Arches catching on wheels

[bmwbreaker]

Hey guys

I have a widearch M3 replica and recently fitted some 20mm wheel hub spacers (the type you bolt to the hub and then the wheel bolts to them)

Anyway I have dropped the car and surprise surprise my 9J back wheels have decided that they want to touch my rear arches.

Now the tyres on there are already stretched which has meant that they are a lot better than they would be with normal tyres fitted but they still catch ever so slightly.

I was just going to take a little bit of the metal away with a grinder and then waxoyl the hell out of the arch so that its protected but didnt know if there was an alternative method to the above.

I cannot roll my arches as the widearch kit is fibreglass and we all know what that means lol.

Here are a few pictures

[chu346]

I'd cut away the excess metal or simply fold the metal upwards.

Can you get away with a small spacer?

[rubjonny]

as long as the arch isnt double skinned you can cut it. on the MK2 Golf ther rear arch is double skinned, so if you chop out any of it you have to weld it up, otherwise road grime gets chucked up inside the body and rots the rear quarters from the inside out! Rolling, folding or hammering would be a better solution, though it wont look pretty under your kit, just make sure you put some paint and underseal over any bare metal to stop rust setting in.

[Milko]

Go down a size (width or profile) with the tyres...

[riklusby]

You can sand the fibreglass down enough by the look of it mate, use a flappy disk on a grinder but careful with it as it can bite in and make a mess if you get it wrong, leave a small lip on for rigidity though !! if you have to bend the metal as well then you can seal it with a compound like tigerseal before you try waxoyl, its similar to the seal that is used on front wings and other metal to metal joins .

[oze30]

Wheel off, trim the crap out of it, waxoyl it back up. If I was going that route, I'd remove the arches and cut the excess away till you get to a double skin.I think it's about 20mm from the lip (there's a bulge that starts up there somewhere)

[fuzzy]

what about the obvious of removing the 20mm spacer?

[chu346]

I did suggest something along those lines but surely he needs them!