XJ metal fender flairs, anyone?

Currently have TJ flairs on the XJ and I hate em' now, can't wait to take them off. I'd go flairless but it is my daily driver (for now) and would like to try something new. What I'm thinking is yank off those flairs, cut some sheetmetal up front and bend up piece of 1.75x.120 tube to establish the outside edge which would be about 1" wider than the TJ flare was and just slightly higher. Since I have integrated rockerguards I can weld the tube right to that, brace it up a bit to the inner fender too. Then skin it with like 14ga steel, go from the first slanted edge of the fender down to the 1.75" tube I added so it looks like a whole new fender all around.

Then the rear gets a little complicated since part of the TJ flare is on the door itself, have to do some pretty good structural bracing in the door of course. The rear part of it would attach to the bumper for strength, probably sleeve and bolt it so I can take the bumper off. Same story as the front, go off that slanted sheetmetal into the tube, smooth things out and repaint the whole jeep.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I realize I probably didn't explain this good enough to give ya a good picture of what I'm thinking. I'll try and do some rough sketching on a pic to better detail it.

i had planned on doing a similar thing with 1"x3" rectangular tubing even found a shop with the means to bend rec. tubing in a similar but slightly larger shape as the stock flares,,
but i havent went that direction yet, i'm thinking i'll add some 1.5" round tubing from the front bumper corner and parralell the lines of the front flares (stock, but trimmed flares in slightly higher than stock location) to the rock rails..
then in the rear do basically the same thing from the rock rails then follow the lines of the flare to the rear quarter guards i have..

i think also a tubing brace tied into the *frame* at the mid-way point would be nice so that you could *lean* on em a bit and they wouldn't Tend to fold inward into the body..

i plan on doin this soon so ill post up some pics of it..

i've been thinking of the same thing .since i'm going fullsize axles i want them covered for the mosr part .i was thinking of doing a fiberglass fender up front with an 8 inch buldge.then in the back make kinda a baja fender of sorts.were it would be more of a buldge out.kinda like this but split for the door



then this as the front fender but bigger buldge for 165 bucks

IIRC Mark Hinkley had something like that on his Red XJ. My memory might be a bit off, but I think that the writeup I remember seeing talked about bending up some tubing to folow the shape of the opening and then peeling some sheetmetal over it and welding it all together.

AJ - If you build it, they will come. :laugh3:

Dunno if you can tailor make them, but I'd love to get the bushwackers off in lieu of a solid steel flare.

An inner brace/rail/reinforcement to the unibody in three places would firm up the flare/fender nicely. If it's tons stronger than the fender, then you'll keep from wrinkling the OEM sheetmetal when you brush them against stuff.

XJack said:

AJ - If you build it, they will come. :laugh3:

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X2

XJack said:

An inner brace/rail/reinforcement to the unibody in three places would firm up the flare/fender nicely. If it's tons stronger than the fender, then you'll keep from wrinkling the OEM sheetmetal when you brush them against stuff.

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You could make them go through the fender and bolt to the inner fender. then maybe offer an optional brace that goes across the engine bay to the other side. After I get a cage in my XJ i am going to build some flares similar to this. But I am going to brace them to the cage.

Dingo

Was thinking of the same thing about bracing the rears through the inner fender and into the cage. Be pretty tough to reproduce as a bolt on, at least the rears would be. Can't hurt to look into it. Who knows it might look like crap when I'm done.

I was thinking about making some type of quick release fender flare when I go full width. Run it on the road so the cops dont give ya a hard time but pull it off once your on the trail. My flares take a beating at stock width so it would only be worse once you go full width.

I happen to know that there are some steel flares like you describe in the works already that will be put into production. I cant say much more than the prototype is well advanced already.

AJsArmor said:

Who knows it might look like crap when I'm done.

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Then it would be an upgrade from the Bushwackers which look like total crap.

This thread is worthless without pictures..........

Gojeep said:

I happen to know that there are some steel flares like you describe in the works already that will be put into production. I cant say much more than the prototype is well advanced already.

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if we promise to eat more Vegimite will ya tell us????

RNMedic said:

if we promise to eat more Vegimite will ya tell us????

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Now if I do that I wont get to see the pictures of the prototypes any more

I had a look at the pictures again ( they are made in the USA on the west coast ) and not sure if they are exactly what you guys are after or not? Basically they dont offer extra coverage as they are only a tube that follows the wheel arch opening.

Gojeep said:

Basically they dont offer extra coverage as they are only a tube that follows the wheel arch opening.

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But you could mount some sheetmetal off of them

I heard there was an XJ in Moab last week that had them...

Gojeep said:

Now if I do that I wont get to see the pictures of the prototypes any more

I had a look at the pictures again ( they are made in the USA on the west coast ) and not sure if they are exactly what you guys are after or not? Basically they dont offer extra coverage as they are only a tube that follows the wheel arch opening.

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Yeah I've seen those done before, guess we could call those "tube trim".

Started on the fronts, I'll be getting some pics up within the next few weeks. I do know that I've never seen of pic of anything like I'm thinking, but I'd be suprised if no one had done it yet.

XJEEPER said:

This thread is worthless without pictures..........

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slow but finally...

Hit* this and then the PREVIOUS* a couple times


they handled this outtings abuse rather well but the passenger side did become a lil bit distorted, but nothing a short piece of 2x and a BFH cant fix..

Now imagine no flares, the tube in a bit closer and skinned from the top slanted part of the fender down to the tube. That's basically what I have in mind. But when I'm done you'll be able to remove the fender and "flare" as one whole assembly. For the rear it will have to be permanent of course. Sucks because I've got all the materials laying around, some of the tube bent up but haven't had time to touch it!

Sounds good AJ If you need someone to test them in the NW just let me know :dunno: (i gotta try)

any ides on how far the stock fender these are going to extend. The set i am planning on building will be out about an inch PAST the bushwackers so about 6" in the front and 5" in the rear. i thought about making the top of the rear flare open so i could put small parts in there, like u-joints and such.

Dingo

I guess my first question is why? If it's metal it's going to get bent.