craig1410
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| posted on 11/7/04 at 05:55 PM |
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Rear Arches - Placement Guidance?
Hi,
I'm in the process of mounting a pair of rear arches which I bought from GTS and would appreciate any good advice on placement along with any
advice on fixing which may be relevant. For example, should the leading edge be aligned with the lower edge of the chassis side or should it be up a
bit? The same for the rear edge of the arch - where should it finish? What about up at the suspension turret - should it be flush or a bit high or a
bit low?
From other threads I see that tadpole trim is popular but I'd appreciate a description of what this is and where to buy it.
I intend to use either rivnuts or M6 nuts and bolts unless anyone has any strong advice to the contrary.
Final point is whether I should expect the rear arches to fit perfectly at the back as I am finding a fairly large gap at present. It fits fine at the
leading edge but the trailing edge is not flush due mainly to the curvature of the rear panel. My chassis is a McSorley 7+4 but from the side it is
essentially as per the book so I would expect everything to fit. Has anyone else had this problem with the GTS arches? I'll upload a few
photo's to my archive in a minute to illustrate this. I'd like to be able to just bolt on the arches if possible without having to resort
to bodyfiller to achieve a good fit.
Many thanks,
Craig.
ps. That's 5 pictures uploaded to my photo archive (Rear Arches n.jpg). "Rear Arches 3" shows the problem at the back best.
[Edited on 11/7/2004 by craig1410]
[Edited on 11/7/2004 by craig1410]
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Jon Ison
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| posted on 11/7/04 at 06:09 PM |
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i fitted them with the wheel in position so the wheel would be central, from memory i had the front leading edge around 2" up from the btm of
the chassis but i guess that bits personal choice,
tadpole, what the name sugests, hard to describe in words, but you need some,
fixing, i used repair whashers both sides and just drilled all the way thru, this closed up any gaps for me very nicley......
hope this gives you a few ideas.
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craig1410
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| posted on 11/7/04 at 06:44 PM |
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Thanks Jon, much appreciated. I think I have an idea what tadpole trim will be like but I've only ever seen it once it is fitted. I'd like
to get an idea how much of a gap it will take up so that I know how much fettling to do with the arches to make them fit the rear panel.
I'll give someone like MAC#1 Motorsport a ring tomorrow and see if they have the tadpole trim and any other bits of edge trim I'm likely
to need.
Part of the problem seems to be with the generous flange which GTS mould into the arches and the fact that the flange is co-planar all the way around.
This is not a criticism at all but perhaps I need to taper the flange away towards the rear of the car to get the rest of the arch to blend in better.
I do intend to use large washers either side of the mounting bolts to spread the load but I don't really want to leave the GRP in a
"stressed" position if I can help it. I'd rather everything fitted naturally and the torque on the bolts was just to "hold
it" rather than "pull it" together.
Cheers,
Craig.
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flange nut
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| posted on 11/7/04 at 10:42 PM |
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I think you hit on the problem in your first post. Looking at your pictures it seems the curve in your rear panel starts further forward than usual.
This means it's bending away from the wheel arch where it should still be flat. Can you pull it together with the fixing bolts without to much
stress? If not I'm afraid you have two choices, modify the rear panel or the wheel arches.
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craig1410
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| posted on 11/7/04 at 11:19 PM |
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Hi,
Yes I know what you mean but I built the rear end according to the book and although we all know the book isn't quite 100% correct (!), I
don't think this is one of the problematic areas. I accept what you're saying though and I'll probably end up having to modify
something to suit.
Hopefully I can perhaps sacrifice a bit of the perfect fit at the front in conjunction with the tadpole trim and some tapering of the rear flange to
achieve a good fit all round.
Thanks for your opinion,
Craig.
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Jumpy Guy
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| posted on 12/7/04 at 09:00 AM |
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on this subject, and hinted at above, what clearance do you have around the arches?
at the leading edge, from the bottom?
at the trailing edge, from the bottom?
from the top?
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alfasudsprint
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| posted on 12/7/04 at 11:08 AM |
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Yes, what about the top of the arches, I was wondering about how you can remove the rear shock upper fixing bolt if you place the arch over that hole?
Of course, as I intend to fit a hood, I will need something to fix the poppers to as well at that position...
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paulf
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| posted on 12/7/04 at 11:42 AM |
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I had the same problem with my rear arches which were supplied by Stuart Taylor. I thought i had just got a couple of bad mouldings .
To get around it iI trimmed the flange at the back and then used some mat and resin to laminate extra thickness where required.I finished it off with
some filler and then used the plastic beading you mentioned.The result is good, apart from a stress crack on one wing where i pulled it in a bit to
far.
The beading is available from Lolocost or any trimmers.
Paul.
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Hornet
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| posted on 12/7/04 at 12:48 PM |
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Lo Craig
the tadpole you want is solid bead wing piping.. item 307 from www.woolies-trim.co.uk
I have just fitted GTS wings myself.. I had a similar problem.. I removed some of the wing flange which allowed it to fit better... for what its
worth... my rear edge fits flush to the bottom of the wing, so your is higher i would aslo say that your wing is further back than mine.... i can take
a few pics if you want?
Cheers
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wicket
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| posted on 12/7/04 at 01:13 PM |
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Have a look at stage 8 in the Luego Velocity build manual.
http://www.luegosportscars.com/cars/velocity/index.html
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