This is my '67 VW Type 3 Squareback that has custom Miata-based chassis. After installing new, lower suspension, the rear dropped over an inch more than the front did (for several nuanced reasons, including the fact that the PO of the Miata cut the front coil springs but not the rear ones).
Once the suspension settled, the tires were lightly rubbing on the inside of the REAR fenders. It wasn't chewing up the tires at all, but it needed to be fixed, especially with two people in the car (more weight). It really only needed a little but of extra clearance, so I thought I would try to "stretch" or "pull" the fenders as much as possible.
You can watch my youtube episode about this, OR you can keep reading below!
First thing I did was use a body hammer to roll the inside of the rear fender lip and forcefully pull the fender out as much as possible. This actually worked quite well but it still wasn't enough.
I had thought long and hard about what methods I could use to stretch the fender flares.
I could:
- I could do a wide-body thing but I didn't think it looked that great.
- I could use "pie cuts" to make the radius/arch/wheel-well-opening a little bigger.
- I could get/make some larger, custom fender flares and weld them on
- I could cut the lip of the fender off and then weld it back together with filler metal, effectively making fender flares like above
- I could warp the fenders into a whole new shape. That's what this guy did:
- Or I could cut off the factory radius and relocate it higher up on the fender
Ultimately NONE of the above techniques are ideal. They all require a lot of welding, which shrinks the metal, the opposite of stretching. But this isn't a Concours D'elegance build and I'm not a coach builder, so it doesn't have to be totally perfect.
I ended up going with a combination of numbers 2 and 3. I thought about doing number 4 but it would be a whole lot more welding and a whole lot more problems with shrinking, and I just didn't think it would give the shape I wanted.
The ideas was to make some cuts, "pie cuts" as they're called because once the sheet metal is pulled outward, it creates a trianglular shape, like a slice of pie, that's filled in with new metal.
I actually started with the driver's side but there was some problems with that one so I will first show you the passenger side fender.
At this point I se the car back on the wheel and pulled the fender lip sections outward until it covered the entire width of the tire. Then I started filling the gaps.
I used nails to fill the larger gaps:
And I used, of all things, those little flags you find in yards to mark utilities to fill the smaller gaps!
Tah-dah!
That looks pretty good to me! A whole lot of work for a tiny yet crucial result.
However on the driver's side, the one I did first, I didn't use as many pie cuts...
...and because of that, the lip got a little wavy looking...
I was able to fix it by adding a 4th pie cut, and using the body hammer to pry on it some more.
So that's it! This job I've been stressing about for nearly a year is finally done! After painting the wheels, I took it to a race shop for a professional alignment and it's looking and handling great now.
When I was in the middle of this build, EVERYBODY had their own opinion about what I should do about this problem:
- negative camber (would push the wheels out, not bring them in)
- smaller tires (doesn't look right, IMO)
- skinnier rims with more offset (the 5" alloy rims I had before couldn't get any skinnier! these steel ones are 5.5" but same size tire width. Both have 45mm offset and I can't find anything else with more offset)
- fender flares (I want to keep it as stock looking from the outside as possible)
So trust me, if there's a way to get the tires to fit, I've ALREADY thought about it and I went with the best solution for me and my build! Thank you.
Lastly, check out my pile of rust holes from both fenders:
