Flares and fender insert/liner

[SteelToad]

I need some advice on what to do about my fender insert/liner on a 280ZX which is having flares added to it. Obviously, the standard liner wont reach all the way out to the edge of the flare. Is there some easy fix for this situation.

 

The car is going to be a driver, so just leaving it without liners and only driving in nice weather isnt really an option. Right now I'm leaning toward just Rino-Lining the inside of the wheel area.

 

Any tips, ideas, opinion's ???

 

[Careless]

spray the inside with rust bullet to seal it.

 

then spare rhino liner over it, or just find a plastic that is similar to the factory ones and use some thick vynil with some light-tack spray glue to paste it into the inside of the flare.

 

one the shape is correct, pull it out gently, and lay it on the plastic and cut it.

 

 

i dont know if you wanna do that... but rust bullet > POR.

 

you should do either POR or rust bullet on a surface like that for sure.

[SteelToad]

Thanks for the advice. I dont think the idea of the plastic will work, the old edge of the fender was cut away both because of rust, and to make room for larger wheels, so the old inserts wont be going back in.

 

Right now i guess I'll Rust Bullet or POR everything, and then rhino the inside, unless there is some way to manufacture a liner to fit. I was kind of hoping to make a liner, but to be honest, I cant see how you could get the right shape in that oddly shaped area.

 

Why do you say "rust bullet > POR" (I havent worked with either)

[Roostmonkey]

you HAVE to reconnect the inner wheelwell to the original quarter panel after you've cut out what was in the way.That joint is structural.

[Careless]

oh, i thought you meant a plastic liner of somesort that maybe my car didn't have reinstalled (my car was hit from the back)

 

If the metal inner fender's the case here, then there are plenty of threads illustrating how to do it, but what i would do is cut a long strip of REALLY thin metal, put it in there, form it to what shape you need by doing a series of cuts and files to get it right.

 

then make it out of harder metal so you can finally weld it on to shut it. and if you can, try and do a seam weld without warping your new flares.

 

the reason for the thinner metal is so that you can get an idea of what grade of cuts you'd have to make to have it fit.

 

cardboard is hard to illustrate that with, and plastic is flexable and almost elastic in most forms. a think piece of metal would be your best bet. one that is thin enough to bend by hand, can be removed without warping (with your wheel off ofcourse) and can be flattened easily over top of thicker metal to allow you to trace it out and make a final piece.

 

EDIT: as for doing POR or Rust Bullet.

 

POR requires a bit more prep than rust bullet does.

costs more.

 

and is not as thick as Rust bullet is, and there's basically more room for error. and because of the type of coating it is, you won't notice that error until it starts to show through the POR, and by that time, it would have spread vastly, if given the room to (like say... the entire inner wheel well was badly done)

 

The person i bought rust bullet from is a distributor for rust bullet, and a chemical engineer. he also used to sell for POR 15, until he used rust bullet, and has never turned back. he showed me pictures of various customers sending back pictures of appreciation and whatnot, and they looked a lot cleaner than the POR examples he showed me. i'll tell you that much.

 

Rust bullet is available in 3 coatings

 

1) Industrial - non gloss, sprayable if thinned down (making the product weaker)

2) automotive - hvlp air sprayable glossy coat

3) blak cote - black coloured sprayable thin coating.

 

the blakcote is their most advanced coating, being 30% thinner, it yields more coverage as it flows better (but that's nothing you have to worry about if you're not doing more than the inner fenders.

The industrial grade is their thickest and most durable coating. it's not glossy at all, and it doesnt slip. it's THICK as hell.

 

3 coats will give you a 9 mil coating

2 coats is 6 mil

1 coat is 3 mil

 

automotive is the same.. give or take 0.5 to 1.0 mills per coating depending on how it cures and what temp it's sprayed in

 

blak cote is thinner by 30% of that.

 

upon seeing some paint chips of Rust Bullet, i tried to chip at it with my keys, and a sharp object i have on my keychain, and let me tell you. it didnt even SCRATCH the coating. not even one of those little white scrape marks that show signs of a layer being whisked.

 

it literally just make a metallic sound and did nothing.

 

it's an aluminum based coating too, so that's why it doesnt rust. howerver, if you do have moisture or bondo UNDER the coating, it will rust through, as it's a BASE for metal prep, not a top coat.

 

you put bondo ONTOP of it, not under.

 

 

POR 15 is still good. but i prefer the reasy prep of rust bullet.

[SteelToad]

Thanks for the info, I'll look into it some more, but it sounds (from what you say) that the rust bullet may be the way to go.

 

What I was originally referring to was the thick plastic liner for the front wheel area. It is the shape of the wheelwell, and goes up inside to protect against rocks and junk. The old/busted ones had little clips that fastened them to the lip of the fender around the tire area. That lip is cut away now, and the new flares move that lip a couple of inches further out than the old liner would reach. I included that pick from the back just to show the flares, but I would like to really protect the rear wheel well area too. I cant seem to find those inserts anywhere, and modifying them to reach out to the lip of the flares may be a lot of work.

 

It looks like it'll be rust bullet and then a layer of rino over that, unless anyone else has ideas or has solved the issue before.

 

Thanx again