Party in the Front, Party in the Rear
#overfendernationals
If you've been into cars at all over the last 5 years, you've seen the emerging popularity of overfenders, or flares. RWB, Rocket Bunny, Liberty Walk, etc., etc. Hacking up expensive cars to bolt on pieces of fiberglass is all the rage, just look at the latest SEMA coverage.
People are saying it's played out. To an extent, I agree. But with our little old MR2, it really hasn't been done that much. You might have seen lots of photos of a couple cars, but how many flared MR2s have you seen roaming the streets? We do have the old favorite TRD widebodies, and some people reviving the ABFlug flare kits. It's cool to see people taking such an old chassis in new directions. I hope to be one of those guys.
I have a creed, tag-line, boy scout pledge; "Function creates form." Widening the track width of the car helps with overall stability and center of gravity. We can now run wider tires, with more surface area, more grip. It is a bit of a fanboy phase in tuning, but with good reason. The biggest con would be increased weight of bigger wheels. Overall, it increases the cars performance, and let's be honest, looks badass. So don't worry, we're gonna be bolting all sorts of fiberglass crap to this car, and all in the name of performance! (or aerodynamic drag and increased weight, tomato-tomahto)
Since I like to forge my own path (read as: the hard way), a lot of these parts won't be straight bolt on affairs. But, to gather some momentum, let's start with a straight bolt on part! A new (to me) hood!
No, it's not a real Border hood (those are $1400 f**king dollars!), it's a VIS replica ($200 on Craigslist). You remember my other motto: real wheel, fake aero. Yes, the clear coat is somewhat shit, a few cracks in the gelcoat, and the weave isn't perfect, but I like fixer-uppers. Nothing a little Mike Reed elbow grease can't fix. It already had the aero-catches installed, not the most ideal location, but I can live with it.
The idea behind the Border hood is reverse venting. Paired with a Border radiator relocation kit, you move the radiator to a more upright angle, and divert cooling air directly through the radiator and up through the hood. Creating better cooling and more downforce. The OEM air ducting forces all the hot radiator air under the car, not good for racecar-ing.
Cool idea, and definitely potent if done right. Hint hint, look at any real mid engined race car and the front end airflow will do this. But, the Border vents are... small. Laptop warriors far and wide have argued whether the size of these vents is enough to exit all the radiator airflow, I'm in the camp of probably not.
When I pulled the radiator cover... I realized getting the full air flow potential will require a lot more modification.
You see, even if you pivot the radiator forward all the way to the chassis, the OEM fan shrouds will still block any air from coming through the radiator and out the vents (which exit above the hood latch area). I could get a super thin shroud and fans so some radiated exhaust air can exit the hood vents, but that will be in the future. So, cool idea Border, but not worth pulling my radiator fans and shrouds yet. Also, I know the design about the Border bumper making it possible to pull the radiator even more upright... won't work without totally hacking the front of the chassis (and coincidentally front bumper mounts) off, and won't give you enough room to keep the OEM fans and shrouds anyway. Maybe with a smaller radiator... hmmmm. I'm going to track it this way and see if I really need more cooling modifications before going all in.
So, I'm doing what any confused racecar builder would do, and leaving the radiator mounting alone. The way it's setup now will divert some air up through the vents helping downforce and alleviate drag in the radiator area (I've read air through a radiator has a terminal velocity of 60mph(prolly BS) so this would help at higher speeds). I seriously doubt it will hurt cooling, especially with the AC condenser out too. Don't forget, the hood also saves a solid 15 pounds. Maybe later I'll go nuts and fully duct all the radiator airflow through the frunk and up through a huge hole in the hood.
Ok, onto fitting those big front wheels. You're probably thinking "he he he what's ol' mikey got up his sleeve" while rubbing your hands together. Stop, that's creepy.
Well, I wanted to try something besides bolting on a flare. I wanted a widebody looking front, and always liked the Skyline Nismo style front fenders where they square out near the mirrors.
And you know I have a thing for Ferrari fender gaps exposing meaty tire and exhausting turbulent air.
So why not combine the two with a cut up poorly replicated ASK Sport replica fender!
(^my favorite SW20 chassis ever, by the way)
... errrr I forgot to take a pic before trying to fit these fenders. That car has the real ASK Sport fenders... which are no longer made. They don't even make the shitty replicas anymore. I bought my pair second hand. The previous owner tried fitting them once, cut the bottom half off the fenders, and then swiss cheesed the fender-bumper mounting point. But, it's cool, I'm going to modify these to my liking anyways.
Swing and a miss on the install attempt.
And after a buttload of filler, good as new...ish. Eh, it's a rep anyways.
After sanding and A LOT of work, these started to look like they were actually built for this car.
But, the rear of the fenders had no attachment points. The chassis did have this very convenient mounting hole, so I made my own mounting tabs.
Basically just couplers welded onto large square washers.
Then we fiberglass those to the back of the fenders. ( I know, sick glass work Mike! It's all hidden, going to be painted so zip it)
Once installed with some all-thread, they're very strong and infinitely adjustable to help flex out the fender as needed for tire clearance. I patted myself on the back and took in my work.
The finished product will have some mesh here to help hide the all-thread. Or it won't... I kind of like the exposed look. The fenders obviously will need fitment tweaking and lots of paint prep still, but I need to drive the car to see what needs adjusting, so I cracked another beer and took in the ~15 hours of work these took to get 80% of the way there.
Now it's time to tie this front to the rear.
But before we can start bolting on rear flares... we gotta fix my ghetto ass side skirts!
I honestly can't believe these things are still around. They needed a ton of work to get ready for paint/fitting the last time around. Now, they need even more. I was going to buy new side skirts from Campos (thanks Campos!, go buy your aero from him!), but since I was going to be modifying these more... why not re-use my clapped out ghetto ones. They needed a lot of repair work, but that's pretty easy with fiberglass patching.
We're going to shave that lower vent inlay, and the rear flare will cover the lower vent up. Scuffed up.
If you've tried to mount Greddy (or even the shittiest Duraflex reps) you know how satisfying cutting these tabs off was. Sice I don't have a lower fender, fitting these will be much easier.
After a week of body work, they're starting to look legit again.
They fit! Everything in my garage is now covered in sanding dust.
For the front side skirt mount I built some simple mounting plates. I'm still a bit undecided what to do with the area between the fender and side skirt. I kind of like the exposed, raw look.
After all the work on the fenders and side skirts, I needed more bolt on momentum. Off came the 91-93 spoiler. Yes I cleaned the 24 years of dirt and grime from the trunk lid.
On went the Autopista spoiler from Campos! I don't want to paint my entire chassis, so I need to keep the 91-93 side spoiler parts. It's also one of my favorite spoilers in general on the SW20 chassis. Like OEM, but more aggressive. Fitment is very close to the real thing (I've checked out authentic Autopista spoilers in the wild). It will need some tweaks before paint, but that was a real easy 20 minute install.
I have another modification planned for the larger spoiler. Nothing is that easy!
Now after all this momentum, I just had to see how the rear flares would fit. I decided to fit one and see how things would jive.
There you go! The aero setup I've been dreaming up for 3 years! The rear flares are Rocket Bunny 180sx. They will need extensive modification, but the mockup looks very promising. I like how they fit right in with the side skirt step out (and why I shaved the lower vent). I still need to cut away the OEM fender, close up the inner wheel well, trim the bottom of the flare, modify the side vent to look right, and shave the gas door cutout.
Oh yeah, and do the other side, which requires a cut out for the gas door. So yeah, tons of work to get these to look right for the car, but we have a great start. But I really like the look. Next post we'll get elbows deep into these rear flares, keep your stick on the ice.