Fender Flare Adhesion

A friend and I are having some fender flare issues... hoping to get it fixed tonight so any quick thoughts are very greatly appreciated.

Here is the scenario: The 99 XJ is trimmed... about 1 to 2 inches all the way around. Decided to ditch the metal bracket thingy, and I think one of them is lost anyway? dont know... but, basically trying to attach the plastic flares to the body. Need help here... some creative ideas? Experience? I searched around , but nothing what we are dealing with.

We had the 3M double sticky body molding tape, and to my surprise, failed. Looking for permanent solution. Thanks guys.

gorilla glue?

On the front I clamped the flare to the fender and marked where the holes on the flare were and drilled corresponding holes in the fender and used cable ties to hold mine on. I took them off when on the trail and reattached with new ties when back on the road.
On the rear I did the same but if you trimmed off the fender well too high up it won't work because of the pinch seam.

self tapping hex head screws?

4WDlifeform said:

A friend and I are having some fender flare issues... hoping to get it fixed tonight so any quick thoughts are very greatly appreciated.

Here is the scenario: The 99 XJ is trimmed... about 1 to 2 inches all the way around. Decided to ditch the metal bracket thingy, and I think one of them is lost anyway? dont know... but, basically trying to attach the plastic flares to the body. Need help here... some creative ideas? Experience? I searched around , but nothing what we are dealing with.

We had the 3M double sticky body molding tape, and to my surprise, failed. Looking for permanent solution. Thanks guys.

Click to expand...

Gotta do surface prep even for tape. I like to use acetone or alcohol and a sponge or clean rag to scrub any remaining residue, salt, grit etc off the surface before putting the tape on, hasn't failed me yet. double face tape combined with zipties is a pretty common method from what I have seen.

i may be saying so purely out of assumption, but i would think that anything you could rig up would get ripped up just as fast as if not faster than the stock brackets. they are dirt cheap at the local junk yard... the bolts break really easy but nothing a little finese and PB-blaster cant take care of. or just grind and weld new ones in.

perfect time for a fender trim maybe?:dunno:

I am planning to put on some TJ Rubicon rear flares on the front. I was hoping to just use the 3m molding tape.

8mmx40 bolts and fender washers. They snap into the flares nice

Thanks for all the input!

So... here is what we did. Made some simple metal brackets cut from sheet metal. Used self-tapping hex screws to attach the bracket to the inside of the fender. Used self tapping screws on the flare end again to hold to the flare.

Side note: the flares have rubber extenders on the end to keep it legal. We ran the bolts into them, basically at the ends of the flare plastic, where the rubber meets (fitted the metal between the plastic and rubber). Hope thats not too far out there... if your lost, post it up, and when i'm more awake ill try to clarify.

Results: some what solid. Little "bouncy" for lack of a better term, but unless something really pushes on them, they should be safe for highway and light brush IMHO.

Going to follow up with a nice clean bead of black silicone all the way around the edge (like caulking), where the fender meets the body. its just about 3am here, so we called it quits for the night about an hour ago. Ill post back with some finished pics. Sorry for lousy quality... no camera around, so just used the good ol' cell phone!

Some thoughts... there is probably a better way to have done this... but, we'll see how much the silicone contributes. so far, so good. Something else I feel that I should mention is that this is my friends rig. We both did the work and design, just sharing with all of you. Knowledge is power :read:. He is not (yet) a member....:doh: