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Rear Fender Trim, NON cut and fold method

stumpXJ said:
Yeah, I want to add some tube fenders at some point, just figuring out how to tie it all together with the cage, sliders, bumpers etc.

Thanks!!

~James
Click to expand...

Yep same here my plans are to finish my sliders then buy some unfinished bumpers then do the fenders and tie it all in.

How did you cut the extra metal off, was it hard? It looks clean.
 
JRW7072009 said:
Yep same here my plans are to finish my sliders then buy some unfinished bumpers then do the fenders and tie it all in.

How did you cut the extra metal off, was it hard? It looks clean.
Click to expand...

I cut the bulk of the extra material off with a cut off thin wheel, then went back with an 80 grit sanding disc to get it close/flush to the body panel. Just took my time, it was fairly simple once it was solidly tacked together.

On the inner seam, you have to get pretty aggressive with a hammer to get the steel to lay down flat enough to tack it to the inner fender. I used several chip and body hammers with points, and it stretched the metal pretty good. That was probably the most time consuming part, not the outside. I left a section of the rocker cavity open (as you should be able to see in the pic) to flush out any dirt after wheeling. When I cut it open, I was amazed at how much dirt was packed in there. The dirt holds moisture, and is why rockers rust out so bad. My rockers are not rusted luckily, but I will replace them with some 2x5 tubing eventually.

~James
 
Last edited:
That looks good. I think I may take some of those tips and apply it when I cut mine. Thanks dude.
 
stumpXJ said:
I cut the bulk of the extra material off with a cut off thin wheel, then went back with an 80 grit sanding disc to get it close/flush to the body panel. Just took my time, it was fairly simple once it was solidly tacked together.

On the inner seam, you have to get pretty aggressive with a hammer to get the steel to lay down flat enough to tack it to the inner fender. I used several chip and body hammers with points, and it stretched the metal pretty good. That was probably the most time consuming part, not the outside. I left a section of the rocker cavity open (as you should be able to see in the pic) to flush out any dirt after wheeling. When I cut it open, I was amazed at how much dirt was packed in there. The dirt holds moisture, and is why rockers rust out so bad. My rockers are not rusted luckily, but I will replace them with some 2x5 tubing eventually.

~James
Click to expand...

Cool thanks for the info. I am planning on doing my sliders with something like 4x4 square tube and cut it right below the door and weld it to the pinch weld too. I will be doing a write up on it and posting pics as well. It is crazy how much crap gets stuck up in the rockers so thats a good idea to leave it open to flush it out.
 
Love the write up in fact started my fenders the other day. I hop ethey come out 1/2 as nice as yours.
 
I cut mine months ago and just got around to covering one side today. SO far it looks good. I used the same method, I taked it in about 10 places and shaped it around tacking it all the way, then I cut it as close to even as possible and welded it all on. I still have to grind it but I did coat my welds with body filler to hide imperfections...LOL...I have to gring the welds down and figure out how to do the inner fender. I removed the plastic inside so I can beat both sides to get them to mate so I can weld them.

This is not a complicated job if its on a trail rig like mine but on a DD it would be a bear
 
Does Body filler set up hard? Is that what you are talking about when you say seam sealer? I have to Massage the inner fenders to meet and weld it tomorrow and then grind everything hit it with body fill then work on the other side. I will take pics tomorrow but it is pretty strait forward like yours
 
Very proffesional! I'm actually not a big fan of the teal color alone but it really looks good with the flat black.

I have been getting ready to do the same thing but with the add on of tube fenders like everyone is saying. I will be leaving even more excess off the outside and trim them to the width i want my tubing to stick out. Then bend my tubing from my bumper to my sliders mating with the sheet metal.
 
96xjeeper said:
Does Body filler set up hard? Is that what you are talking about when you say seam sealer? I have to Massage the inner fenders to meet and weld it tomorrow and then grind everything hit it with body fill then work on the other side. I will take pics tomorrow but it is pretty strait forward like yours
Click to expand...


No, body filler and the seam sealer is not the same thing. Body filler should get hard and you should be able to sand it easily. Seam sealer is a semi dry sort of stuff. It has a similar feel to it as liquid nails...

Glad this was able to help/inspire a couple folks, I have done another XJ, and have a couple more lined up to do.

~ James
 
looks very nice!

I envy your rust-free XJ! both of my XJ arent fun to work with body because there's rust, even some are rotten!
 
it is a pretty rust free rig but with all that custom paint you should do the whole axles. makes it look real nice! :cool: You can barely see the red on the dif... Why red with the color scheme? Also, is the teal the original color?


DSCN1203.jpg



0121000805b.jpg
 
redrider2911 said:
it is a pretty rust free rig but with all that custom paint you should do the whole axles. makes it look real nice! :cool: You can barely see the red on the dif... Why red with the color scheme? Also, is the teal the original color?


DSCN1203.jpg



0121000805b.jpg
Click to expand...


Custom paint? Its a bunch of cans of rubberized undercoating...

The diff cover was painted red by the previous owner, I tried my best to get it off before putting the cover on, but its on there pretty good.

The teal is the original color, hence me trying to cover as much of it up as possible with rubberized undercoating.

Why dont I paint all the other crap under there? It is painted black, its just dirty/muddy in those pictures. I think painting the under carriage parts anything other than black screams mall crawler.... Looks fine till you get it dirty one time, then it looks like crap.

~ James
 
Naw... this guy had a full bodied XJ. I have never seen him here on the boards. I just figured he was a newbie, till I saw him wheel!

~ James
 
I finished mine today didn't come out as nice as yours but it looks OK for a trail rig. I wanted to cover the massive opening created by the cutting. I couldn't get the inner fender to meet so I can weld it but I havn't really tried yet. Also I have to let the body filler harden so I can sand it and repaint it. I also painted my rear corner panels with the rubberized undercoating.
 
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