Club Triumph

I've had severaly different types of these now to see which seem to fit the best. None are great.

To anyone who has installed these, what is the best method?

Have you installed rivnuts into the quarters and just pulled them up gently against some rubber piping to stop the rubbing again the paintwork?

Any wise words or pics would be great of how its done properly.

Iain

I have done some Triumphs and Escorts in the old days and what I used to do (whether is was right or not  ) was to cut the outer wheel arch off to the desired amount and leave 90% of the inner arch. This inner arch I would heat up and fold backwards using heavy hammer and dolly and reform it to be re-welded to what was left of the wings or 1/4 panel. This would stop any mud and debris getting trapped. When all was welded I would fit the fibreglass outer arches or plastic ones depending on what was had at the time. Sometimes the new outers were pop riveted or bolted then finished with a coat of filler. On the VW Golfs we did, they had a rubber insert that fitted between the wing and flare arch, but these were bolt on flares and not needing any metal cutting.
I guess I really haven't answered your question, as not done any TR7's    

I'm not looking to isopon over the rivet or bolt heads.

The arches will be fitted in a similar way to the way that they are fitted to the work tr7 rally cars.

Bolt heads will be exposed.

How have some of your other guys fitted them?

These are the Arches. Do Rivnuts seem like the best way to put them on?

When in my rally days some of the cars (Mazda's, Imps, Anglia's etc) had there arches glued on with poxy and in some cases they just used filler and stuck the flare on when it was wet, so dried and the flare was stuck. Their reason for this was when or if they side swiped a pole or fence, even a bank the damage was minimal with sometimes just the flare coming off a apposed to tearing the bolts or screws out of the wing or 1/4 panel.
I really think the way the works team fitted these to the TR7/8's where the best, it just looks right. Someone will tell you what you need to know in the end.    

Can't help there. I had a few of these for trial fitting but didn't like the way they fitted.
So I'll probably choose the very first version, as used on the Sprint powered rally cars;
extend the arches themselves as much as possible in steel, more like this one ...  

That's the problem, they really don't fit great.

Has anyone made a nice job of fitting these?? If so... How?

Sorry I've not done the arches on a TR7, my only wide arched TR was a Grinnall.

I'd probably do similar with a TR, mark and cut the outer arch, then cut back the inner arch up to the outer's cut.
Make a closing panel that fits inside the cut you've made to the outer arch, This is a simple angle piece that is shaped to fit snugly into the outer arch cut, Rob had access to a folder and stretcher to firstly make the 90deg angle then shape it to the outer arch using the required CAD template.
For my road/track day car, this closing panels return, steps onto the outside, that gave me something to fit the inner arch from GRP flare back to metal, that was fibreglassed to the GRP flare and sikaflexed and pop riveted to the return.
For a race car you don't need this much return section (my car is about 1 inch), just enough to join inner arch section on the flare, they get damaged so it's best not to create more work when replacing them.
Along with this 90deg angle that steps outside the outer arch you need a similar profile piece with enough meat to join to the inner arch.
We welded the outer arch panel onto the outer arch first, then spot welded the inner arch panel to the return, so the lip facing outside the outer arch is now double skinned.
Then we welded the inner arch return panel to the inner arch.
The flared arch itself is then fettled to fit correctly, it may need bits adjusting, on my sprint it was around the bottom of the door and also getting the profile to sit flush against the swage line took ages.
The panel was sikaflexed and countersunk riveted in place, the panel holes were adjusted so the countersunk rivets sit flush. I've left the rivets showing.
I then spent some time creating the inner arch panels in flexible fibreglass and fibreglassed them to the flat and sikaflexed and riveted this to the lip we created with the two new panels.

Anyways, we did my Sprint last year, you can see how Rob did the main work at the link below

http://www.bodgerben.com/Sprint.htm





And some pictures of finishing off the inner arch closing panel are here :








Brake - not there you don't (not with that amount of rubber) a little lift and back on the gas...

Thank you for the input! I really should have phrased it...

Fixing rally arches to the 1/4's! Rivnuts?

No probs - I did think about rivnuts, but went sikaflex and countersunk rivets.
two pairs of hands to hold them on the car, Drill and celco clamp the flare in place.
Fettle till you get it the best you can.
Then sikaflex and rivet. Job's a good un.

Quoted from bodgerben

... we did my Sprint last year, you can see how Rob did the main work at the link below ...

Quoted from Beans

Can't help there. I had a few of these for trial fitting but didn't like the way they fitted.
So I'll probably choose the very first version, as used on the Sprint powered rally cars;
extend the arches themselves as much as possible in steel, more like this one ...  

Don't know how the arches on the early works car were made.
But I'll use whatever the guy who'll be doing the bodywork suggests.
Looking af their shape I don't know if archief reparatie sections will work.

Ok thanks

Quoted from Beans

... archief reparatie ...

Not sure how they were attached, (rivets, screws, bolts!? - can ask!), but here are the only pics I had of our rally car being built. We went for the glassed in/smooth look rather than the exposed bolts/rivets:

Thank you,

I spoke with a guy who has suggested using the floating Aero Trap nuts, i use these at work so I've grabbed a handful to play with.

The Biggest problem is how badly the arches follow the 1/4 panel, i suppose these can be buffed back to follow the shape of the quarter.

The other problem is that the indents on the fibreglass arches which are to be drilled through and become the fixing points are far from square, thin in places so will never pull in square.

Its one of those things that no matter how good the rest of the car is it will always bug me.

Don't really want to glass them in but it certainly is a method hiding all the issues.