flared fenders revisited

[P. Stegawski]

Doing composite fenders, or other parts is a pain. I have fabricated
carbon/epoxy, and kevlar/epoxy body parts for Formula SAE race cars, and
it is messy and time consuming. I would definitly not do it from
fiberglass as it is the dog of composites. The reason it is used for boats
is that it is cheap. For the amount of material to make flares, material
cost is not going to be a big issue.

I would suggest doing a carbon/kevlar layup. Carbon fibers are very stiff,
but will break easily (low impact resistance), that's why including kevlar
is important, because it provides higher ductility and impact resistance.

You would also need a mold for the flares to begin with, which is another
story. It would be lot easier to get front 200 20V fenders, and metal
fender lips for the back, and weld them in.

However, I would be interested in adding flares to my 200 too, and if
there is anyone else in the Seattle area that would want to do that then
let me know. If there is enough people then it might be feasable to make
the mold and then be able to make as many parts as we want without that
much additional effort.

A good place in Seattle area to get the materials is Fiberlay in Ballard,
they deal mostly with marine applications of composites but have pretty
much everything.

Peter
'90 200 TQ
BTW I am a senior in Materials Science And ENgineering at UW

On Wed, 10 Apr 2002, Joseph Rae wrote:

> There was a guy a few years ago, (4, or 5) that was adding flared
> fenders out of composite to the fenders of his 200. I believe that he
> was preparing the car for one lap of America? He was local to me,
> Seattle Area, and his website was hosted on the University of Washington
> Website, but he has since disappeared and his website is no longer up as
> well. From what he had it looked like it was going to come out really
> well, Never did see the finished product.
>
> Joe
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: quattro-admin at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-admin at audifans.com] On
> Behalf Of Jason
> Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 7:46 AM
> To: quattro at audifans.com
> Subject: flared fenders revisited
>
>
>
> Since I have some extra $$$$ sitting around, I figured
> I am going to start up project money pit (5KTQ) again.
>  I just can't get enough of that car :)  But in
> dissecting everything I want to do to it, I realize
> that I'm gonna need some some real fenders.  I can get
> my hands on some used fenders for the car for almost
> nothing, so I was wondering, why not throw together a fiberglass fender
> lip?  Does anyone have any experience w/ fiberglass?  I've patched a
> boat w/ the stuff once before, so I'm not completely over my head.
> Maybe just a little insane:)  Any thoughts?  Or should I save my hard
> earned money for an S4?
>
> Jason
>
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