Fitting wheel arches and mounts to the Sonic

[Raj'sDad]

ello All
I have been making some good progress having just taken a few days of from work and am at the stage where I am looking at the wheel arch/mount fittings. 

I have Team Dynamics ProRace wheels 17” X 7” with 505 X 40 X 17
tyres and rear hubs fitted with 50mm spacers.

Could someone give me some tips or point me to a thread where arch fitting is discussed in some detail? I assume due to going for the larger wheels I am likely to need to make an additional mount to push the front arches up but I am not sure exactly and what minimum spacing should there be as a guide between tyre's and the fitted mounts to allow me enough room to add the gel coated arches?

I am also assuming fit the arches to the mounts once I have mounts properly fitted to the hubs?

please send me some good close up pics where possible.

for reference, here is my rear upright which is the standard from RTR:

and here is my front uprights plus standard Ford Focus rear hubs installed on the front of the Sonic :

I believe I will require an extended mount to bolt into where the caliper fitted originally to increase the height slightly to provide more space between tyre and fitted mount ?


Thanks

[mawdo81]

Hi,
Not sure you have the front end right. The after-market (willwood or hispec) brake goes on the radial adapter and it is the wingstay that bolts to the original caliper mounting point on the stub axle.

[Raj'sDad]

Hi
sorry for that confusion as I added a very early picture (now removed) when I had the old callipers still fitted as they originally came. Doh!

What size wheels do you have ? did you need to add anything to move the arch mounts slightly higher up ?

Thanks

[mawdo81]

Not aa far along as you so cant answer that sorry!

Sent from my GT-I8190N using proboards

[BobN]

Hi H

I had to raise my arches to accommodate the bigger wheels. On your wingstay you can glue on some home made rubber highteners or weld some metal ones and then this is what you glue/bond the wings to. I did not find any measurement guides so fit the tire then work out out.

As for the brake setup, if it's the same as the rocket I may have pics of mine on the early pages of my build diary. But on the Rocket you cannot put the focus calipers on the front.

mevowners.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&post=25656

Bob

[kiwiev]

Hi Raj

See photo below I welded on bolts to end of stay and blob of weld at the other end. A trick to fiberglass uneven shapes is use a cotton elastic bandage wrap for your first layer it will fold around bolt head nicely. then use cross mat glass for your next 2 layers.

cheers Conrad

[kiwiev]

[Raj'sDad]

Thanks for the help guys. I have had a few other recommendations and few ideas of my own too. I will consider all before I proceed and will update you on my final outcome.
personally I want to try and avoid making holes on the topside of the wings as it could get messy (personal opion only) as Conrad you seemed to have done a good job.

I will most likely go with an additional plate that bolts into the existing hols in the hubs where the stays should fit and then create two slots into which the stays will bolt...the reason for the slots is so that the wing stays can be adjusted when there is a need to remove the wheel.this would then resolve both issues (gap between wing stays and tyres when in final position as well as ease for removing tyres).

Daydreamer(Guy)also suggested that I bond two pipes under the wings into which the wing stays could be slide and then pinned with the option then to slide out the wings as required...the only issue is that I cannot see how I would get my hand in between tyre and under the wing to remove clip same issue!!