continued from above
MAKING ROOM FOR THE TIRES - FRONT
I've flared a lot of BMWs and normally the front fender clearance is a breeze. You mark the highest part of the tire at full bump and trim the sheet metal fender. Done. Takes 30 minutes per side, tops. But I've never added 335mm
front tires on a BMW...
Just like we had to do on our BMW E30 V8 with 18x11" fronts, this E46 M3 needed EXTENSIVE mods to the frame horn above and the chassis behind the tire to clear the 13" wide tire
swinging at full lock. Large chunks of the inner fender structure were removed.
The part of the upper frame horn that was removed was replaced with some formed 18 ga steel sheet metal, shown above left. The same template and shape was used on both sides, just inverted for the right/left fenders.
The surrounding metal was cleared of paint with the pneumatic wire wheel called the Krud Buster. Awesome tool. Then this panel was stitch welded in place to tie the structure back together.
And just like how I did the same reinforcement work on the E30 (above left), Ryan added square tubing to replace some of the missing sheet metal structure on the E46 M3 (above right). All of this was TIG welded in place (way better than my E30 welding!) and the raw steel was all coated with more zinc primer. Now we are ready to add the actual flares.
BUILDING CUSTOM STEEL FLARES - FRONT
We are building these flares out of 18 gauge steel with the hopes of being able to pull molds off the final set. And while we could have made them out of foam and fiberglass, we are not a composites shop. This is the best way to make a one-off set of wheel flares in-house. They will be strong and can also be used to pull molds off of afterwards.
Ryan started by adding some "landing" zones for the front flares by adding some flat sheet in the horizontal plane at the front and back of the front wheel front wheel arch opening. We will add a front "canard" portion that attaches to the front bumper cover and this landing pad will be the seam.
The wheel arch had a rolled upper edge added in the bead roller (above left). With this "skeleton" added on the outer edge of the flare the gap to the fender could be bridged.
continued below