In last week’s post you saw the new wheels Ever picked up and in my opinion the wheels not only helped level up the car’s performance, but also helped improve the cars aesthetics too. It drives me bonkers how good Ever is at making lemonade out of lemons. I mean, just look at the progression of this car over the last few posts. Sure, the car is still rough, but he’s got big plans and as you can see, they are all starting to come together.
For this week’s post we are only doing one thing. We are only doing one thing because we are still waiting on parts to arrive. The good news is this will be a very short read. Have no fear though we should be pumping out some more installs/upgrades on Part 5.
If you are just now stumbling across this build series, please, do yourself a favor and click the links below to read Parts 1, 2, and 3. Those posts will get you all caught up on what we have done so far to Ever’s S2000.
The car came with “J’s style” front fenders. Unfortunately, the rear over fenders that came with the car were the “universal style” and didn’t match the front. Ever wanted to at least have matching fenders, so he ordered some “J’s Style” rear fenders from eBay. I hindsight he was pretty disappointed because he later found out that for only 40 more dollars, he could have bought some authentic J’s fenders from our friends at RHDjapan.com. Oh well. He will just have to order the authentic ones after these get damaged beyond repair.
On this week’s blog post we are installing the aforementioned “J’s style” fenders. See below the original ones that came on the car.
As you can see from the abundance of unused holes in the bumper and quarter panel, this car has had its fair share of aftermarket rear fenders.
Ever was hopeful that the “J’s Style” fenders would cover all the holes.
It’s almost funny how terrible the rear bumper was butchered on this car. How could anyone care that little?
The “J’s style” fenders are also wider than the ones currently on the car and will accommodate the aggressive wheel and tire specs better. As you can see below there is a slight amount of rear poke.
GOOD GOD! it looks like a drift car underneath. Talk about hack job.
Test fit on the new fenders shows that just about every hole is going to be covered. YAY!
After test fitting, take the fender back off and drill them where the reliefs for the holes are. Again, take painter’s tape and hang the fender, making sure the align the body lines. Hang both sides (left and right) with blue tape before drilling into the body of the car. Take a fixed point on the car that is the same on both sides and measure to ensure both sides are in the same location. Once you are sure both sides are even you can now use a marker and mark the holes that will need to be drilled on the car.
It’s already starting to look better!
Ever is going to be using a “rivnut” or “nutsert” tool to place nuts into the metal fender of the car. This way he can just use bolts to fasten the fiberglass over fenders to the car. Rivnuts are an awesome tool that can be used in many different areas of car modification and are a much-welcomed replacement for the dreaded “self-tappers”
Mark all holes that need to be drilled out on the cars metal fender.
Then remove the over fender and simply drill through the cars metal body. These fenders are beginning to look like Swiss cheese.
Once the holes are drilled, use the rivnut tool to install the nutserts.
Now simply thread in the bolts to secure the over fender to the car.
These over fenders claim to be 40mm wider that stock and as you can see below, they allow for plenty of tire clearance.
Now on to the other side.
I know this week’s read was a little short. This is only because we are waiting on more parts to come in so we can knock out some other big projects. Plus, I realize sometimes the posts can be a little longwinded and I may try to cram too many things into one. For those who think that way, this post was probably a welcome sight.
Thank you as always for taking the time to read the Blog. Hopefully it sparked some sort of inspiration in you to get working on your own car or you at least learned something. Rember, the fun of having cars as a hobby isn’t the clout you get from the builds. It’s the enjoyment of working on your car yourself brings and that feeling of joy after completing an upgrade. In the end, just be honest with yourself and make sure you are truly enjoying the hobby for you and no one else.
Questions, comments, reactions, arguments… Reach out to me: Billy@Functiontheory.com, Instagram @Functiontheory, or simply comment below.
The worst part of getting a used “tuned” car is undoing and fixing the shoddy work from the previous owner(s). Getting the J’s style rear over fenders was a good choice. Looking forward to seeing the future progress
EXACTLY! we are finding all sort of stuff. luckily so far, none of which has been irreversible. Thank you for the reading the blog and I appreciate the interaction.
Hello,
Quick question. What happened to the mr2?
Lol. He still has it and the complete k24 swap for it. Unfortunately, he just sort of lost interest. (For now anyways)