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Before I start, I'd like to acknowledge that many of you find fender flares to be ridiculous on a C2. I respect that. However, I grew up idolizing this car with the flares, and fat tires. Eventually, I'd like to get it to an SCCA type car. She'll never be a prom queen, but that doesn't mean that she can't be a good time.
So, in looking the car over I'm okay with the shape and symmetry of the passenger side front flare. The problem is that the driver side flare seems to be a failed attempt at recreating the passenger flare. I've attached some pics that demonstrate what I'm getting at.
Established a reference line on both sides of the car.
Took measurements at center, and 2" progressions from center.
Driver side is way off in comparison to the passenger side.
My question to you guys is, what do you recommend I do here? Originally, I thought that I'd buy the Sermersheim medium front flares, but they have been closed for vandalism for almost three weeks. I've emailed Jessica over there, to no avail. After finding that I could't order those, I began to re-examine their flares, and I feel that they may come too far above the belt line of the car for my liking.
Eventually, I want my car to look similar to this;
Are these bubble flares strictly one-offs? Brian Hobaugh's flares are almost identical to these as well. Does anyone know who makes these? Any help would be appreciated.
Before I start, I'd like to acknowledge that many of you find fender flares to be ridiculous on a C2. I respect that. However, I grew up idolizing this car with the flares, and fat tires. Eventually, I'd like to get it to an SCCA type car. She'll never be a prom queen, but that doesn't mean that she can't be a good time.
So, in looking the car over I'm okay with the shape and symmetry of the passenger side front flare. The problem is that the driver side flare seems to be a failed attempt at recreating the passenger flare. I've attached some pics that demonstrate what I'm getting at.
Established a reference line on both sides of the car.
Took measurements at center, and 2" progressions from center.
Driver side is way off in comparison to the passenger side.
My question to you guys is, what do you recommend I do here? Originally, I thought that I'd buy the Sermersheim medium front flares, but they have been closed for vandalism for almost three weeks. I've emailed Jessica over there, to no avail. After finding that I could't order those, I began to re-examine their flares, and I feel that they may come too far above the belt line of the car for my liking.
Eventually, I want my car to look similar to this;
Are these bubble flares strictly one-offs? Brian Hobaugh's flares are almost identical to these as well. Does anyone know who makes these? Any help would be appreciated.
I too am anxious to know if anyone can help. After reading an article on Brian's car, I believe he stated they were already on the car when his dad purchased it in the mid-60s. However, I think he had a bodyshop do some mods to the flares to better fit the 305 tires he runs on all four corners. I love that blue car you posted. If that owner is on this Forum, perhaps he could offer some advise? Everything old is new again. I think there is a small niche business for a good supplier to offer these again.
Replicating or creating back to back right and left side molds is art! I like your scientific approach to exacting measurements. My first thought is to cut them off and start from scratch! I have seen many different ways of doing flares from building a wire frame extension and then using duct tape or underlying cardboard to shaping flower dept foam blocks etc. etc. It would be best if you could source the exact flares you want. Your flares are far different than that blue car with the Thumper styled units.
Replicating or creating back to back right and left side molds is art! I like your scientific approach to exacting measurements. My first thought is to cut them off and start from scratch! I have seen many different ways of doing flares from building a wire frame extension and then using duct tape or underlying cardboard to shaping flower dept foam blocks etc. etc. It would be best if you could source the exact flares you want. Your flares are far different than that blue car with the Thumper styled units.
Mine are nothing like the blue car, but if I found someone that sold them, then I'd switch in a heartbeat. The front of my car is coming off this summer, and in order to do that, I'd like to either know where I'm sourcing the replacement flares, or make my molds before tearing into the existing glass.
If I don't find anything by the weekend, then I'll probably order some plastilina clay, and get to work on making my own.
This shows the rear
BTW, please excuse the garage. I just got this car, and it has been a whirlwind of deconstruction, while trying to set my garage up for a long-term project.
I love this style of flare on a C2. Ive been looking for a car with them already installed, but have only seen one that was listed on this site, but it looked like it was stored in a pond. I've heard guys refer to them as IMSA flares, but I don't know where to get them.
I too am anxious to know if anyone can help. After reading an article on Brian's car, I believe he stated they were already on the car when his dad purchased it in the mid-60s. However, I think he had a bodyshop do some mods to the flares to better fit the 305 tires he runs on all four corners. I love that blue car you posted. If that owner is on this Forum, perhaps he could offer some advise? Everything old is new again. I think there is a small niche business for a good supplier to offer these again.
DandyDon
You're right, it all comes back around. I have to believe that there is an oldschool racer out there that has a set of molds, but no computer skills. He's probably got an original Grand Sport sitting under a tarp, etc. If I could only find him.
[QUOTE=Rickenbach;1589568221]I love this style of flare on a C2. Ive been looking for a car with them already installed, but have only seen one that was listed on this site, but it looked like it was stored in a pond. I've heard guys refer to them as IMSA flares, but I don't know where to get them.
Thanks Rickenbach. That's a beautiful car. I found the IMSA rears at Corvette Pacifica. I just can't find a set that has the same look all the way around. This site (Corvette Pacifica), has IMSA rears, but the front design doesn't seem to match. They hav that "mudflap" look, IMO.
I love this style of flare on a C2. Ive been looking for a car with them already installed, but have only seen one that was listed on this site, but it looked like it was stored in a pond. I've heard guys refer to them as IMSA flares, but I don't know where to get them.
I have been seeing this old warrior car run since the 1970's. He ran Sic-Sic and moved into the newly formed SCCA Solo I (time trialing at the start of it all- one of the Solo I pioneers!) and of late for years with the Vintage Racing!! Great Car!!! I was pleased to see the nicely extended out flares on it presently. Boy that was some rough foam to contour!!!! With an air 90 degree grinder/sander, I like sanding with the little coarse pads. I find the flower foam doesn't tear off while working it. More consistent. I have seen a stock fender sliced and pushed out and then glassed into a nice looking bubble flare. The #46 Vara racer Blue car is flared like that! So you slice your glass, then put your tires on and get a piece of wood and lever or pry the glass up were you want it (cracking the glass somewhat, then tire off lay some strips on the bottom, smooth out the top and glass that, then smooth under side is how I assume those were done.
Last edited by TCracingCA; 05-05-2015 at 04:39 PM.
I have been seeing this old warrior car run since the 1970's. He ran Sic-Sic and moved into the newly formed SCCA Solo I (time trialing at the start of it all- one of the Solo I pioneers!) and of late for years with the Vintage Racing!! Great Car!!! I was pleased to see the nicely extended out flares on it presently. Boy that was some rough foam to contour!!!! With an air 90 degree grinder/sander, I like sanding with the little coarse pads. I find the flower foam doesn't tear off while working it. More consistent. I have seen a stock fender sliced and pushed out and then glassed into a nice looking bubble flare. The #46 Vara racer Blue car is flared like that! So you slice your glass, then put your tires on and get a piece of wood and lever or pry the glass up were you want it (cracking the glass somewhat, then tire off lay some strips on the bottom, smooth out the top and glass that, then smooth under side is how I assume those were done.
I too have been seeking nice fender flares. I thought I would share two possibilities you guys may want to check out.
1) If you view www.67heaven.com you will see the ones I located. They are available from Corvette City in Commerce City, CO. Contact Gary --- corvettemaster@cs.com
2) There is a Forum member named FatEddy who has some great flares on his roadster, and I think he owns the tooling. You can reach him through this forum. Very nice guy.
I am mostly OK with original Thumpers in my garage!
I had cut off the large Thumper rears and that is a longer story!!!! Because I was going in the modern with the smaller prettier original Thumpers to balance out the looks of my car because I had planned to get some new rims inners for the rear and move the old rim inners to the front and get new front outers on my expensive and rare Jongbloed modulars. Therefore I was going to push the rear tire inward to a 5" backspace on those Vintage Racing 15" 10 inch rims. But I just ain't getting my big project done quick enough, and haven't even made the call to see what new modular rim halves being made will cost yet! Therefore because the rears fit the old larger Thumpers pretty perfect, I thought about just reinstalling the ones I had cut off (blame the Vintage Racing Organization 18 or so years ago for making me do that!!!!!!!). Then when I gave up on that plan because of personal circumstances, I had riveted them back on for quite awhile and it gave me a mean and nasty look (similar to an FIA Group 4 Pantera style), but in the modern I wanted to glass them back on, and then decided to go with the smaller units on the rears also, because the problem is that I absolutely can't find them now, and I think my Father when we were sharing a project garage together threw them away!!! He does stuff like that, if it is in his way, your stuff goes in the trash (the last straw was my 1965 Elco vent frames)!!! So after I kicked his stuff out, I make sure we don't share space anymore!
Therefore recently I thought the Seghi guy was changing the style of his car to different units, so I offered to buy the rears, but then he finally fell in love with his Thumpers on his car and they are staying. The Pacific Corvette units are interesting, but don't look quite like the Thumper rears. Therefore I will probably do something similar to the Frank Manning car and move the width of the smaller Thumpers out some in the back, because I definitely like my smaller beltline Thumpers far better, than the Bulbous rear Thumpers that I had on it in the rear. I had 10 inch rims all around all four corners, but I was rubbing up front there on 1.3g loads as per my G-Analyst, so I was going to back down to 8.5 x15 with like a 255-265 range racing tire or 25.5 or 8.00 range tire!
I do like that Blue car's tire and rim fit to the flares in the picture above, and that is what I had on my car before I listened to an organization that wanted the Vintage look to be non- flared cars. Therefore I should have just ran with the McLaren's and such (I was beating some of the old Porsches around, and an occasional GT-40, but the speed differential on the faster cars was scary and unnerving when blown all over after you made sure you stayed to the right as they passed you, but I originally wanted to uphold the Corvette image against the Cobra cars that seemed to be taking our Corvettes apart back then, but that never happened, because I went back to my personal Canyon fun! But in recent years, now the Vintage Racing Organizations need participants and I am seeing all kinds of in the modern flared cars being allowed. So maybe!
See I told you all, it was a long story!!!!!
Last edited by TCracingCA; 05-06-2015 at 10:06 PM.
Guys,
Thank you for sharing all this knowledge with me. I'm truly grateful for the time, and pics that you all have dug up in order to help out a fellow member. By pursuing a certain look, I find that I've stumbled across a rich history of racing memories. I hope to keep part of that alive in my own way.
I have purchased a set of Thumpers from a fellow member, and I can't wait to get them mocked up. The fronts will have to be modified some in order to achieve the look that I want, but I feel that the thumper fronts are the best starting point.
I'll keep you guys updated on the progress.
If you can get access to any of those cars and owner will let you do it, you can quickly pull a mold pattern off them. I need to check with shop to make sure it can be done without damaging paint.
There is a separating agent shop uses to quickly pull a thin fiberglass part to make a mold from or to make quick part to see how it would look on car.
We did this when I was fooling around trying to come up with hood design/redesign. Took 20 min, but shop has heat lamp that allowed thin fiberglass coat to be cured quickly. Painted car you probably just let it air cure.
Back piece taped to 66 BB hood was pulled of 67 stinger hood I have. If we had decided to go with that we would have made a mold off it so we could have laid up part with correct thickness to bond on 66 BB Hood.
Another option is having the flares digitally scanned, use data to have a mold plug CNC milled to contour from data (note plug does not have to be milled out of a hunk of metal, there are cheaper option out there to do it form, or you can use data to make sheet metal contour templates every so many inches, bolted them together using a cross reference template made from data showing position of each template. Then using threaded rods and nuts to hold them in position and spline contour in with plaster. That method was done for years (before 3D CAD drawings came about to machine form) only using full size hand drawn mylar drawing to make template shots from.
We did the scan data, so we could duplicate the vent on my Jimmy Joe project. Because we have decide to flare the rear quarters out to 2.5 from 1 1/2" as well as change front fender contour and flare amount another 1.0".
As soon as shop finishes redoing the entire side of car, left side will be scanned so we can make molds to duplicate fenders, door skin, door jam, and rocker panel for right side of car.
Were y'all will have exposed flares, I'm going to try and hide the added width to fenders to try and make belt like of car look as close to stock belt line as possible, hiding the fender flaring. Same end result as you want, to be able run wider tires.
Vent scanning. The white dot stickers we placed on parts so surface depth can be established, talcum powder was applied to hold down sheen of parts, and then vent was scanned. Guy came to shop and did the scan.
Poorhousenext,
I read through your post the other day. I really admire your work. Thanks for all of the tips. I couldn't find any local 3d mapping/laser scanning resources here in Phoenix. Where do you find those guys?
Poorhousenext,
I read through your post the other day. I really admire your work. Thanks for all of the tips. I couldn't find any local 3d mapping/laser scanning resources here in Phoenix. Where do you find those guys?
Local guy in Knoxville, TN where shop is located has a mobile scanning unit. Shop owner found him a few years ago when he was developing a platform concept for being able to make floor pan, ect for cars were part(s) were rusted out or where a new floor pan ect was need to fit engine, trans, tunnel ect so he could make parts that would fit wit out trial an error method.
Check around with some of the local machine shops that have 4 or 5 axis milling machines as well as locale community colleges see if they offer 3D modeling, CNC machining ect classes as they may have or offer scanning or know some one who has scanner. Also University of AZ engineering school . Sometimes you can get help from them as it gives students a real world project they could come out and do, then see results first hand.
Also you can contact below Company they sale portable scanners and either them or company that makes a portable scanner(s) may be able to find a person in your area with scanner that way.
I did a search or Portable 3D scanning in AZ and it brought up a $995 scanning special offer, call'em, and see what you can come up with. Might try the Yellow pages, maybe under engineering services or machining.
Last edited by Poorhousenext; 05-07-2015 at 03:47 PM.
[QUOTE=Poorhousenext;1589582280]If you can get access to any of those cars and owner will let you do it, you can quickly pull a mold pattern off them. I need to check with shop to make sure it can be done without damaging paint.
There is a separating agent shop uses to quickly pull a thin fiberglass part to make a mold from or to make quick part to see how it would look on car.
We did this when I was fooling around trying to come up with hood design/redesign. Took 20 min, but shop has heat lamp that allowed thin fiberglass coat to be cured quickly. Painted car you probably just let it air cure.
Back piece taped to 66 BB hood was pulled of 67 stinger hood I have. If we had decided to go with that we would have made a mold off it so we could have laid up part with correct thickness to bond on 66 BB Hood.
The only outfit that I remember offering it was the Duntov motor guys, but for 40 years I can't believe the glass outfits haven't offered it! Personally one great looking hood! I started to make one also, but i put my C3 L88 style one back on the C2!
Last edited by TCracingCA; 05-09-2015 at 01:36 PM.
The only outfit that I remember offering it was the Duntov motor guys, but for 40 years I can't believe the glass outfits haven't offered it! Personally one great looking hood! I started to make one also, but i put my C3 L88 style one back on the C2!
I'm thinking about making a C3 L88 style hood for current build, as well as something little off the wall. Nobody makes a C2 style with original L88 look.
Just in case we tried L88 look, look closely at hood under car and you should be able to see original C3 L88 hood I picked up at Corvette EXPO. Someone removed it from car without unbolting it, tearing up substructure, but we can pull a part of it to make a mold plug off of to work with just in case. It was cheap.
I would cut them out and replace them with preformed units.
I was not aware that Sermersheim had been vandalized. I guess that would explain why I have not received the fiberglass I ordered in February.
A quick search on eBay pulled up this result. These might not be what you are looking for, but it's always good to have options.
Front
http://www.ebay.com/itm/63-67-Corvette-Front-Fender-Flares-Pair-/301108443348?fits=Year%3A1963%7CModel%3ACorvette&hash=item461b7638d4&vxp=mtr
Rear
OP, Why not call Brian Hobaugh. He works at an auto shop in the SF Bay Area and you can google him. Perhaps he will tell you the source for his flares.
05-05-2015, 01:15 PM
Fender Flare Help
). Then when I gave up on that plan because of personal circumstances, I had riveted them back on for quite awhile and it gave me a mean and nasty look (similar to an FIA Group 4 Pantera style), but in the modern I wanted to glass them back on, and then decided to go with the smaller units on the rears also, because the problem is that I absolutely can't find them now, and I think my Father when we were sharing a project garage together threw them away!!! He does stuff like that, if it is in his way, your stuff goes in the trash (the last straw was my 1965 Elco vent frames)!!! So after I kicked his stuff out, I make sure we don't share space anymore!
