The front tires would only let me go straight, so something had to be done...
I unfolded the fender edge, cut a few slits, and hammer and dollied it to my best guess. Then I bent a piece of 1/8 rod (I used stainless because I had a length on hand) - to the shape of the final wheel well opening on both sides (I spent some time to get them the same, cutting out a cardboard pattern), and mig welded them to the fender with rods to the underside of the edge. I had some 1/16 white polystyrene sheet, which was great for making patterns for the new metal. I cut them out (of 20 ga) with a bench shear (more accurate) for the mating edge, and a bandsaw (faster) for the outside edge. I decided to oxy/acetylene weld them, with a 0 (smallest) tip on a Cobra Torch (Henrob/DHC2000). These run on 4lbs each of OA, and have a flame about the size of a sharpie tip, giving a soft weld that hammers easily (though I had little trouble with distortion.
A lot of the flares I looked at really covered only the top half of the tire, but as I wanted to keep the rocks off my rear fenders, I brought them on down, and down in front to meet the splitter.
After a little hole filling, more hammering, and sanding, gave them two wet coats of Southern Polyurethane's White epoxy primer, and then some body filler. More sanding, and two more coats of epoxy primer. I will wait til it warms up to shoot the base/clearcoat. (I had to put a couple space heaters on the epoxy. It wants things at least 65.
(One of the things I like about the SP primer is that it dries to a gloss.
Next up, airdam/splitter.
This is 6mm Russian Birch (splitter) and 1/4" bending ply (air dam), screwed together with some aluminum angles I cut from a 1x2"x1/8 angle, my plan is to put an epoxy fillet at the corner, and fiberglass/epoxy the front of the airdam, top of the splitter, and kevlar/epoxy the bottom. The splitter stops a little short of the oil pan, I'll probably run a couple square tubes back and mount the back to the transmission, and the front to the bumper mounts. I am still doodling on the mechanism, as I want a little spring loaded give, a little adjustment, and easy removal.
The shape is cut large, so I can look at the final front edge curve while it is in position, probably about an inch inside of what is there now.
I am considering an extra ramping curve at the junction of splitter, wheel well:
Michael
Continued, slowly;
