[cal213]

Anyone tried these, http://ozexplorer.net.au/FENDER%20FLARE ... name=Jimny

[Jezza86]

i got these, still painting them and waiting for nutserts to arrive
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/201101919556 ... 1497.l2649

[Gwagensteve]

cal213 wrote:

Anyone tried these, http://ozexplorer.net.au/FENDER%20FLARE ... name=Jimny

1cm wider than factory?

[BertZook]

Jezza86 wrote:

i got these, still painting them and waiting for nutserts to arrive
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/201101919556 ... 1497.l2649

they look bit weird, but interesting.

any massive difference with factory ones?

any improvement on the wheel arch or you still need to cut the edges to prevent tyre scrubbing

[Jezza86]

Their exactly the same just wider where it can be. Can cut the inner guard bit out. Will fit 30"s without trimming I think...

[cal213]

I think ill do a chop on the guards to fit my 30s, have a bit if guard damage that doesnt help with scrubbing. Then if i need, i may try the flares i threw up in the link. But they could be the jap import ones. Would like something different

[Chris_Staff]

Jezza86 wrote:

i got these, still painting them and waiting for nutserts to arrive
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/201101919556 ... 1497.l2649

Have fitted these yet? Any photos? look sick in the ebay photos

[Paulw]

Not sure they look good with stock front/rear bar

[atari4x4]

A9X flares belong on a torana...

[Jezza86]

Chris_Staff wrote:

Jezza86 wrote:

i got these, still painting them and waiting for nutserts to arrive
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/201101919556 ... 1497.l2649

Have fitted these yet? Any photos? look sick in the ebay photos

i cant buy m6 bolts 70mm long in town do going to geloong thursday to get some.

[BertZook]

that looks awful

[zukenutter]

They look worse than expected. Maybe better if colour coded.

[pete_79]

Surely they are made to be cut to run like 33s or something...?

They don't look any wider then the stock flairs. They look to just have a higher vertical face which I assume is to be trimmed to suit huge tyres that would require cutting too much off the stock ones.

[zukenutter]

Those are different to Jezza's

[Paulw]

shit sorry i thought they were the same

[zukenutter]

Here's some flares

[Jezza86]

so, i did things
i bought these flairs http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/201101919556 ... 1497.l2649
then removed the old guard and all the clips with some multi grips
popped in some nutserts to find the bolt up points on the new guards do not line up with the original holes

so i drilled 5 new holes practically beside the old ones (the old ones have the nutserts in the pic above)

this gives an idea of the spacing involved.

then i bolted it up with 3 40mm bolts and 3 60mm bolts (all M6, 316ss)





the last thing i did was open the passenger side door, which caught the back of the new flare and bent the metal of the fender in.
got a screwdriver and bent it back out and then out some more so the door can pass within, however if you had a crash and the plastic flare moved back it may be very difficult to open the doors.

so now the flare is flaired so the door can pass.
the plastics are good, but could do with some trimming/ professional instillation to get the best results.
cheers

Jez

[zukenutter]

Actually looks pretty good. Nice thongs

[pete_79]

What's your thoughts on the quality of the moulding, is it cast evenly and smooth?

They look like a pretty good option if you're up for a guard chop.

[Jezza86]

its cast in a rough polly finish but there's enough meat in the polly (1-1.5 mm) to sand back to a absolute smooth finish then course sand to paint it.
the molding is cut in such a way that you must have a bullbar, or flare your front bumper.
the mount points are probably placed the way they are because they didnt actually want anyone using the original flare mounting holes. they don't have as much meat for a nutsert to grab compared to a correctly drilled and painted hole.

as i said before, the molding is good, and this took me 2 hours to install one guard because i screwed round trying to mount it in the original flare holes.

professionally trimmed and painted i reckon these would look a million bucks and with inner metal trimming and ditching the inner plastics would probably allow a 10.5" wide tyre on a -24mm rim to tuck quite high (original bump stops in place of course) ill be trimming the right hand side before i mount it, probably with my angle grinder as it generates enough heat to melt te plastic, not just cut it.

the only thing i noticed is the guard seams to be a bit long from the front of the door to the back of the bullbar, but once installed tigth it flexes and forms up to the correct shape.
trimming the inner guard portion will reduce this rigidity and allow it to flex easier and not put as much force on the nutserts.

[zukenutter]

when are you going to do the rear?

[Jezza86]

after if done the front right properly, then redone the front left properly
could be a week or a month honestly depends what happens this week if i get this new job ill have close to 500 pages of operating manuals to memorize in a week.

[Jezza86]

did the other side front. then drove out bush with a stanley knife and some aviation snips and trimmed the guards

seriously thinking i should find out how to mould polythene and start giving it a whack myself. that or make a mould set and make it correct, to fit 32"s with no lift.

[neofitou]

Jezza86 wrote:

seriously thinking i should find out how to mould polythene and start giving it a whack myself. that or make a mould set and make it correct, to fit 32"s with no lift.

I'm thinking of doing exactly the same thing. For other tire sizes.

[Seth2013]

neofitou wrote:

Jezza86 wrote:

seriously thinking i should find out how to mould polythene and start giving it a whack myself. that or make a mould set and make it correct, to fit 32"s with no lift.

I'm thinking of doing exactly the same thing. For other tire sizes.

put me on board - maybe we should kickstart it - surely there are guys worldwide who would love some proper guards for the wt jimny.

I've thought about buying a 3d scanner and CAD-ing it - but its alot of investment - would have to get it cnc'd (and flares are big, so companies to do the cncing are hard to find) then you have to make the plates for the injection molding and finally find a company to do it, I read an article and for small items the cost is usually around $50k

Latest idea is to make a "plug" on the car like they do with fiberglass molds, and then form the flares from that - and in this day and age, I'd probably use carbon-fibre just to add that ricer look + no-one does carbon-fibre offroad. should be quite a market-able item.

[Skippy]

KAP suzuki in the UK already have a fibreglass quarter panel that has the flare formed in it already. I've been contemplating doing this myself, just looking for a donor quarter and flare to use a mold.

[Zook_Fan]

Carbon fiber would be quite useless. It is used on ricers because it is light, a plastic flare isn't particularly heavy to begin with so the weight savings would be very minimal.

While carbon fiber is moderately stiff it is not very strong if it were to be bent. It might be fine for a mall cruising jimny but anyone going offroad will destroy them just as much as the old sierra bushwaker flares that were made from too hard plastic.

It's also more expensive which is going against your market of Suzuki owners who typically do not want to spend huge amounts for aesthetics.

All in all, I'd say it's a bad material choice.

[neofitou]

A tough polyurethane bolt on flare would be a better way to go, flexible tear proof.

There is not enough complexity to warrant a 3d scan of the current panel given you are designing new bits, and would have to fix a lot in the scan anyway.
A few minutes with a tape measure would be much more productive if you were going to model it.

I think that prototyping with polystyrene and fibreglass would be the first step, especially if you wanted to kick start it.
It looks much better to have cad and physical prototypes. the goal would just to be turn fibreglass prototypes into plastic or polyurethane production parts.

Don't expect to make any money off a part that is not just bolt on though. It there is any hammering, cutting or welding the market would be too small to be profitable.
You need to do all those to fit 30s with no lift to the firewall, front clip and inner guard. not just he quarter panel.

[Jezza86]

Polly. Ive seen 600k carbon fibre gliders that have hit concrete and trees. The shit shatters even when layered so its flexable-ish.
Add the cost of an autoclave and vacuume packer and a 10% loss rate due to manufactureing faults and you are dead.
Bottom line is- I have a mould. These guards are right-ish, I just need to move the plug/ bolt hole locations and cut the arches wider, polly weld in patches so its all in place and voila I have the guard how I want it on the car.
Those can then be used as the plug to make a mould to inject the polly, exactly how these were made. Id have it at a guess but. If I just told Alaplast ( the seller of these guards) of the defects and he/ she/they/it fixed the mould then we could do a az bulk buy of 10 or more, get it cheeper then ever, be tightarse suzi drivers and spend our free time looking at the boobs thread.

[Seth2013]

LOL, too true on the carbon fibre, I always just want to be different. ( too bad my jimny looks like every other one then )

I still think the injection molding - although a superior material choice - is far too cost prohibitive for the size market, and I'm sure most of us don't have mounds of cash lying around. I might still go with the old fashion fiber glassing option, once the molds are made - its not hard to knock another one out if/when you bust it.

bulk buy could be an option though