Moulded wheel arches

[Lucke]

Hi!

I want to make moulded wheel arches on my V8 Scimitar. I suppose that any easy DIY kits doesn't exists for this car. Which is then the best way to get a pair of fat, round wheel arches. Do I have to make a template beside the car or is it better to manufacture them directly on the body, but how? I have just worked with GRP in repair issues, I haven't created any parts from scratch but I'm very interested to learn how to do.

Look at these ones, this picture illustrates exactly what I want to do!!

http://www.sporting-reliants.com/images ... /Paul1.jpg

[katanaman]

Easiest way to do that I think would be to get some pu foam, bond it onto the car and shape the foam to what you want. You can then put GRP over the top of this to give you the shell. Then you can dig and sand the foam out from underneath, cut your old arch out from under it and bond GRP underneath from the old body to the new arch to smooth it off. If it gets damaged you will have t go through it all again though.

Other way to do it is get the same foam but dont stick it on just make shape it. Soak the outside in resin and sand flat. You now have a buck that you can make a mould from which is a whole other thing. Let me know if you want instructions for this and I will dig something up. Once you have a mould you can then make the arches, cut you old arches out bond/screw on the new ones and your good to go for painting. Its a lot more work but you still have the moulds to make new ones if you damage them or you could make more and sell them.

[Lucke]

Let me know if you want instructions for this and I will dig something up.

Yes thanks!!!!!

I just got an idea, don't know if it is a good one...

Apply some skin-lotion on the old arch before applying the PU foam, this will give the correct shape of the body and when the foam is dry I can easy get it off from the car and shape the outside, resin, sanding, GRP etc...

As I intend to use the car for circuittrack racing I appreciate the method which gives me possibilities to easily make a new pair if the arches gets damaged.

How many fibre layers is recommended for body parts??

Many thanks!!!

[katanaman]

The foam I meant comes in blocks, its the stuff they use as cores for surf boards. I didn't mean expanding foam as it usually sets with big air bubbles in it. Skin lotion probably wouldn't work either, use hard wax or you can get a spray on release agent. Your going to have to use something like that anyway to break the arch out the mould anyway. Apart from that a mould of your original arch is useless to you anyway as your going to have to cut it out the car to gain tyre clearance Hence why you want flared arches. If you wanted a mould of the original arch the using over it would be the best way to go.

As to how many layers depends on what weight matting you get but your probably wanting somewhere between 1mm and 2mm thick or more if your going full contact If your not used to working GRP I would recommend you get 300 gram as its reasonably think to go round curves and just put more layers in. The sharper the curve or bend the harder it is to get in. The return on the edge of the arch by the tyre can be a real mare to get right as its so sharp.

I will dig some stuff out for you in the next couple of days. To give you an idea I knew nothing about it but after a little reading I made a mould and from that a new wing for my car. You can judge for your self how it turned out if you have a look at my site. Since then I have made all sorts from GRP and the next thing is to make replica bumpers. Was looking at using carbon kevlar for that but the Airbus 380 has put the price of carbon through the roof so I might just go for a kevlar and glass mix.

[kiwicar]

There was quite a good article or two in PPC last year on doing flaired wheel arches on an escort, it might be worth getting the issues and having a read as their method seemed good and you ended up with a set of arches and partial moulds, otherwise a look at the SSC stylus and their wheel arch upgeade kit, it is a good guide on how you might do it.
Mike