mickey_00xj

Got bored today and went to see what I could come up with out of the slim pickings of steal at Lowes. Decided to start on some flat flares. Made a little progress:

mickey_00xj

Now to start welding, grinding and fitment. Only got one section done today, I'll try to get more done tomorrow:

dboots

lookin good curious to see how these turn out. and very unique idea i like it

Slick761

Oooh exciting... I was thinking about making some when I get some money and get my MIG from my parents house.

d50

i can see where this is going. you really should go to a place that sells metal its alot cheaper then lowes and more to pick from. looks like a good start.

brookhart63

I'm liking this. X2 on buying from a steel yard

mickey_00xj

I wish I had a steel yard to buy from. The closest one requires that you buy whole sticks of what ever you want, and the only place the will cut to length or has scrap they'll let me go through is 2 hours away. When I go to make the rest I'll probably sacrafice a day and make the drive to get what I want. I only bought enough materials for one flare. Decided to experiment to see if I would like the results, so far I do so I'll be buying what I need for the other corners. Back flares are going to be a bit harder.

dboots

any updates??

mickey_00xj

Unfortunately no updates to the flares. Welded the pinch seem on the rear wheel wells, cleamed them and painted them with bedliner. Now I need to measure, cut and bend the pieces for the flares and weld them up. It's been stupid hot here though so motivation has been low.

mickey_00xj

Well guys, haven't worked on the flares much. Discovered that I'm going to have to rework the 90 degree body mount and the whole outer rail piece. In other words I'm pretty much going to have to change most every part in order to follow the arch and curves of the fender. But in the mean time, I did a little cosmetic work. Sanded down lower doors and rockers and painted them with bed liner. Here's some pics:

brutalxj

What I do is have a local welding shop that has the tools I wish I had. Yet to build my flairs yet but have 3 10' pieces that are a 1" body then 4" out and 2- 1" 45's to make the outer side rounded. The 3 peaces cost me $60 not bad since I don't have a 10' wide bender. Still have to cut and weld them to make the flair.

jusper88

What I would do, and plan on later in life, would be to use a Rosebud tip on a cutting torch and heat the square tubing up and make your bends that way. Then use a 4 1/2 angle grinder with a cut off wheel and cut your square as you have already, then weld everything up. The whole downside to this is if you bend the tubing too much, you won't fit the sheet inside like you'd like. You'd have to be careful, but I think it'd be cheaper in the long run, than to have it bent for you. You could get some good thick wire to make a jig of what degree of bend you want, and just check after you bang the metal out. Just my opinion, take it however you will. Good luck!

mickey_00xj

I thought about heating the square up and bending it but the way I'm using it I'm afraid it'll crease the corners and look dumb. I think I'm just going to use round tubing instead and bend it to fit everything. Think that'll be the easiest thing to do.

jusper88

I agree, plus the cosmetics issue will be worked out with round tubing...You going to "edge" the flare to rid it of sharpness?

mickey_00xj

The round tubing will be slit and slid over the sheet metal and welded on both sides. Much like I did with the square tubing but just with round