A nifty alternative to conventional fender flares for MGB

[Moderator]

John Mangles at All-British Car Repair in St Louis is one of BritishV8's most reliable vendor sponsors.

Earlier today, John pointed out a subtle but very trick construction detail that he did for Ken Bierman's MGB V8...

John built-out the MGB quarterpanels by about 1/2 inch on either side to provide extra tire clearance without an obvious flared effect. To see what I'm talking about, stare at the following photo, and specifically look at the stainless steel trim that runs down the side of the MGB. Notice that the feature line in the quarterpanel (which would normally be a consistent width all along its length) has been built outward. Cool, eh?



This trick is so subtle... you can't see it at all in this view:



(What a pity that Ken didn't live to show-off this completed MGB V8 project in person. Ken was a a true gentleman, a supporter of BritishV8, and he was sorely missed at this year's meet.)

[MGBV8]

Not to mention a daring soul to ride the Dragon with me.    

Well, earlier today I had wondered if that V8 car on Ebay was Ken's. Great car!

Yep, we sure missed his smilin' face at this year's V8 Meet & at Ted's Winter Party.

[Moderator]

There are a couple other real nice and unusual features in this car's bodywork...

Notice the way the inner fenders ("aprons") have been bell-mouthed downward in the area around the through-the-fender headers:





More here: Ken's MGB V8

[rficalora]

Yeah, i'd noticed that the other day... I like it... gives it a way more finished look.

Never having done body work before my current project, I wondered how good you have to be with your metal working skills to do that... in particular, where you tie those pieces into the existing inner fenders --- if you can't get a perfectly smooth seam & have to use bondo -- even done properly, very thin, will it hold up with the extreme temp fluctuations around the headers?

[BlownMGB-V8]

It shouldn't be that hard to get a decent job, once you have the edges of the opening laid out. I would leave 1/2 to 1" of extra metal and then it's hammer and dolly work with a torch kept handy for stretching and annealing the metal. Use the hammer and dolly also to take out any warpage as you go. Take your time and just work the edges down gradually, use a dolly with a small radiused edge and I think you could make a real nice job of it.

Jim

[djw090]

On those flares do you think he has streched the panel out of do has he cut it above the wheel arch and let some metal in?

Depending on how much you need another option it to make the rear arch the same shape as the front and loose the cut off look. That is sometimes called a university motors arch.