How To Install Fiberglass Fender Flares
(specifically: how to install the MG Owners' Club "Sebring" flares)
The British V8 Newsletter, Volume XV Issue 3, December 2007by: Simon Austin
This article provides detailed description of the work involved to install
ready-made fiberglass fenders on a sports car. The installation steps and
techniques shown in this article apply to other styles of fiberglass fenders
and flares, to products from other vendors, and even to installation of
flares on other car models.
I purchased my "Sebring style" fender flare kit from the MG Owners' Club
("MGOC") in the UK. For just over $1200 (Canadian) including shipping, the
kit included two complete front fenders and two rear quarter-panels from the
top of the fender down. The Sebring kit is offered in roadster or GT versions,
and obviously I chose the roadster version, but the installation process is
similar. (The fenders differ near the windshield "A-pillar".)
Let's start with the rear quarter-panels, as their installation is somewhat easier than the front fenders. Each quarter-panel was laid up against the car for sizing and to get an idea how much fiberglass would need to be removed.
Warning: always wear eye protection when operating a plasma cutter!
Since my car's body was in such good condition and since I was planning to use its original doors, my body man and I decided to leave the steel quarters intact where they met the door, the top of the fender and near the taillight. This would ensure that gaps stayed true and the fender strip at the top was undisturbed. A plasma cutter was used to remove the steel quarter panel about an inch in from the edges.
From this "template", the fiberglass quarter panel was laid against the steel quarter. From inside the car, we just drew a line on the fiberglass panel for future cutting.
The intent of mounting the fiberglass panel to the steel panel was never to overlap one over the other but to "butt" the two together. A metal strip would be attached to the backside of the two surfaces and this became the "overlap". Attaching the strip to the steel quarter was simple enough with welding. Two-part industrial adhesive was used to attach the fiberglass panel.
With the rear panel "glued" in place, work began to smooth out the imperfections or scuffs in the fiberglass panels. The area in front of the rear wheels was a particularly bad area for getting the fiberglass smooth and some had to be removed and then rebuilt with new cloth and resin for a finished look.
That pretty much takes care of getting the rear quarters to a "primer stage".
There was only one area that needed a little bit of further modification: because of
the addition of about 3" of flared fender, there was a large gap inside
the inner wheel arch. Here we added strips of metal, bonded to the fiberglass panel and
welded to the metal arch. With a test drive, I discovered that the rear wheels rubbed
(rather loudly!) on the metal inside the arch. I took the car back to my body-man and
he removed a section of metal about 8" long inside the arch and replaced it with fiberglass,
suitably rounded off to accommodate the tire. With about 5000 miles on the car since
this modification, no rubbing issues have been detected.
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Now let's talk about the front fenders. These presented a much more challenging project, in that they are not the finest moulded fiberglass fenders made. Sure they look like MGB fenders in these photos - but looks are deceiving! Once the steel fenders were removed (and sold, because I thought I wouldn't need them anymore), the fiberglass ones were placed on the car.
As can be seen in the pictures, I've added the ST spoiler so this had to be
blended in with the fenders. Also, my car started out as a "rubber bumper"
(post 1974) model, but I planned a "chrome bumper" conversion - so those changes
need to come together too.
The most difficult area to fit properly on these fenders was at the rear top where
the fender meets the windshield frame. When you order this kit, you specify whether
you want the GT or roadster. After much cutting and rebuilding in the
windshield-to-fender area, I don't think it would really matter if you got the
wrong fenders for your project. The problem here is poor fit quality. The curve
of the fender had to be cut out, fiberglass added in to reshape and then the curve
added back in to follow the car. The overall fit of the fender is good in that it
sits in the correct position, but it does take a lot of reshaping in small areas to
make it look like it came with the car. The turn signal light area is shaped and
easy enough to cut out for your lights. Remember to add a ground wire from the
light housing to a good ground on the car as the original housing just grounded
itself by being attached to the steel fender. The headlight housing is mounted the
same way. Cut out the fiberglass, mark your mounting holes for the bucket and all the
associated light fittings and you're set.
As many MG owners will already know, the rear of the original steel fenders
mount to the car by use of a steel vertical panels that are welded to the fender
and then bolted to the car. The fiberglass fenders have their own versions of these
panels, but they're totally useless. They're not in the correct position, so
I removed them. In the picture above, you can see how an inner brace was made
to replicate this panel. This bracket was bonded to the fiberglass fender. Then I
used the original holes on the car to mount the fender.
This area is hidden behind the stock MGB splash panel that installs in the
factory location with the only addition being some metal added at the bottom
to fill the gap created by the flare. The outer edge of the splash panel has
a rubber weather-strip and it seals against the fiberglass fender nicely.
Inside the engine compartment, holes are drilled through the fiberglass fender to
install the bolts to hold it to the car. Mounting the fenders at the front
involved adding small panels to replace the vertical ones on either side of
the grille that were attached to the steel fenders.
You can just see the original panel mounts for the fenders. The easiest way
to attach the fiberglass fenders is to source some old steel fenders, cut off the
small panel that attaches the fender to the car and attach these to the fiberglass ones.
Then sculpt the fiberglass around the grille opening to the proper shape. Having
a grille to use makes this step much easier.
The last step before the final bodywork, primer and paint is to reinforce the
wheel arch lip of the fenders. As shown above (here and also three photos up where
the inner brace was shown) the arch lip is literally a sharp edge. Some may elect
to leave it like this, but adding strength here will prevent someone from leaning
on the fender and cracking it. My body-man came up with some foam strips that he
attached to the lip, built it up with resin and then fibre-glassed under the arch
to give the lip a "horizontal" edge. To give further strength to the fender (and
to prevent rocks and debris off the tires damaging the underside of each fender),
we chose to apply spray-on truck bed-liner material under each fender. This product
was used on the rear fenders as well. Now that the car is done, it's hard to tell
that the fenders are actually fiberglass.
Looking back on this project, the only thing I'd do differently is to not use the
complete fiberglass front fenders. Installing the fiberglass front fenders certainly
isn't as simple as just bolting them on (as you may have gathered.) If you have or
can procure a reasonably staight set of steel fenders, I'd recommend bonding the
flared sections of the fiberglass fenders to them (much like the fiberglass rear quarters
are attached.) Installing complete fiberglass fenders seems appropriate for repairing
a car with extensive collision or rust damage, but if available I think it'd save
considerable work and avoid hassles to use steel fenders as a foundation.
Genuine Minilite wheels (Made in Britain!) complete the authentic vintage-performance "look".
For more information and photos, please see Simon Austin's "How It Was Done" article.
Disclaimer: This page was researched and written by Simon Austin. Views expressed are those of the author, and are provided without warrantee or guarantee. Apply at your own risk.Photos by Simon Austin for the British V8 Newsletter. All rights reserved.
