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In this page we will walk you through the process of doing the installation. This particular install was done with a set of our 2010-2014 mustang flares, but the process is pretty much the same for any application.
Start by lining up the flares and taping them into place |
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You will then need to mount the flares to the car, before paint, and make sure everything lines up correctly. some fine sanding and any small adjustments will be done at this point.
We recommend using a self tapping screw for this step. They drill through the flares and the car leaving a nice clean hole. We used pan phillips head #8 x 3/4 inch self tapping screws from lowes for this step. Start with the top two holes, and work your way out from the middle. |
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Next step is to mark the edge of the flares, we used a dry erase marker. This will allow you to see how much room you really have to cut.
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Now comes the fun part. Mark your line and star cutting.
You only need to cut to give you enough clearance for your suspension to travel. For this step we used a 4.5 inch grinder with a metal cut off wheel. Wear long sleeves, gloves, and goggles. This particular vehicle has air bag suspension, and this amount of cutting will clear the tires when aired out. As you can see not much is required. |
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The rear is more involved than the front. After the last step, you can clean the edges of the front wheel well with a flap or grinding wheel.
Then primer to seal the metal from rusting. We then installed edge guard from trim-lok. not necessary but cleans up the wheel well and doesn't leave any sharp edges. The plastic lining was cut back a little with a box cutter, we left as much as possible, it will not hurt the car by leaving it there and will still protect the tires from hurling anything up so no sense in removing it. |
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Now to the back. You will have to place another cut and go through both walls this time.
Cut about a half inch from the bottom edge of the wheel well, this will separate both walls and allow you to remove the outer piece. |
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You should be left with something like this.
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Slowly massage the back wall to join the front wall.
We used a pipe from the jack, and a hammer. A baseball bat or a large pipe of some sort will work. Take your time and go back and forth working it a little at a time. |
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Then with the grinder cut of any excess with the cut off wheel and clean with the grinder or flap wheel.
Also clean the area immediately surrounding the edges. At this point you have a choice. You can either weld them shut if you have a welder available, or like we did, use good quality epoxy, we bought ours from the paint shop. |
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Then mask, primer, and paint the area you worked on.
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Then back to the flares. Once the flares are painted and have dried, re-install them with a couple of screws at the top.
Not pictured, but we will explain it from here. Depending on the hardware you used this will be different. For nut serts, those will need to be installed prior on the car, then drill the flares, and bolt down the flares. For rivets, drill the holes to the diameter you need and rivet them down. For machine screws with snap caps. Simply put the screw through the plastic washer, Screw it down, and push the snap cap onto the washer |
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For our specific install we used black #8 -32 x 1/2 inch allen head bolts that we bought from fastenal.
We mounted the flares with the top 2 screws, then using a #8 -32 tap attached to the drill. We went through every hole and tapped the flares and the body at the same time, keeping the angle of the bolt the same through both. Then we simply bolted them down with the purchased hardware. We prefer this method as it allows you to still remove and re-install the flares if need be, while giving it a finished look. |
