e36 oem/factory looking fender flares

[thewingman]

hey guys, i have rust around my rear wheel arches (e36 m3 vert). eventually, i want arc-8's. i am trying to decide on several options between just fixing it and staying stock-ish (9" wheel?) to rolled/pulled just a little bit so as to fit 255's with 9.5" wheel. also, maybe thinking small wheel flares. but it would have to be very tasteful, sguared-edge like factory. nothing crazy. i would want someone to have to do a double-take to even know it wasnt made that way by BMW. long term, i want a full suspension upgrade and lowered (just a bit). i have looked at so many pics and forums and so far, havent seen what i am looking for. but if i could find nice flares, i could bypass the expensive arch fix. any suggestions?

[AlpineM3OldAsMe]

The only quality over fenders I have seen are felony form. I think they're around $900

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[bluptgm3]

Modest growth can be accomplished using sections of E46 fenders and quarter panels.


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[jakermac]

Or you could rivet on the Hard Motorsports flares. A lot cheaper and easier to incorporate than the Felony Form stuff.

[RRSperry]

Or, take 2 front e46 m3 fenders and graft them to the back of the e36...

[bigpuppy]

I believe in the for sale section there's a member that sells the wider wheel arches that he has cut out of the E46 M3 rear quarter panels. You could graft them on. They'll have the square edge. It's what I'm considering for my vert if I go wider, though, I'm kind of waiting for this trend to run it's course.

Here it is
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...Flare-Cut-offs

[propcar]

Most steel grafted conversions are done from standard e46 front fenders. Buying 4 cheap repro fenders to cut the flares off. I’ve seen this done allowing 18x10 with wide tires... how much more could one need? E46 M3 flares are too wide I think.

[Carpy2]

I rolled my front and rear fenders to fit 17x9.5" (concave) Arc-8s with 245/40 all around, with a 12mm spacer up front (need 8mm to clear my struts). I'm lowered on coilovers with -1.7f/-2.7r degrees camber, but -1.5f/-2.5r would be just fine. I actually raised my car after my initial alignment and was running something like -1.3f/-2.3r for almost a year with no issues. The hard part is getting it all to fit in the front. There is ample room in the rear.

I think if you pulled your front fenders you would have no issue fitting 255s (probably don't need to pull the rears). To be fair that's just my speculation, but I really don't think flares would be required for that setup. Which is why I went with the 9.5's to begin with, so that if I wanted I could throw some 255's on.

I would call Apex, they are very helpful and helped me when I had the same questions, and they have tried many different wheel/tire combos on our cars. If you are not absolutely set on the concave look, their 17x9" with the lower offset will actually fit a 255 better up front (no spacer needed, and potentially no pulling required). They also recommended a staggered setup of the 17x9.5" in the back and the 17x9" in the front if you just want the absolute easiest fitment. But I didn't want to run staggered and the 17x9.5" fit just fine up front. Granted, with a 245 there is a slight stretch that gives you more room.

Hope that helps.

[propcar]

Here's a thread detailing the whole process of grafting of E46 (non-M) fender flares. The most expensive part would be the labor/painting to get a reputable shop to do the work. The flares themselves are inexpensive in comparison. However I think this method looks the best and closest to factory.

Next best I think are the Hard Motorsport flares, which are cheap, don't ruin the lines of the car, and were actually modeled against what an E36 with grafted E46 flares would be like. Only thing I would do is trim the front flares so they don't have that piece that goes onto the nose-panel filler... I've seen it done and it looks way better in my opinion. I don't care for the over fenders at all...

Final result from the above thread fitting 285/30/18 on 18x10

[lbennyboobool]

That car is beautiful

[thewingman]

great options. i LOVE the e46 graft -- probably the cleanest factory looking option, but i bet it would be rather expensive and tie up too much of my 'to do list' funds. the hard motorsports can be nice, maybe with that hood with the vents. thats a nice look. but those exposed rivets may put the look of the car into a different category. not a bad category, just not the clean, factory look i was going for. but if someone made weld-in flares that looked like them (with a squared lip), that would probably be the answer. to re-cap, i have rust on one of the arches so it has to be worked on regardless. Carpy2, it may be a while b4 i can get the suspension done, so im guessing with rolled fenders and the concave arc-8, i can easily have a staggered 9" 245 front and a 9.5" 255 rear without any fuss? (i like the staggered look)

[propcar]

great options. i LOVE the e46 graft -- probably the cleanest factory looking option, but i bet it would be rather expensive and tie up too much of my 'to do list' funds. the hard motorsports can be nice, maybe with that hood with the vents. thats a nice look. but those exposed rivets may put the look of the car into a different category. not a bad category, just not the clean, factory look i was going for. but if someone made weld-in flares that looked like them (with a squared lip), that would probably be the answer. to re-cap, i have rust on one of the arches so it has to be worked on regardless. Carpy2, it may be a while b4 i can get the suspension done, so im guessing with rolled fenders and the concave arc-8, i can easily have a staggered 9" 245 front and a 9.5" 255 rear without any fuss? (i like the staggered look)

That solution is the E46 grafted flares... if someone actually made flares that were cut away from the fenders, they would cost alot more than the E46 reproduction front fenders, and for the body man that has to weld them in, it wouldn't be much less work. So in essence, from a cost perspective they would be close to the same.

In terms of staggering the 9" and 9.5", apex offers 2 different profiles for the 9", a flat face and a concave face (just like the 9.5"). The 9" and 9.5" concaves are essentially the same from the perspective of how far out they sit, except the 9" is just .5" less wide on the inside of the barrel. So if you stagger 9" concave and 9.5" concave you won't achieve much of a staggered look except for the tire size being different. Your fronts may need to be spaced out some to clear the strut springs maybe. A very obvious staggered look would be 9" front non-concave and 9" or 9.5" concave... it would give you the look.

I think 255 on 9.5" rears would require some significant rolling... but it has been done I think. Really once the fenders get rolled a bit and pushed out some, it does give the rear flare a bit of a wider look.

Bimmerdawgs old car

[Moron95M3]

here's E46 M3 flares front and rear...

[Carpy2]

Carpy2, it may be a while b4 i can get the suspension done, so im guessing with rolled fenders and the concave arc-8, i can easily have a staggered 9" 245 front and a 9.5" 255 rear without any fuss? (i like the staggered look)

A very obvious staggered look would be 9" front non-concave and 9" or 9.5" concave... it would give you the look.

Yes, I should have clarified that better. The 17x9" that you would be running in the front would be the flat faced, non-concave Arc-8, with the concave 9.5" wide wheel in the back. It is actually harder to get the 17x9" concave wheel to fit in the back than the 17x9.5" concave wheel. But, the 17x9.5" concave wheel is harder to fit in the front. So the best of both worlds would be concave 17x9.5" in the rear, and the non-concave 17x9" in the front. You can still run 255's all around with the staggered setup.

I would still call Apex to see how the 255 would fit in the back. It will be a tight squeeze, and may require pulling. The 245 in the back only requires rolling and has a comfortable amount of room that I would consider no fuss.

[blckstrm]

I have 17x9 et 35 (concave) square.

They fit up front with no modification (spacer or pull). The 9.5s would require a spacer, and likely a little pulling too.

Out back is a different story. The fenders required a hard roll and some pulling, as well as pounding out the inside of the fender above the wheel. And they still rub when I have people in the back seat at the fender/bumper intersection. And I'm only running 245s. I think 255s would be rubbing nearly constantly. Carpy2 is running the same tires, so despite the wider wheels the outer edge of the tire is in the same place as me.

But it's a ridiculously tight fit.

Having said that, with a roll and some serious pulling you should be able to pull it off. You have to fix the paint anyway, so you could be fairly aggressive with your pulling without worrying about ruining the paint.

You'd likely be into it far deeper cost-wise than you really want to add flares, especially since you're not trying to really take advantage of the full 285 /18x10 tire / wheel some real flares would make possible.

We're in the middle of cutting up a friend's Spec 3 car to make it a GTS2 competitor, and this whole "flare" business is far more work than you expect it to be. There's a reason Terry at Vorshlag tries to discourage people from doing it. It's not even close to easy or cheap.

[notMpowered]

The e46 m3 flares look too big. The e46 non M retain such a factory look and increase function.
Jeff's car has the e46 flares and is my idea of the perfect way to fit larger wheels.

[propcar]

The e46 m3 flares look too big. The e46 non M retain such a factory look and increase function.
Jeff's car has the e46 flares and is my idea of the perfect way to fit larger wheels.

Basically perfect. How the E36 M3 would have been had it needed a wider body. Although the ACS box flare wide body treatment was also nice.

[NeilM]

That car is beautiful

Especially the exposed fasteners and the lovely filler door treatment. [/s]

Neil

[Moron95M3]

Basically perfect. How the E36 M3 would have been had it needed a wider body. Although the ACS box flare wide body treatment was also nice.

Totally Agree!!

[jakermac]

Especially the exposed fasteners and the lovely filler door treatment. [/s]

Neil

Some people (me include) really go for that look. It's "purposeful"! Function over form (though IMO ticks the form box too).

[blckstrm]

basically perfect. How the e36 m3 would have been had bmw decided to pay for a wider body. Although the acs box flare wide body treatment was also nice.

ftfy!

[TostitoBandito]

Agreed about the E46 flares. Those look flawless. If I ever have to repaint my car for some unlikely reason, I'm doing that.

[bluptgm3]

Some people (me include) really go for that look. It's "purposeful"! Function over form (though IMO ticks the form box too).

Yip!! Great way to turn a 12K car into a 2k car in one afternoon!!


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[AlpineM3OldAsMe]

My guy, I thought that's why we bought e36's

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[propcar]

ftfy!

I actually think BMW had the foresight to build ‘one body’ that could purpose the standard E36 and an M3 tire size. Was it a cost saving smart move? Yes. Was the E36 M3 under tired? No.

The only reason the E30 M3 got different body was homogolation. E36 didn’t need that. Either way the E36 was very successful in motorsports with many different formats, from BTCC to Super wide body like PTG. I honestly don’t think these cars need more than 245s for our purposeses especially with today’s tires. So I’m good with stock body and I think it looks handsome that way too. Of course there’s some wild builds out there that need much wider and they’ll modify accordingly. But this car was never going to be intended to have 265s all around. Neither did the E46 M3