Safe to Remove Fender Flares?

[BlenderWizard]

Originally Posted by 3wbdriver

Hey Jethro, there will never be another like Dale. I run a black street stock Camaro dirt track car, with the #3WB on it, as a frank admission that I'm a wannabe. Do you still have that hitch cover, and if so would you be willing to part with it?. I haven't been able to find a decent Earnhardt cover for my ride. And Blender, I love the look the flares put on my 2wd Silvy, but I also went with an 8" wide rim to fill the added width out. I'll go with a 245 or 255 tire when the originals wear out.

That was my plan... widen the track a little without having the tires/wheels sticking out from under the body. Let us not forget the valuable lesson Pontiac taught us in the late 90's..."Wider is better.."

[jethro_3]

3wb, Nought, Nada, Never.... I widdled my collection down a little but my shelves will never get smaller from here on out. Someone tried to bust my hitch lock and if I would have found the shithead I was thinking lead poisoning . Just thinking...

Check out my gallery, this is the one you want....

[3wbdriver]

Forgive me PULEEZE jethro!!! As a fellow Earnhardt follower, I should have known better than to even think you would part with any of his stuff! A thousand apologies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Blender, when you get ready, I went with an 8" wide rim on a 3 5/8" offset. That put my stock 235's within a half inch of flush with the outer lip on the flares. They actually had the sidewalls about 1 1/2" outside of the stock fender. I would guess it widened the overall track of the truck by about 4".
As to your gallery jethro, that's the one I want, but who makes it?

[BlenderWizard]

4" is a lot of extra track... but if you added 2" of width to each tire, then I think you are correct, and I bet it would corner a lot better like that... especially with my truck's long ass

[White Lightening]

Originally Posted by BlenderWizard

4" is a lot of extra track... but if you added 2" of width to each tire, then I think you are correct, and I bet it would corner a lot better like that... especially with my truck's long ass

Greetings Blender and 3wb,

Just curious - if you added tires that are 2 inches wider - would you have added a total of 2 inches more to the track width? My theory is that rim - when widened - expanded on both sides of hub circle center doesn't it (1 inch toward flare and 1 inch toward inner fender on each tire? I guess I was thinking that all the rim and rubber don't go outward as sizes change. Tommorrow - I'll measure my factory 8 inch rims with the factory 20's on them and see what my track measures.

What is the standard width?

Thanks.

White Lightening

[jethro_3]

3wb, no prob.. I appreciate your asking and no hard feelings taken. Glad someone knows how I feel. "The Man" I looked and there were no markings and the local store I bought it from went under due to loss of sales.

[3wbdriver]

Good questions lightning. I think the stock rims were only 6" wide, and had a 4" offset (usual factory standard). My new rims were 3 5/8" offset and 2" wider. I didn't think it would make that big a difference until I saw them mounted, even with the stock 235/75-16 tires. I was quess-timating the track increase, but if you look in my gallery, there is kind of an evolutionary history of the truck from day 1 (pardon the dupes), and there is a pretty obvious difference in the track stance, before and after. I'm not being defensive, just trying to justify what I claimed. Yes most of it is probably sidewall width difference, due to the rim change, but ya gotta admit, it made a noticable change in the outward appearance of the rig. And yes, you are correct on the wider tire assumption.

[brumleveb]

So, do the factory wheels/tires extend beyond the fender (without flares) on a factory 4 x 4?

[White Lightening]

Originally Posted by 3wbdriver

Good questions lightning. I think the stock rims were only 6" wide, and had a 4" offset (usual factory standard). My new rims were 3 5/8" offset and 2" wider. I didn't think it would make that big a difference until I saw them mounted, even with the stock 235/75-16 tires. I was quess-timating the track increase, but if you look in my gallery, there is kind of an evolutionary history of the truck from day 1 (pardon the dupes), and there is a pretty obvious difference in the track stance, before and after. I'm not being defensive, just trying to justify what I claimed. Yes most of it is probably sidewall width difference, due to the rim change, but ya gotta admit, it made a noticable change in the outward appearance of the rig. And yes, you are correct on the wider tire assumption.

I just measured my Goodyear 20 inch tires with the 8 inch rims. My track width (I used sidewall to sidewall because with the low profile - there wasn't a great deal of difference between sidewall and tread widths) and it came up to 79 inches. I get just a slightly greater width at tire than I do at middle of fender width.

In my previous post I forgot to consider that my tires/wheels are low profile with a greater "inset" of rim rather than an outset (nature of my rims). Most of my rim width is inset from the center - instead of outset. So yours could easily be wider still than mine if you have more outset - which I would guess you'd almost have to have. My tires have very little sidewall buldge.

[BlenderWizard]

Also, the standard factory rims on most of our trucks are 6.5"

[3wbdriver]

brumleveb, I haven't seen any 4x4 factory tire/wheel combos sticking past the fenders, but the flares may be intended for some of the more aggressive combos, to keep them 50 state legal.

[jeep_cj4x4]

I just put some stock flares on my 2wd and it looks awesome. And as mentioned before, it's easy.

[spudglo08]

Those flairs should peel right off when my mom crashed my dads HD the flare came off without any indication it was there.of course it snaped off the rivits also

[jeverett]

Hmmm....I'm looking for some smooth painted flares.
I might even have a set of the black grained ones to swap for even.