Fender flares to make front wheel skirt

[jthistle]

I was thinking of ways to make a front wheel skirt and fender flares came to mind. I found these flares Flexy Flares which appear to be flexible to fit a broad range of vehicles. They should be wide enough to cover the turn out of my front wheels. At the outer edge of the flares I would just add coroplast down the side. What do you guys think, is it worth it to try?

[bikin' Ed]

If you're sure an extra 3" will be enough clearance and the big price tag of the flares doesn't bother you, I say go for it! The flares will give you a good way to mount everything--which always seems to be a concern. BTW what do you drive?

[jthistle]

The Flexy Flares are $49 for a pair of 3" flares and $60 for a pair of 4.5" flares, not huge prices. The flares by the major manufacturers are way too expensive. Besides flares are not made specifically for my car but these look like they can bend to fit anything.

[Daox]

The thing is that you don't want your skirts to stick out at all because it increases your frontal area. Take a look at basjoos front skirts. They are hinged to allow them to come out only when need be, and even then its not far. I'd try to replicate that somehow if I did front skirts.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hiya,

I think the idea of doing this is a good one, but i don't think those FlexyFlares are the way to do it.

Look at NASCAR's front wheel flares for a better model, I think.

[jthistle]

So, Nascar cars seem to have wide body fenders. So far the only wide fender for the 2008 xB is this one.

But you can only get the kit and it costs $3500.

[bgd73]

go for it. If to doubt "just 3 inches wide" that is six inches total, and little cars filling out that wide would break thier oem camber, hence skinny little madness crammed into the skinny little wheel wells in the first place. I do not hesitate to insult the fit of alot of cars, I drive a little AWD sube that was tortured by 13 inch wheels for 20 years (I have 14 rims as spares...that was my inevitable obsession). Upon a 15 inch wheel fit and less than .5 inch out of the well, I welded on some new wheel well arches (simply a oem replacement) gained just under half inch each side...and ya know, for less than 1 inch total in width gain, it gave my little sube a fat lookin hiny.
Measure precisely...they are a drag if too big. Much less of a flare can be achieved many times more than not to get what you want, and rather nice looking oem-ish. that site is meant for trucks with muddrs and smashing thier own flares on "things"

[NeilBlanchard]

Hiya,

I would make some flares out of Coroplast.

[cfg83]

jthistle -

I haven't considered this for front wheel skirts because of Daox's caution.

For rear wheel skirts, I have looked at all the rubber flare options on JC-Whitney. The idea is to find flares that flare out enough for a wheel skirt, but are flush enough to keep the frontal area penalty small(ish). That way you can try to mitigate what Daox is warning you about.

CarloSW2

[Will]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Hiya,

I would make some flares out of Coroplast.

That would sure be less expensive for testing purposes