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  #1  
Old 03-15-2021, 02:30 PM
Chad_C Chad_C is offline
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Default 1978 Firebird Flares

Hello all!

I've been lurking for a bit now and wanted to share some of my progress.

I'm working on my older brothers 1978 Firebird Trans Am clone. He had 79-81 flares on it and they were horrible. No welting and they had distorted bad.

I took this as an opportunity to practice some english wheeling and hoped these would be "easy" since they don't have a huge amount of form.

All material is 20 guage CR except the strap to the body which was 18 gauge.

So let's start with some pictures

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Old 03-15-2021, 02:43 PM
Chad_C Chad_C is offline
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Cheap grizzly english wheel (a gift) and it's new frame. Basically got it for the wheels and the rest is fabricated.

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Old 03-15-2021, 03:00 PM
Chad_C Chad_C is offline
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Some progress being made. the initial parts were all flat or only slightly curved. Just getting my feet wet here.

I had some issues with my pictures coming in rotated. I ran them through a resizer (www.birme.net, no affiliation) and they uploaded a lot better.

On to pics:

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Old 03-15-2021, 03:03 PM
Chad_C Chad_C is offline
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So moving forward. I'm trying my hand at making the outter pieces. I did the shaping with the english wheel, then added the body line with the Eastwood bead roller and urethane die. A little shrinking with the cheapest POS from amazon and here we are.

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Old 03-15-2021, 03:08 PM
Chad_C Chad_C is offline
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OK so more progress. The little nose piece turned out to be simpler to make than expected. The second picture is the fitup, it sets in place pretty nicely. I'm holding the center flare since it's distorted, but the fit it good.

The last pictures are of the flare finished, all tig welded, ground, and then DA'd reasonably smooth.

This is a bit of a rush low budget deal, so I'm going to try powder coating these gloss black and see how they turn out. Unless someone tells me they will distort real bad with the oven temps??

They have been great practice for me and I'm finding I can "visualize" a little better what needs to happen now. A long way to go though for sure.

This also brings me to current. I'll update as I continue working on the other side and eventually powder coat. Thanks for looking

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Old 03-16-2021, 07:27 AM
dwmh dwmh is offline
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You're making good progress Chad. Thanks for posting.
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Old 04-04-2021, 07:32 AM
Chad_C Chad_C is offline
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A few pictures to bring this to conclusion. The flares were finished as much as my time and ability allowed, and then powder coated.

My hope is that they could be later refinished if the car is repainted, but short of brushing on rustoleum I don't think there is a cheaper more durable finish.

The car is going to be delivered soon, and I'm happy with how it turned out.

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  #8  
Old 04-05-2021, 05:15 AM
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Well done Chad.
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