Most of the stuff on my car has been made by me. And aside from spraying the paint, ive done all the work, from airbags to interior. Well anyhow, ill stop yappin and show some pics: [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/MyBox.jpg[/img] This is where we start, taken in March of this year. After Bag'n the box, i had major issues with fender clearance. Even after rolling/pulling the fenders and Qtrs. Im running 17x8.5 +20 offset Works. And making things worse, the airstruts were throwing me into possitive camber. I knew i wanted to flare it... And id like to tuck a whole lotta rim. So i knew i had to go with some bubble flares! [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/BBflare1Medium.jpg[/img] Heres an early mock-up of the bubble flare i found. They were a universal flare purchased from Team prototype. Basically just big arches of fiberglass, with no left/rights or front/rears. I knew i didnt want to mold in the bumpers and rockers, cause personally i think that looks just shitty. Plus it just isnt a smart thing to do, just in case. So i split the arches into 3 peices, each to be moulded in seperately. [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/flareside4-20-06.jpg[/img] Here you can see where i split the rockers to be moulded. You can also see how in the rears i needed to cut releifs in the flare to conform it to the smaller wheel arch. Those releifs allowed me to essentially make the wheel arch smaller. These were cut and screwed into place (temporarily). I took care to line up all the seperate peices as much as i could, to get a nice flow from one to the next. You cant get this perfect, but thats where fiberglass comes in... [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/flarefront4-20-06.jpg[/img] In this pic you can see where i actually cut about an inch from the fender, and reworked the edge into the start of the flare. This was done not only for clearance, but to give the flare a foundation to be fiberglassed too. The Qtrs were also rollded flat, cut 2 reliefs and pulled out to start the flare (kinda hard to see in the pics) This is the first chance i got to see how wide the flare was really gonna be. I also test fit the Works several times to make sure i had clearance at full drop. [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/flare3qtr4-20-06.jpg[/img] I threw in this pic to show the shaved hatch... This was such a pain in the $#@! Scion sheet metal is about 1 step above tin foil. And I made the mistake of cutting the patch panel out of an Audi hood. Prolly bout 4 guages thicker than the hatch... Even with quenching, it was a mess. ALLOT of metal work, and some duraglass made things all better though. [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/DSC00530.jpg[/img] Here i started moulding in the flares. I used several layers/products to ensure that the finnished product was damn near bullit proof. Started with a fiberglass product called Fiber-all. This stuff is AWESOME! Its like fiberglass in a tube. without having to paint resin on some mat. This is the main adhesion product i used, and it worked great. Bare metal, spread the fiber-all like penutbutter on the flare and reattach it with screws. Within 20 min remove the screws and its already hard. Grind the excess, and on to filler. Duraglass is next. Its a fiberglass product with Talc for better sanding. Stuff is really strong when dry. I actually did almost the entire fender in duraglass to give it strength. Once again Scion sheetmetal needed to be reinforced. After ruff grinding a coat of Rage gold filler to get it smooth. [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/DSC00552.jpg[/img] From joint to joint i spread the Rage across both peices, then came back once it was "clay like" and cut the joint in it with a razor. This really is the only way to get the m to blend almost seamless. Once again the Works were test fit to ensure clearance. At this point i added a 20mm rear spacer (yes its OTG :0)) to kick out the rears just a bit more. In this pic you can see the difference between the duraglass, on the bumper, and Rage. [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/DSC00567.jpg[/img] Next is by far my most favorite product in the world. Spies Spray pollyester. The stuff is just THE only way to get wavy fiberglass straight. Its just a super time saver... I could speak for hours about it... But i wont here. The color difference in the bumpers and body is just the bumpers have been blocked already. Yea, the stuff even guide coats itself for you. But i digress... ALLOT of hand blocking and sanding. This is prolly the 4th time ive sanded just about the entire car. [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/DSC00569.jpg[/img] Heres the clearance of the rear rims and the flares... i took this because people were askin if i was gonna space it out more. [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/DSC00570.jpg[/img] Just a cool F'n shot of how it all flows. Also at this point i added the Cusco front camber plates. To finnally rid that possitive camber problem! [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/DSC00584.jpg[/img] Everything got 4 coats of highbuild primer. Blocked then 2 coats of Vario. Blocked again and finnaly paint! (if your keeping track, im up to about the 8th time ive sanded the whole car.) I actually took it to the Scionlife Mid atlantic BBQ like this. Kinda a suprise cause everyone knew it wasnt ready yet. But I couldnt miss our BBQ! [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/mikeysxB008.jpg[/img] Finnaly paint. The color was a BIG descision for me. I kept going back in forth between a candy red, and a cream/biege. The color i ended up with was actually kinda a fluke. I had ordered a brand new lexus color, (3R1) a 3 stage red from the brand new IS350. But the color just didnt cover. We woulda ran out of material and i wasnt gonna wait for more. So we went with what we know. About 90% of my work is porsches... And ive always liked the old school velvet red color... but it needed some pop. So we threw in a heavy flake and 4 coats of clear with a gold pearl added. It really makes the color almost a chromabase. It changes with whatever lighting is on it. From purple to red and sometimes even bronze'ish. [img]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j173/madddscientist/mikeysxB016.jpg[/img] Im really pleased with how it all came out. There were times i just wanted to run the thing into a tree. Keep in mind that all the work was done after hours, nights and weekends, after ive worked my full day. My friends excitement really kept me goin though! Hell, they even came and helped me Block out the primer some. All together it took about 4 months, a lil less. But seeing people go WHOA! Makes it all worthwhile. [img]http://www.scionvip.com/gallery/gallery/event_coverage/scion_vip_events/2006/scion_vip_slam_jam_7-2-06/0122.jpg[/img] Here it is at Englishtown NJ. One week after paint. Judging was screwy, but somehow i took home first place mild and third place wild xB. The trophies are fun, but the expressions i get are the real reward. I hope you all got a feel of what went into this. And just how crazy i am... But its all in luv. Thanks again for the warm reseption, and i hope to meet more of ya soon. >Mikey
