Steel bubble arch & tub fitting

[dobuy]

To get this section started, could someone please do a how to on fitting front and rear steel bubble arches and rear wheel tubs for the MK1.
Ideally if it could include:

1. Where to buy? Rally Design is the cheapest I think
2. How to gauge how much of the old arch to cut out
3. When and how to put in any rear tub or wheel well modification
4. Trimming and fitting arch before welding
5. Welding techniques to stop distortion
6. Finishing off welds and filling

Mods, feel free to delete this post if someone starts a thread for this. Ta much

[Auld]

can anybody help with this threa? would be great to have some info,pics,ideas ect??
cheers,auldy

[PERKY]

They did a fitting guide in classicford afew years ago, i'll scan it and post it if i can find it.

[dobuy]

Cool anything would help

[MK1_Oz]

Looking for tub fitting info myself. Did you ever get a reply to this???

Sorry to bring up an old thread.

[Stringpants]

I would say that before you start doing something like this you ought to try and estimate the costs/time/effort etc...

I know exactly how much Gartrac charge and it includes the price of the arches...£1200.

It involves cutting great areas of the rears out and if done wrongly could be disasterous...I will try and post my pics from Gartrac when i am at home.

Russ.

[Montyman]

It involves cutting great areas of the rears out and if done wrongly could be disasterous...I will try and post my pics from Gartrac when i am at home.

Russ.

You can say that again, ok they're on a van but you get the picture.

Fronts



And a rear from the inside

[MK1_Oz]

Is it that much harder than doing the bubbles alone? To be honest it doesn't look all that difficult but then I have never attempted it. Certainly cannot afford for somebody else to do it for me.

Gary (Retromotorsport) has posted that I should do it as security. Guess he has done a million tho and knows what he is doing!

It involves cutting great areas of the rears out and if done wrongly could be disasterous...I will try and post my pics from Gartrac when i am at home.

Russ.

[Stringpants]

My rear arch...

Russ.

[essyrwd]

are all the teel bubbles mde by one person If not which are best

[MK1_Oz]

I am not at all phased but fitting the bubbles themselves but it is the large tubs that worry me. It involves cutting away some of the panelwork/framework that sits on top of the existing standard tub. Seems to me that I would be weakening the structure of the car but Ive seen a million pics of them done (especially by Retromotorsport) that dont appear to add any additional bracing.

Must be ok........deep breath then cut cut cut weld weld weld

[mcmahon00]

This should help ya a bit.

http://www.centralblastcleaning.co.u...ay.php?show=10

[smicker]

awesome link mate. Cheers very useful indeed.

[mcmahon00]

awesome link mate. Cheers very useful indeed.

Here's another brilliant link. Best of luck with it. Dont forget to post up the results of your efforts..

http://www.nh-hosting.co.uk/~paddy/B...ch%20guide.pdf

[Tom28]

hi all, i know this is a late post but all this talk of steel bubble arches costing over a grand is a rip off, look on express steel they sell them for £92 per arch

[Retromotorsport]

hi all, i know this is a late post but all this talk of steel bubble arches costing over a grand is a rip off, look on express steel they sell them for £92 per arch

The arches cost around £450, and i charge £350 to fit them , this is on a shell thats allready half tubbed or full tubbed,
theres also the option that i do for larger diameter wheels and different front end geometries to enable 10" wide front wheels to be used, which involves a subtle re shaping of the front arches.

My Larger than Gp4 rally tubs , more like the Gp4/5/6 tubs used by Zakspeed etc on the tarmac cars, these along with the revised turret position i do allow 12" rears to be comfortably swallowed under standard tramac Gp4 arches are £800 fitted, with the turrets being £270 with free Chassis Notching* for TS subscribers ..

*the Road/Race chassis notch is a done to a greater clearence than the Gp4 Rally car little chassis raise

[meXEco]

hi all, i know this is a late post but all this talk of steel bubble arches costing over a grand is a rip off, look on express steel they sell them for £92 per arch

Yeah but they dont fit 'em...

[Tom28]

really? i always thought express to be one of the best panel companys around, recommended by alot of people..

[Tom28]

oh i got ya, must be slow tonight lol and ye i guessed that much lol

[Stringpants]

Tom,

Have you ever fitted any?

From what you are saying...you obviously think the added cost is too much for someone to charge what I think is a reasonable amount to do a great job and not write your car off in the process.

I reckon I could build an engine out of the best parts available...not sure it would run for long...if at all.

As someone who has seen this job done both very well and terribly...I reckon that £200 per corner is quite a fair amount.

Russ.

[dobuy]

and if you saw how long it took me to fit mine and hopefully have got it right, £350 is buttons to have them done by someone who actually knows what he is doing.

[smicker]

I agree thats cheap. I paid the equivalent of 900 Pounds to have fibreglass ones fitted and that was me supplying the guards!

[Tom28]

no russ i havent but me old man has years ago, id agree it's a good price though

[Retromotorsport]

Russ's price of 200 / corner is incorrect, in a way, as i belive that's including the inners at the rear , 350-400 to fit the arches and 400-450 to do the inners ..

[Stringpants]

As you know I had mine done at Gartrac.....they quote £1200...that includes the arches which are top quality...you should feel the return on them....that includes all the rear tubbing...

That price is + VAT I think...

For me...they were great to deal with and turned out a great job...

The car is what I have always wanted and I did not want to risk botching it up......go to an expert such as Gary or Gartrac...

Regards,

Russ.