Cutting Rear Fender Flares

[DavidXJ]

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be in "Body and Paint" or not, but I could care less about bodywork, just about making Cherokees better... so I'm putting it here.

I cut out my rear fenders this weekend. Here's how I did it. It's ugly, but it's also not finished.

First, I removed the rear flares and plastic quarter panel trim (it's a 1998).


Next, I cut along the line of the outside of that, um, ridge along the outside of the fender with a angle grinder and cutoff wheel.


Then, I drilled out all of the spot welds.


Next I pried off the this outside piece. Some of the spot welds will inevitably hang on for dear life, so you'll have to give it some "motivation" with a flat bar and hammer.


After removing the cut piece, I used a sheet metal shears to cut the inner fender sheet metal into 1" to 2" wide strips.


Then I used a pliers and a hammer to bend the pieces over the outer sheet metal.


Finally, the most difficult decision... Do I attempt to Mig weld the inner and outer fender back together?... or do I stitch screw it back together? I didn't like either idea, because welding will heat and warp the metal, not to mention trying to weld such thin gauge. I didn't have 100% faith in the screws alone.

So I bought some 3M Autobody repair epoxy. This is the stuff they use to piece autobody panels back together in place of welding. I figure that this stuff, combined with the stitch screws should be at least as strong as welding.

Technically, the screws are #8x1/2" Self-piercing screws with a hex head (but any 1/2" self piercing screw will work). Don't get self-tappers. They are actually harder to get into the sheetmetal that a piercing type. The epoxy is called 3M Automix 8115 Adhesive (Panel Bonding Adhesive).


But before I mixed this up and screws the panels together, I cleaned the paint off of both panels with a buffer wheel on the grinder.


Finally, I mixed the adhesive and glued and screwed the fender... well, that sounds wrong. But here are the pictures just to clarify what I mean.


Well, that's it for now. Here is the finished cut-out fender with a 30x9.5R15 wheel and almost no lift (1.75" extended shackles with some good spring sag).


I will post more pictures after I start the fender flares. The plan is to either use rear TJ flares like this...


Or make my own similar to this...


I would prefer to make my own like the latter, but we'll see what happens after I start my attempt. The ease of just buying some TJ flares might win out.[/img]

[Blue96^xj]

from what ive seen most people fold inward, but hey whatever works
i also like the tj flares
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93 xj, 2.5 5spd. stock DD
96 xj, 4.0 auto. work in progress
NAXJA member #3169

[DavidXJ]

Yah, I've seen that too. This was way easier, and since I was using screws, now the inner part of the fender where there could be potential rubbing is smooth. Either way, this was a hack job that I'm hoping the fenders and a little bedliner will cover.

[Orangeamc13]

I didn't look at the pics, because they are way too big! When I did this to my 88, I welded the seams together.

Oh yeah, moving this to Body & Paint !
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[DavidXJ]

Sorry about the picture size, Orange. I didn't realize they are displayed actual size until after I hit the submit button. Some day I'll work on using an editor to reduce their size.

I thought about welding too, until I realized I was too lazy.

[kaos]

If you are running Windows, you might want to take a look at the Image Resizer Powertoy from Microsoft: http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe
It's a free tool that lets you right-click any jpeg image to resize it for web or email posting.

Oh, and nice mod . Bookmarked, in case I decide to go for bigger rubber later.
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Best regards,
Kári