Wider than it is Long: A build thread.

[Strawhat]

Greeting Stanceworks,
I’ve been a long time lurker, but I’ve decided to make a build thread to half motivate myself to keep working on my car, and half because I’ve been working hard for over 2 months- and I want to get some feedback on what I’ve done so far.

First off, this is how my car used to look:












It’s a 2002 Subaru WRX, on air suspension, and a ton of little things. I’m a big fan of wheel fitment, and wheels. It’s my little niche in the car community.

I’m also a big fan of VIP cars, and after seeing INSANE cars over in Japan that make no sense at all, but are cool as hell, I decided I needed that ridiculousness in my life. Which brings us to the current road my cars going down, my own handmade widebody/radius.

First I had to formulate a plan. I’m absolutely a novice at this, I’ve never done anything like it. I know if you’re super cool, and legit, you do a 100% metal widebody. Problem is I can’t weld and that’s hard as fuck. SO, I decided to do what I could and use a metal frame, or “skeleton”, to shape and add rigidity to the fender, and then smooth it up with fiberglass and body filler. Also, I wanted my fenders to have a smooth fender edge, as it’s extremely hard to replicate a manufactured look by hand. Luckily, I have a lot of cunning friends that are big on junkyards, and I realized that MK4 Jettas are plentiful around the junkyards of South Carolina. SO, I decided to make my handmade widebody out of MK4 Jetta fenders.

I started by cutting them into strips,


Drilling them onto the car, just to shape them up and make see how they would fit.






Then I got a good buddy of mine to tack weld the fenders to the car.


Then added some fiberglass,


And a little filler,





LOTS OF SANDING. SOOOO MUCH SANDING.

In the meantime, Test fitted my buddys VS-XX's, 19x10.5, after adapters -22, and they fit! Fenders weren't rolled either, so that gives me great hope for the specs on the wheels I bought.


And the fronts were pretty much done.

[Strawhat]

Now, onto the rears.
The rears were 3 times harder than the fronts, because I had to cut the door, the, and cut a lotttt out of quarter panel. Still not entirely sure how it’s gonna work with the wheel inside, but I haven’t gotten the wheels yet, so we’ll work that out when we get there!
I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures of the rear when I started cutting it up, just because we did it all in one swoop, and it was a pain in the ass.

After it was all mocked up,






Again, didn’t get any pics of them being welded on,
After some fiberglass,




And then some filler.









LOTS AND LOTS OF SANDING.

Then I got started on the bumpers.
Even though I want to go with a more VIP style, I have this Chargespeed kit lying around, and even though it’s fairly rare and worth money, I decided it would be a better idea to cut it up and make it worthless by widening it and putting it on my car!
Japanese styling back in 2002 when this car came out was a little…ugly, especially in regards to my front bumper. So I decided to shave some of the many vents that the bumper had.


Still working on that, and will update when done.


I thought I could just cut and extend the bumpers, but they wouldn’t flex enough. SO I made a mold out the underside of the fender, and connected it to the bumper.




After some fiberglass and filler, it’s starting to look better.





This is where it’s at right now.
I think the rear needs a little more shaping and work, but as a college student with a job, and a serious girlfriend, I work on it whenever I have time which is never.






ANYWAY!
That’s my Subie right now! I’ll keep this thread updated as much as possible, because I have a feeling it’ll help me stay motivated.
Oh, also, sorry for the shitty cell phone pictures. I have a nice camera, I just never bring it to the shed with me.

[Zayan]

This will be insanity.
hELL YES. sUB'D

[MrDanguy]

The first picture of the subie with the hacked up fenders made me cry...
Then I read on...


Subbed.

[AFTRBNG]

wow, just wow. sub'd

[TylersEM2]

ERMAHGERD. I just want to see it done. Sub'd for sure.

[Jlyons617]

That is sweet! The only thing I would have changes is the outer lip of the fender doesn't sit completely perpendicular to the ground ( the flare goes out and then almost appears to back in) It might make cambered wheels look a bit funny.

[TeckniX]

Rep for cutting shit up without any welding. For what it's worth even with a $200 mig welder and a bit of practice you could've dine just as well.
It's starting to take shape nicely. Do you have pics of the underside to show some of the bracing that will prevent cracking of the fender?
Surprised how well the mk4 can be blended in to the subbie. Keep us updated

[Richard_Gud.]

holy. so this is what you've been up to. (i'm from WFC)

very interested to see the end of this.

[Strawhat]

First off, thank you guys!
Knowing people are subbed is just the kind of motivation I need to not lay on my ass and finish the car. lol

That is sweet! The only thing I would have changes is the outer lip of the fender doesn't sit completely perpendicular to the ground ( the flare goes out and then almost appears to back in) It might make cambered wheels look a bit funny.

Yes, the fenders bowing back in was a side effect of taking the flat Jetta fenders, and curving them to meet the body of the car. I'm not really sure how it's going to look with the wheels, I'm just gonna cross that bridge when I get there.

Rep for cutting shit up without any welding. For what it's worth even with a $200 mig welder and a bit of practice you could've dine just as well.
It's starting to take shape nicely. Do you have pics of the underside to show some of the bracing that will prevent cracking of the fender?
Surprised how well the mk4 can be blended in to the subbie. Keep us updated

I have an old stick welder, and I think after this I'm definitely going to invest in one.
And yeah, the fenders are definitely on there! They're super firm, but while I do worry about them cracking, I think they're strong enough. I'll grab some pics of the underside next time I'm over there.

holy. so this is what you've been up to. (i'm from WFC)

very interested to see the end of this.

Yeah man!
WFC will always be home sweet home, but I wanna kinda post up over there once it's all said and done.

[Jlyons617]

First off, thank you guys!
Knowing people are subbed is just the kind of motivation I need to not lay on my ass and finish the car. lol


Yes, the fenders bowing back in was a side effect of taking the flat Jetta fenders, and curving them to meet the body of the car. I'm not really sure how it's going to look with the wheels, I'm just gonna cross that bridge when I get there.

I'd be worried about cracking the filler or epoxy but I wonder if you could straighten them with a roller and a mild pull.

[willis]

This is cool, but the rear door confuses me. How it will open. Carry on.

[Strawhat]

I'd be worried about cracking the filler or epoxy but I wonder if you could straighten them with a roller and a mild pull.

I am. haha
I kinda started body work before rolling the fenders, and then realized how bad it could end up.
I'll probably just try to roll them VERY slowly, or cut and hammer them, since they're already rigid.

This is cool, but the rear door confuses me. How it will open. Carry on.

I see what you're saying. Idealy, and on pretty much all VIP cars I've seen with heavy bodywork, the door line in the rear looks something like this:


The problem I was having is that I wanted to radius my fenders as well as widen them. The rear tucked on my previous setup, and I didn't want that.
The problem that came from radiusing them was that the quarter panel between the rear door and the fender well on Subarus is very, very small:


Because it was so small, when I radiused it, the fender line wouldn't have flowed properly without cutting out that piece all together. So now I have no quarter panel between my door and wheel well. I would have loved to make the door panel swoop all the way down like the picture of that F50, but being a novice, I decided it would be easier on me to just cut it in half.
I also considered welding shut the rear doors all together, but then I figured maybeee I shouldn't do that. lol
Regardless, the doors function fine, just waiting to see how they'll look with the new wheels.

[B Rod]

You sir, are out of your mind. And it's fuckin awesome. Carry on!

[244Brick]

I am so in for this!!!! Man this is Crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!