For as long as I can remember I've wanted to try my hands at making my own car parts. So for the last few weeks I've been reading up on what it takes to make composite parts. I've done a bit of practice with some small carbon fiber kits making small bits with pretty good success. So after the practice and reading and watching everything I can find about making composite parts I'm finally going to try my hands at making my biggest part yet, a vented fender.

I know a few companies make vented fenders and it probably is more cost efficient to just buy one from a manufacturer. Though my only issue with that is that all the fenders I've come across are wider than the OEM fenders. Which would mean that I would either need to get new wheels or spacers, and I really don't want to run spacers on my car. Plus if I buy fenders from another company I won't get the experience or practice.

With all that said I'd really like some opinions on what design to go with the fenders. I've done a few basic mockups in photoshop and would really like your guys opinion as to what you think would look best.

Here's the stock image I used to make my renderings:


Curved 1:


Curved 2:


Straight 1:


Straight 2:



I know that my photoshop skills aren't the best but I think the renderings that I did make give a good enough idea as to what I'm planning on doing. I'd really love to hear some feedback and opinions from other members. I plan on making the fenders in two weeks when all of the supplies should arrive.

Thank you for looking,
DACodeRed

 

My vote is for stock.

 

Seems like it would be easier to just mod the existing fender to be honest

 

After looking at the four design options, I vote for the stock fender. Looks better and cleaner than anything proposed.

 

Straight 1 or stock. Fedner cuts are REALLY hit or miss when DIY'd.

Especially on the odd shape of the Z.

 

I like the straight ones better, but I would do them slightly lower on the body line

 

So something like this?

 

Just like that, but I would go back a bit more into the emblem mount

 

Good call I like this look a lot more.



I'm not sure how much further I'd be able to pull the fender back because of the actual frame. Judging by the photos I've seen online of 350z's without fenders it seems like this is realistically as far back as the cut could go without exposing the frame.

This is the photo I used to get some reference as to how far I can pull it back.

 

...Off topic, but nice wheels!

 

So I just got the spare set of fenders about three hours ago from the time I make this post. I've removed my OEM painted fender so that I can mount the new OE style fenders. These fenders I'm going to cut and use to make the mold for the fiberglass fenders. I currently don't have a cut off wheel. So I was just using the dremel I had laying around with some cutting disks to get started working on the driver side fender. It was slow work with the dremel, so tomorrow I'm going to drive over to Harbor Freight to pick up an electric cut off tool and one of those hand held belt sanders to clean up the edges. Here's a few photos from today's work, I couldn't get a lot done since the fenders didn't come till around 4:30 or 5:00PM.


Removed my OEM painted fender


Rear View


Side view


Front View

 

Isn't there some danger of rocks and debris being thrown up against the body while highway driving? Did you get those $78 fleabay fenders for this mod?

 

Well where I live there really isn't a whole lot of debris in the road typically so I'm not worried about it. I also don't think anything can really hit the side of the car because most stuff that does stick to the tire will hit the rocker panel inside the wheel well. Or if something does make it past the rocker panel it'll hit the inside of the fender which will be bent and cause any debris to angle out rather than hitting my door or side of my car. The only place I can think of that might be in danger is potentially the side mirrors, but I don't think it's very likely to happen.

Also these are cheap replacement fenders from eBay. I think it was around $135 for both the left and right side. The fitment is actually not too bad for how cheap they are and they feel pretty much identical in weight to the OEM ones. The only issue I have with them so far is that the part of the fender by the top of the headlight is raised up a little too high. So I'm going to see if I can push it down some so that when I make the mold for the fiberglass I won't have that issue.

eBay Fender Links:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/351385693192?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIThttp://www.ebay.com/itm/371316215525?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

Yeah, when I saw those fenders a couple of weeks ago I started getting ideas myself.

lol.

 

I hope to use the metal fenders to make a fiberglass version which will be lighter and easier to reproduce if anything happens. **** who knows maybe people will like them and I might be able to sell a few.

Anyways I've been working on the fenders a bit today. My original thought was to bend the existing sheet metal into the shape I want, but there were some issues with that. Since the sheet metal already had some curves in it, bending it inward caused some small but noticeable creases.






I tried to fix the creases but it didn't help any so I just gave up on the idea of using the existing sheet metal. I cut the entire chunk of the fender out and test fit some cardstock I had laying around to get an idea of what the final product would look like.










After seeing what the fenders would look like with the curve in them the idea now is to get some sheet metal from home depot and bend that into the shape I want. Hopefully after getting the new sheet metal bent I'll be able to take the fender off and use it to create the fiberglass mold.

 

Personally I would have marked up the fender with what I want and made a drawing, then took them to a sheet metal shop and paid them to do it. They got the tools and the know how.

 

I wanted to do something all by myself and get the experience. I also think I might have figured out where I went wrong. Rather than trying to curve the fender into the wheel well I probably should have just bent it at one point. Oh well live and learn.

I'm now in the process of making a curved design out of some mat board and tape I have laying around. I played around with it a little bit before it got dark and I really liked the look that was coming out. I hopefully will have the first fender mocked up and ready for molding on Sunday. I'm really not looking forward to having to copy this over to the other fender, but fingers crossed now that I have some of an idea as to what I'm doing it'll go smoothly.

 

https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/cto/5742881714.html

Decided to keep? lol

 

Yeah, thanks for reminding me to delete the posting.

 

You need wider tires or narrower wheels.