Cutting Rear Arches?

I read that some people cut their arches to fit their kit and I read that others jsut worked around them.
I was just looking for some people to post up pics/advice on their work on the rear arches.
If you dont cut the arches how did you go about securing the kit at the rear arches

i dont think it makes a difference about securing the the rear quarters if the arches are cut or not because thats not where they attach, or is that not what you meant?
i cut mine and even still i get the wheel just touching slightly on the drivers side if i go over some speed bumps (must have cut the passenger side slightly higher becuase thats not an issue). i'll have to cut it further now with the kit in situ which is not something im looking forward to and i havent even lowered the car yet! i'd say theres no way round it, you have to cut them becuase i just dont think rolling them would give enough clearance.

The rear arches would be bonded on or secured above the actual arch? If so does the kit not come down as far as the actual rear arch itself?
The clearance issue was what I was mainly wondering about.
Did you drill and rivet your kit on the rear arches to secure them or did you just bond them on with fibre glass etc?

they secure along the top and not really along the bottom. im not sure if other kits have more fibreglass along the bottom to bridge the ga between the kit and the car but mine didnt so that needs to be custom made... its not structurally supportive though. i bonded mine after reading through another project thread that did it the same way. my body shop guy said this is fine and its shown no signs of cracking and shouldnt ever but if i were to do it again i'd rivet it just for peace of mind. (you may see the rivets holes after a few months when the filler shirinks though). another thing to note is that you can actually see the old arch when the new one is fitted over if you dont cut it because it sits lower.

Ah right, thats good to know.
Do you have the links to the other build thread you mentioned?
I've been looking for as many build threads as possible to try and familiarize myself with how others have fit the kit.

Hi Infamous,

Reading your post, I remember having had the same questions as to what happens with the existing arches - hopefully you can glean some info from my pics and a bit of what I've learned...

So the kit piece(s) arrives like this:



You can see the rear quarter panels leaned up against each other lower right in the pic. Here is another angle if they're not immediately recognisable - the rear uarter has a slight indentation/hole where the aerial is to be placed:



OK, so is a drivers side rear quarter panel when offered up to the existing car and temporarily held in place with tech screws (self tappers):



You can see the passenger side existing arch "inside" the rear quarter panel on this next pic, taken during trial fitting:



Basically the gap between the existing arch and the new arch must be filled. You can do this by one of several methods:

1. Do nothing; this means you can never get the correct offset wheels to be flush with the new outer arch which defeats the purpose of the widebody kit;
2. Cut/grind off the existing arch in line with the new outer arch and fill in a horizontal section of fibreglass which extends between the existing car shell and the new arch;
3. Cut and flare/fold out out the existing arch metal to form the horizontal section to meet the new outer body panel;

Methods 2 and 3 are also known as "tubbing" and is required to stop mud and crap from getting up into the underside of the new outer body panels. I have some pictures which may help to understand this better, as I have gone for a custom widebody kit fitting of a ultra widebody demonstrator replica. In my project, the fibreglass rear quarter panels were cut into pieces to make them wider and this allows the view below:

This pic shows a rear quarter panel with the top cut out and a "jig" fitted to get the correct width/shape:


This pic shows the temporary jig and extra width


This next view is the useful one - it shows a top down view of the gap between the existing arch/metal body shell and the new fibreglass outer. this gap is the section which needs to be "tubbed" out, as described above:


In my build, the existing metal arches were cut and flared out to form a solid steel tub which was then fused to the fibreglass panel using a mixture of epoxy products and fibreglass. Essentially the tubbing extends the depth of the wheel arch and forms a solid barrier to the underside of the fibreglass rear quarter panel. The "top" section of the rear quarter panel was then glassed into place:

1.


2.


3.


4.


Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the underside of the arch - I hope this makes sense; Feel free to comment or ask more questions and I'll try to clarify as best I can. Am going to put up my build thread soon as the car shuold be coming out of paint in about 6-8 weeks. The thread would show a brief overview of the whole process - good luckj with your project, I'll help if I can mate!

Cheers
Daz

not really the one i was thinking of but this car seems to be bonded on too http://www.mr2.nl/forum/showthread.php?t=8328 (theres also u full build thread for this car)

^been watching that car here http://mrtwo.mine.nu/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19578 looks good, any more progress?

progress is as per the latest page (13); The painter is putting the first coat of primer on this week and I'll go in for a snag/lookaround later this week - hopefully get some good pics too; Then the second coat of primer goes on and a final snaggin session; Then I'm off on my hols back home to the UK for 5 weeks - by the time I get back the car should be done. Here's hoping...

Anyways, so from your post answer;

not really the one i was thinking of

were the pics/post helpful? I must admit I re-read it this morning to see if I'd answered your post and in the absence of further text, a pic of the under side of the "tubbed out" arch would really be the best way to explain it.. Let me know mate

Cheers
Daz

sorry, i think you've misunderstood. i was refering to the link i posted in the same line not your pictures. it was in reference to infamous' previous question about the build thread with the bonded on arches.

i look forward to seeing more pics of your car, would be good to see the build thread on this website

Cheers for the replies guys, most helpful!
I've been following both your builds, looking forward to seeing your car when it's finished Daz.
Have you decided what colour you are going with?

Tornado red - like the 2010 Volkswagen Golf Gti - but I'll stop the q's on infamous' thread and start me own build thread I think!

Cheers
Daz

Th eoriginal TRD instructions show you were to cut and how the wings are fitted - check here:

https://trd2000gt.forumotion.com/t70-trd-technocraft-offical-kit-instructions

I built up my rear wings with fibreglass moulded against a piece of card to close the gap.

ah yes - this [link above] clearly shows the excess existing rear wheel arch metal cut out and welded up to the structural chassis point underneath This is the the highest point you can go without cutting into the structure - doing so would result in massive negative points for registering your car legally for road use and probably at horrendous cost...