who's done it - I need to flare my front & rears but wondering if I should use a cut-off wheel and chop out the metal or actaully try to roll the inner lip all the way into the outer wall of the fender.

Anyone with experience in the Boston area? I need as much room as I can get. I'm going to run wide tires on an e30 rear end and push the fronts out to compliment the rears.

ask old man, he pulled his fenders and it looks pretty good.

e30 rear end? You're swapping an e30 diff into your car? Any particular reason? And how does that require fender flares if you are still using the e21 suspension points? Or are you swapping the entire rear subframe?

This will require some body filler and repaint when done - we used two 3 pound mallets and some body hammers.

http://www.factoryworks.com/new wheels 3.jpg
http://www.factoryworks.com/new wheels 7.jpg

http://www.factoryworks.com/new wheels 5.jpg

The fronts are real easy the rears take about an hour or more per side, the rears also have a bump up in the inner wheel liners that will need to be hammerd for a wider tire to fit.

have you tried a fender roller? i used one on my e30 and pushed the rears out about half an inch

Sorry I mis-spoke. I meant rolled not flared. Not sure why I said what I said because I know the difference. I'd like to roll the fenders and am wondering if I need to cut out the inner metal or just use a roller/bat/pipe to push them out. SuperJ you got an inch total?

Uberpanzer I'm putting an entire e30 rear end, subframe, trailing arms, diff, etc into the e21. it'll be a hybrid because I'm going to cut & shorten the e30 frame to fit the e21 mounting points - but it'll still have the larger e30 pumpkin and wider e30 track width. This will require removing the fuel pumps (or relocating them) and cutting out some of the reinforcement bars under the floor of the trunk. I'm going to weld in metal like the picture below to keep rigidity and strength. You don't need to cut out the floor for the diff like you would in a 2002 but almost... if I raise the subframe up any into the car I will need to cut the floor/trunk.

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u298/winstontj/e30/Cage%20Design/CageW4.jpg

yup, the inner liner rolled flush to the fender and then i rolled really hard for another half hour till the fender went out enough to get those zender stars on teh back

i trying to find a car on tricord that has really flared fenders and it looks great!

if any of you know what im talking about , post it up. it was red and i think it was a 320i.

and dont cut the fenders, fold them, roll them, do what ever, but dont cut.

Cutting would be what you would do if you went with the bolt-on flares (rounded or boxed). But this is adding pieces onto the outside of the body covering up the current fender wells, which would be what you are cutting away. This would be an EXTREME case, such as if you were trying to run 10in wide wheels. (ok maybe 9in wide too).

So, other than strength, what is the point of the e30 rear though? I'm on my 3rd and 4th e30's and the suspension design isn't that much of an improvement over the e21's. Not trying to side track the thread or talk you out of the project, just curious.

who's done it - I need to flare my front & rears but wondering if I should use a cut-off wheel and chop out the metal or actaully try to roll the inner lip all the way into the outer wall of the fender.

Anyone with experience in the Boston area? I need as much room as I can get. I'm going to run wide tires on an e30 rear end and push the fronts out to compliment the rears.

You can look at my 323i, I rolled the fender lips all around and its a nice improvement over stock. BBS RM rims have been purchased, and they are going to be sporting some dish....

I used a fender roller machine, before my car was painted......

i trying to find a car on tricord that has really flared fenders and it looks great!

if any of you know what im talking about , post it up. it was red and i think it was a 320i.

and dont cut the fenders, fold them, roll them, do what ever, but dont cut.

I know the one, and I saved the pics but my net is too slow to upload them at the moment.

yup, the inner liner rolled flush to the fender and then i rolled really hard for another half hour till the fender went out enough to get those zender stars on teh back

pictures of the zender stars?

i'll have to when i get home. they are the regular 8 or 8.5 inch zender start with 0 offset

I cut 1/4" off the inner lip of my rear fenders using a cutoff wheel on an angle grinder.

You have to be very careful doing this, I taped the fender first, marked along my cut line, and cut very slowly only cutting a few inches at a time. I used a wet rag to keep temps down so I didn't bake any paint off. After it was cut I sanded, primed, and undercoated teh bare edge to seal it off.

the old man is right the inner well is the hard part and will rub if you dont flaten it . I cut a slit in it and used a air hammered to shape the flare and flaten the inner then welded it up the slit . rolling is easy use your palm on the out side and lightly hamer the lip flat . A taped up baseball bat works good to lighty roll and strech the fender .

So, other than strength, what is the point of the e30 rear though? I'm on my 3rd and 4th e30's and the suspension design isn't that much of an improvement over the e21's. Not trying to side track the thread or talk you out of the project, just curious.
A few things... #1 e30 parts are easier to find, they come stock with rear discs and can be upgraded easily as well as have e-brakes built in. I'm also worried about the e21 diff as I'm going to be running a 2.9L ITB'd m20.

It will be a frankenstein rear end between an e21 and an e30 but have e30 track width and diff. Main reason is for strength and cheap/easy to find parts.