2g 99 GSX Fender Flares

[TSiAWD666]

Hey folks, just had some custom body work done to my 99 GSX to widen the fenders. I needed wider fenders to accomodate my wheels/tires that I run, and wish to run, with the suspension I have (tokico illuminas with ground control coilovers, lowered). I currently use 245/40/18 tires on 18x8.5" +35mm rims which hit even with awful negative camber settings. I couldn't run 255/35/18 either. 245/35/18 would fit with no rubbing, but only at like -1.5 deg camber in the rear :-\ In case anyone asks I switched from the 245/35 because I couldn't find good brands/models in that size after a few years ago, and had to look at alternatives.

I looked at widebody kits but simply didn't like anything out there. They all look too gaudy for my taste. I opted to try to stay as stock looking as possible. I bought some of the Datsun 240z fender flares that Mavisky uses on his 1g Talon but they turned out not to fit the curves of a 2g well, and would have required a lot of bondo/filler to sit anywhere near flush. With all that work required, I just said f it and decided to explore getting custom fender work.

I found a local guy through Evolutionm.net who did work on many Evos and man did they look good. He offered to do the job out of his house at a fantastic price. I brought him various pictures for inspiration, with my goal of keeping things flowing like the stock lines, with my biggest influence being the C6 Z06

Keep in mind with the below pictures I still have the wacky ass alignment I used to try to get my tires to tuck without rubbing, which was -1.5deg rear, -.7 front. I'll be putting on some spc upper control arms in the front to get better camber up there, and now with the fenders widened in the rear will be decreasing the camber there to something like -.5. I also may put some 5mm spacers on just to push the wheels out a bit until I switch to some 18x9.5 rims next year.

<img src="http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/files/2/0/6/0/0/fender_flares_2.jpg" alt="Flared Fenders On My 99 Gsx" />

<img src="http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/files/2/0/6/0/0/fender_flares_1.jpg" alt="Flared Fenders On My 99 Gsx" />

I had to pick the car up tonight in the dark so the pictures have the poor lighting of the guy's single garage light. I'll try to take some pictures outside in the sun tomorrow and post them tomorrow night.

The work as it is is not 100% done. We had a mental disagreement where the ends of the fenders meet the stock bumper covers and he had left a slight lip/edge there that I don't like. He pictured it differently than I did, and I didn't communicate it well enough. It's minor and generally not easy to see but I like to have things perfect if I'm going to look at them as much as I look at my car heh. He's going to take the car in in a couple months and do a full paint job for me (as I have some cracking clearcoat on the roof/hatch, and the bumper covers are banged to hell) and do the adjustments then. However, EVERYTHING else he did for me is just wow, fantastic, amazing, cool, awesome He got everything else right. I couldn't believe how well it turned out. I might have liked more bulge in the rear, but I'm still more of a form follows function guy so since they work I'm extremely happy with it.

If anyone is interested in contacting the guy for work, please PM me for his info. He's located in Northern VA and is absolutely fantastic to work with.

If anyone has any questions about this, post away and I'll do my best to answer. I posted this thread because I haven't seen anything like this on a 2g posted on this forum but am sure there are other 2g owners in the same predicament and would benefit from my experiences.

Some better pictures to come...

 

[ILLiCliPSE]

very interesting. cant wait to see more pics.

 

[Twistaye]

+1 more pics^^

 

[D_Eclipse9916]

OH GOD, please post better pics and let me know who this guy is!!! I live in Northern Virginia, and would REALLY like to fit some badass shit on my car. How did he modify the rear? As our lip is structural...

 

[TSiAWD666]

Gah despite owning a nice DSLR I can't take photos worth shit yet Guess the hardware can't fix the photographer...

I took some pics before heading in to work:
<img src="http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/files/2/0/6/0/0/fender_flares_daylight_1.jpg" alt="Fender Flares On My 99 Gsx" />

<img src="http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/files/2/0/6/0/0/fender_flares_daylight_2.jpg" alt="Fender Flares On My 99 Gsx" />

<img src="http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/files/2/0/6/0/0/fender_flares_daylight_3.jpg" alt="Fender Flares On My 99 Gsx" />

<img src="http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/files/2/0/6/0/0/fender_flares_daylight_4.jpg" alt="Fender Flares On My 99 Gsx" />

<img src="http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/files/2/0/6/0/0/fender_flares_daylight_5.jpg" alt="Fender Flares On My 99 Gsx" />

<img src="http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/files/2/0/6/0/0/fender_flares_daylight_6.jpg" alt="Fender Flares On My 99 Gsx" />

<img src="http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/files/2/0/6/0/0/fender_flares_daylight_7.jpg" alt="Fender Flares On My 99 Gsx" />

<img src="http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/files/2/0/6/0/0/fender_flares_daylight_8.jpg" alt="Fender Flares On My 99 Gsx" />

<img src="http://www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/files/2/0/6/0/0/fender_flares_daylight_9.jpg" alt="Fender Flares On My 99 Gsx" />

Now in a few of the pics you can see the corner of the front and rear fenders where they meet the bumper covers that I spoke of in my first post. Not easy to notice unless you're looking for them or as you can see from the pics looking from just the right angles. As I said before he acknowledges that it's not perfect there and plans to adjust it later, and I've chalked up the issue as me just not communicating exactly what I wanted. He was going purely off printouts of other cars and my vague verbalizations of what I was envisioning.

Looks like it could have come from the factory like this, right? I've shown a few friends the pics (friends that are not into cars really) and they tell me they aren't sure what I'm showing them I figure fellow dsm owners will see exactly how much the fenders are changed. The front is the most noticeable, and the rear not as much. After seeing the work in the daylight I'm ecstatic, as the work looks perfect and I didn't rub at all slamming into the on-ramps on the way to work

To answer the question about the rear lip, yes it's structural behind the quarter panel, so he cut it and re-welded it. If you want to get in touch with him send me a pm, or if you want to see the work first-hand I live in Herndon which is not more than 15 min from Vienna.

 

[housegsx]

That looks awesome! Great work.

 

[roadrunner2176]

Very subtle, looks nice. So he basically rolled the fenders and cut / rewelded the rear support together.

 

[BoostedinSoFla]

What I like is the fact that they dont stand out at all. I didn't even notice them before looking real hard (it also helps that your car is black). I managed to fit 18X9's +28 on my car a couple months ago, I was running 235/40/18s.

Good job bro!

 

[blkwidow]

 

[matthewdesigns]

That's the best flare job I've seen on a 2g...beautiful! Super clean work.

Do you think he'd do a body tech write-up for us? Or let you sit in on another 2g in process so you could? I know a lot of people who don't have access to this guy would be interested in how he went about it.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Very subtle, looks nice. So he basically rolled the fenders and cut / rewelded the rear support together.

Well "rolled" isn't accurate. I saw the car at three stages prior to the painted work you see in the pics, and what he did was actually cut the metal, then re-weld some of it with additional metal into the general shape. Bondo smoothed everything out from there. So there was no physical rolling, though that is the look I kind of wanted.

Yes the unibody was cut and re-welded along with the rear quarter-panel metal and welded together at the end.

 

[TrboANTsi]

can you post some pics of the job he did with the rear lips like peek up between the wheel and fender def looks like a nice job.

 

[TSiAWD666]

That's the best flare job I've seen on a 2g...beautiful! Super clean work.

Do you think he'd do a body tech write-up for us? Or let you sit in on another 2g in process so you could? I know a lot of people who don't have access to this guy would be interested in how he went about it.

I can't imagine he would and I wouldn't ask him to do so, as this is what pays his bills. I really think the work alone comes down to art more than something you can write up. I know he cut the original metal out and welded in replacements, utilizing some of the cut metal, and then smoothed it all out with bondo. This isn't something someone inexperienced with body work can just go out and do I don't believe.

I have some pics of the work in progress if people really want to see those. Not very good pics I'm afraid but if someone wants to see them I'll try to post them.

 

[TSiAWD666]

can you post some pics of the job he did with the rear lips like peek up between the wheel and fender def looks like a nice job.

Well I will be under the car in the next couple weeks to replace the stock rear brakes with some evo calipers so I could take them then. It would be at least 2-3 weeks though before I get to it as I still need to re-paint them black (to match the black Stoptechs I have on the front).

 

[95CarbonEclipse]

That looks EFFing SWEET! I love it... reminds me of the BMW's. I've always loved the flare those cars have on their fenders.

 

[Killa_dsm]

Wow that looks really good!!! I like it.

 

[bmoha2]

Very subtle!

 

[TSiAWD666]

That looks EFFing SWEET! I love it... reminds me of the BMW's. I've always loved the flare those cars have on their fenders.

So I'm not the only one that thinks this Since receiving the car I find myself staring at other car's fenders and thought too that it ended up much like the current gen BMW 3-series fenders.

 

[AZDSM]

Wow that is some impressive work. I didn't even NOTICE it on my first pass throught the topic until I read everyone's replies of how clean it looked. I took a double take and my jaw dropped. That is just all around clean and nice. I would love to have that done on my rears as they rub a lot.

 

[RipperXX]

Very nice

 

[slctalon]

that is so clean

 

[bmoha2]

I'm jealous. So fresh. So clean.