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advice on my 2 door(with pics)

F

frankrizzo

NAXJA Forum User
Location
illinois
hi guys. i have a 99 2 door. threw on some 31" tires and 15x8 wheels with 3.75" bs. stock height. problem is i cant turn more than 30 degrees or my front tires hit the fender flares. now i want to keep the jeep at a stock height. (i like the low height with big tires look). if i remove the fender flares and trim my fenders will it be enough to clear the tires? this is only driven on the street and no off roading. if so how much do you guys think a shop would charge to do all 4 corners? i dont feel comfortable doing it myself plus its cold as hell outside. thanks

bth_20130111_150809_zps551849da.jpg

rear
bth_20130111_150910_zps23bac801.jpg


front
bth_20130111_150926_zpsd8f7d7fd.jpg
 
Even bumping it up an inch would help. Hard to say how bad it is rubbing and how much to cut but from the pictures it looks like its mostly plastic. You could just take the corners of the bumpers off for now, trim them later.

I know I was able to add quite a bit of extra clearance trimming the plastic that hung well past the metal fenders, although I also trimmed the fenders on mine to and you may have to as well.

I can't imagine a shop charging much to trim the plastic but the price would climb if fender trimming needed, still couldn't be that much but who knows. It really is very simple and would take a few minutes with a dremel, cold or not.
 
I think that is why it is recommended to use 30" with stock lift and 31" with 2-3" lift. Your stock springs are most likely 'sagged' from the age making matters worse. You can trim the plastic with a hacksaw blade but I would think that you would be trimming a bunch.
Take the tires back and buy some 30" or add a RC 3" lift with new front and rear springs.
 
I can't take the tires back. I want to make these work. I don't think my springs are too sagged. With the stock wheels and tires, (from the ground to the bottom of the fender flare) they measured 31" in the front and 30" in the rear. I just want to see if the trim and fold method has worked for others in my situation
 
the 96 and older XJ's are a little more forgiving on tire size.

From experience on my 98, one of your issues is height, the other is backspacing. Your tires are sticking out further and not clearing as a result of that. I put 30's on my 98 at stock height on some eagle alloys and got lots of rub while turning. I put a 1.75" spacer up front and a 1.5" shackle on the rear, and it was much better, but I'd still get some rub at lock. Now I've switched to Rubicon wheels on a slightly taller/narrower tire, back to stock backspacing, and I get no rub at all.
 
frankrizzo said:
You think I can get away with just trimming the fenders? There's very pictures out there with no lift, cut fenders and 31s
Click to expand...

I think you could if you do a lot of trimming.

You could always go glass fenders up front, that would give you a ton of clearance.
 
Trimming and bumpstops.
 
The flares/tires match nicely.. It looks really clean.. I'd do a Budget boost for $100..
 
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