How much will I need to trim?

[BigNutt]

I need to know how much I should expect to trim to not rip my flares off while flexing?

2000 XJ Sport 4-door.

5.5" RE XD coils w/ 3/4" spacer
adj. RE LCAs and UCAs
RE Drop brackets
RE hd tracbar and bracket
Rustys STS 6" springpacks w/ 3/4" shackle

I am going to be running 33x12.50s on Tech 1 RC 15x8 w/ 4.5" backspacing. I should be sitting about 7" of lift, right? I plan on running 35s in the future and then I will cut my flares completly off, but I am not quite ready now.

Thanks NAXJA

[fatwreck]

That's pretty much what I'm running. You can check out the pictures of my front fender trimming here:

http://www.projectxj.com/mods/fender.htm

I've since had to trim a small amount off the back of the front fender, but not much....nothing worth taking pictures of.

I haven't had to trim anything off the rear yet.

[XJ_MAC]

The factory flares are mounted using a very long set of bolts that project into the wheel well. When you flex you usually break these off. I drilled mine out and used regular bolts with fender washers going the other direction. It's a bit of a hassle to put the nuts and lock washers on under the flare, but once they're tightened down they shouldn't come off because of broken mounting bolts. You can still knock the flare off by hitting a tree or something and pulling it out of the mounting bracket though, so it isn't a cure all.