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Writeup: How to cut and fold the rear fenders and keep your stock flares.

GrimmJeeper

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Gardena, CA
I did this today in about an hour and half, both sides will take you about 3 hours if you don't screw around. i did a quick hack job on the last jeep but i took my time on this one and it came out looking much much better.

I also kept the mounting tabs for my rear flares, we'll see how they hold up. so here we go:

first remove the stock flare. usually all the studs snap off, but if you're careful you might be able to save them. i was not.
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Here's my cutting setup, cheapo harbor freight drill and cutoff wheels. i got the 2 year extended warranty and only use this drill for cutting and grinding. this is my third one and they just keep giving me new ones :D dont use a drill you like for cutting things, it burns the motor up pretty good.
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i marked the spot welds to help keep them visible so I wouldn't cut through them. if you cut through the spot welds the body will peel apart at the fenderwells, in case you don't know, that's bad.
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this line is the furthest you want to cut, try to stay around an 1/8th inch below that line in the fender opening.
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these areas at the front and rear are triple layers of steel and bent at weird angles. we'll make special cuts there.
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any time you use harbor freight tools keep this handy, you might need it. I didn't (this time) but keep it within arms reach when you're working.
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first cut, this is the furthest you want to go upwards.
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continue along the top edge, spacing the cuts around the flare mounting holes, and the spot welds. try to make the cuts no more than 2 inches apart.
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along the curves, try to make the cuts closer together. this will make for a much cleaner edge when it comes time to break out the hammer. the more cuts you make the smoother the edge will be.
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its hard to see here, but above the lowest spot weld i cut in from the side, and there is another cut coming up from the bottom to seperate the part we are going to fold from the bracing that is hanging down a bit here.
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continued...
 
this is the area behind the tire, looking up from the bottom. cut this line so you can bend the flat bottom part downwards..
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like this, then cut that tab off.
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now get out the hammer and beat the hell out of the tabs you cut :D i left the mounting holes straight so i can still put the flares back on. if you dont want to do that beat them flat too.
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take your time here, bend them over, then go back and bend them all more, then some more, etc... once they are all bent back flat start working on the edge with the hammer so you form a smooth crease in the edge. this is how you get the clean looking opening. don't worry about cracking the paint, you're going to have to primer and paint this area anyway unless you want the whole back end of the jeep to rust out.
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came out pretty smooth.
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i put the flare back on with some u-nuts (like the ones that hold the front fenders on, among other things.)
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and there we go, flare back on and looks like we never took it off.
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Like I said this took me about an hour and a half, I didn't do the other side yet but it should go the same. If you don't plan on running a flare it will go a bit quicker. As long as you take your time with the cutting and the hammering, it should come out looking great!
 
i forgot to add that I cut the flare mounting tabs back so they were only an 1/8th inch longer than where the holes are. I'm going to bend the tabs back later if I have clearance issues still.
 
Nice work Grimm. I copied your write up and posted it in the FAQ workshop area. Look for it in the FAQs in the near future. :thumbup:
 
Thanks, i figured it might help the newbies since people keep asking me how i did mine. we'll see if the flares stay on after i go beat on the jeep at goatfest :D
 
did it move the flare up at all? worried about those tabs getting rubbed on the tires? looks like you trimmed the excess off the tabs up to the mounting holes to help out a bit.
 
The theory is this, the tire will typically rub on the metal lip and not the flare itself. This is contingent to the size of tire, combined with the backspacing of the wheel that you run.
 
The theory is this, the tire will typically rub on the metal lip and not the flare itself. This is contingent to the size of tire, combined with the backspacing of the wheel that you run.

yep. the flare is flexible, it can stand hitting the tire a bit. if you run big chunky tires like swampers or similar you're still going to catch the flare with the tread lugs. I'm also going to trim out the inner edge of the flare itself.

I want to bend the tabs back like the rest of the cuts i made, once all the bolts are in. It should give me enough room to keep from tearing them off, but we'll see. if you've ever hit the flare hard you've noticed that the metal cuts the tire, that is the main point of concern. Plus anything 33" or larger is going to rub the corners of the wheel well before it gets up to the mounting tabs anyway. if you're flexing the rear axle it should pivot enough to miss the edge now, I gained almost 2 inches of clearance not counting the tabs.


I'l update this thread if i tear the flares off, I'm going out to the desert in 2 weeks to do some suspension testing. Even though i put the flares on i beat back the rest of the fenderwell as clean as i could so it wouldn't look like crap if i do take them off.
 
don't know if it'll work or not, but what about folding those tabs "up" to kind of catch the flare and sandwich it between the body and the tab... might not last long with a beating but your tires definately wouldn't catch it
 
I tried bending them outwards and it pushed the flare away from the body, i'm going to try bending them inwards but not sure if it would just tear the tabs on the flare itself. I havent had time to mess with it any more yet, I'm mocking up coilovers up front right now :D
 
Nice write up Mike, most people I see trying to open up the rear wheel well cut above the spot welds. Not a good idea if you want your rig to stay solid and waterproof without additional work.

Sorry for noob question, but what is the point if its not getting raised? To reduce possible rub points?

My thoughts too. If the flare is in the same spot where's the benefit? I'm not dogging you, I really don't see it. Thanks

I did something very similar to my rig many years ago. I did it a bit different and cut the bottom 5" to 6" of the flare off, right at the body line. 7"s of lift with 33" tires. :lastara:

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The comments about raising the flare struck me as odd. A good point to make is that a 33" tire will not safely fit into an uncut rear wheel well without rubbing. Opening up the leading and trailing edges of the wheel well is far more important to allow clearance for your tires than raising the flare. The wheel well itself dictates the amount of upward clearance for the tire, not the flare. The flare will bend out of the way and not damage your tire like the sheet metal does. Moving the flare up will do nothing if you don't raise the wheel well opening first, which will require extensive fab work to be done correctly. This is pointless of you are running 35" or smaller tires or a reasonable amount of lift.
 
Nice write up Mike, most people I see trying to open up the rear wheel well cut above the spot welds. Not a good idea if you want your rig to stay solid and waterproof without additional work.

thanks :wave1:

The comments about raising the flare struck me as odd. A good point to make is that a 33" tire will not safely fit into an uncut rear wheel well without rubbing. Opening up the leading and trailing edges of the wheel well is far more important to allow clearance for your tires than raising the flare. The wheel well itself dictates the amount of upward clearance for the tire, not the flare. The flare will bend out of the way and not damage your tire like the sheet metal does. Moving the flare up will do nothing if you don't raise the wheel well opening first, which will require extensive fab work to be done correctly. This is pointless of you are running 35" or smaller tires or a reasonable amount of lift.

Bryan is 100% correct, as I stated above the tire is going to hit the front and rear before it ever gets near the top if you are on a 33" or larger tire. And if you guys look at your flares they follow the body line, you can't raise it up unless you trim off the bottom section as Bryan did, and if you DO raise them up you're going to be into the door opening on the 4 door XJs.
 
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I was going to help my friend do this to his 2door, But i was going to get a set of front flares and use them on the back and do some triming to them so the lines will fit good When we do that to his jeep I will take some pics and post them up here
 
I have done this same thing on my last few XJ's. The pic at the bottom is my most recent one.

I went one step further to give it a more "finished" appearance without flares. After I finished the cut/fold, I went over the paint where it was chipping from the folding with coarse sand paper to remove any extra loose paint. After that I used a little bondo(I hate that crap, but I barely used any at all really) to fill in the cracks between cuts. This comes in really handy at covering up mistakes if you went a little too far with the grinder when making the cuts!!! I waited for it to dry a little bit and smoothed it out with coarse sand paper working my way to a a finer and finer grit until the bondo was as smooth as the metal. After it was completely dry I roughly masked out the area and put a little primer over the exposed metal and bondo. Then I took my time and masked the remaining "lip" off at the body line. At the same time I removed all of the rubber molding at the bottom of the body and scuffed that area up. Once everything was scuffed up and masked off I cleaned the surface with a little denatured alcohol. After a few minutes to let it flash off I sprayed it with Rustoleum Truck Bed Coating in a rattle can. After everything dried it almost looks like the XJ never came with flares from the factory! Here is a couple shots of how it looks all completed... (dont laugh too much at the duct taped grill... Still looking for a matching header panel/passenger fender...)

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