sebring front valance ??

jimmy8 · August 01, 2009, 07:58:19 AM

about to give the mg a facelift with some sebring valances and omni flares. looking through the gallery at some of the cars that have had this done, i noticed that often the front valance is widened a couple of inches in order so that it flows into the flares better. In all the examples the valance was metal, which i thought strange seeing as i´ve only ever been able to find fibreglass ones.
After having looked at Mike Alexanders ´how it was done´´, i see that the 73-74 valance that he used look remarkably similar to the sebring.
Is this what people having been using? Is it indeed identical to the sebring (other than the two outer air intakes) ? I know bonding fibreglas to metal is a bit of a pain, but surely getting the metal to a good finish can´t be much easier?
thanks.

avbates · August 01, 2009, 12:03:44 PM

I have an aluminum front valance from MG Motorsports in the UK

Moderator · August 01, 2009, 12:10:03 PM

British Motor Heritage offers an aluminum valance that's four inches lower than stock as part of their competition program. Last I heard, it was about $800.

http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/BritishMotorHeritage-Competition.htm

Here's a snapshot:

jimmy8 · August 04, 2009, 07:19:38 AM

thanks, those are both pretty nice. what i was really wondering is, as in the firt pic the valance widens to join the arches. if this was neccesary when using omni arches.
like the BMH valance, very clean if not expensive.

rficalora · August 05, 2009, 05:50:29 PM

Jim, you don't "need" to tie the valance to the fenders due to omni flares. When i put my flares on, i had them taper out right at the bend where the valance bolts on so they look like they were always there. Now, if you're not going to run a front bumper, then using a metal valance & blending it across the front & fenders is definitely the way to go. It really makes for a finished job.

Bill Young · August 06, 2009, 02:16:54 PM

Jim, I'd be very leery about having a bonded fiberglass to metal joint at that point because of flex issues which would probably cause cracking very quickly. A welded metal to metal joint is quite another matter. As Rob said, using the Omni flares they should taper into the fenders just above the fender to valance joint anyway so no modification to the valance should be necessary.

jimmy8 · August 10, 2009, 05:12:40 PM

cheers. thats good news. had they needed to be widened then blended in there would have been no way i could have used fibrelass. as it is i might have a look to see if there might be a way of fixing them independently but in line, with only a fine amount of filer to blend them in.
and if that doesnt work i´ll have to stop being such a cheapsate and buy a metal version!