Time to hack up some new sheet metal.

Fender flares do not provide extra room by themselves - they merely cover larger wheels and tires that have been provided extra room. To be able to fit bigger rubber in the first place, it's necessary to get rid of any part of the car body that could potentially interfere during suspension travel.

With our plans to run wide wheels and tires all the way around, we knew from the start that some arch trimming was going to be necessary. Since C2 told us they had no problem with us cutting up their new car we simply got out the cut-off wheel and went to work...

Using two of Shawn's 19x9.5 HREs with 245/35-19 tires on one side of the Rabbit, we got a good idea of how much trimming would be necessary. The wheels and tires we plan to use are actually wider than the HREs, so we made sure to leave a bit of extra room after cutting. After measuring it was a matter of slowly cutting off the extra metal, making sure not to overheat any part of the panels along the way. The front fenders were relatively simple as far as the procedure was concerned, but the rear arches, with their bonded outer and inner fender panels, took quite a while to trim.

With rear quarter panel strength enhanced by the two bonded panels, once we had trimmed what we needed we took the time to re-weld and seal the open wounds we'd left behind. Before the car is done we plan to fully rust-proof each inner wheel well and reconfigure the fender liners to fit.

We took a moment to tape up the flares and double-check our measurements. Looks like we're ready for some serious wheels and tires.