Trimmed Fenders
February 17 2010 | Posted in: ExteriorBecause my lift has pretty decent articulation, I was rubbing the fenders with the tires when I went offroading. I really didn’t like that idea and wanted to fix this before I either cut down a tire or really did some damage to my fenders. This mod really took some guts for me to do to a perfectly (almost) straight XJ body. But I love it now!
This is not a project that you want to do when you’re crunched for time. I would budget an entire weekend. It took me a little longer because I chose to use a Dremel tool. While this is far from the fastest tool, it is very easy to control and gives you a very clean cut. Another time eater is the application of the Herculiner. To properly apply it, there is a lot of prep work then time to allow for drying between coats.
What you’ll need:
- Misc. Sockets
- Dremel
- Heavy Duty Reinforced Cutoff Wheel for Dremel
- Sander & Sandpaper
- Rivet Gun & Rivets
- Sharp Knife / Box Cutter
- Heavy \ Thick Gloves
- Eye Protection
- Face Shield
- Breather Mask
- Painter’s Tape
- Herculiner Kit
- Disposable Gloves
- Heavy Duty Zip-Ties
- Kids Play Toy Chair Optional
NOTE – You can substitute your favorite cutting tool in place of the Dremel
Before I started, I took a few pictures and modified them to play around with different configurations and make doubly sure I wanted to go through with this. Here are the pictures I modified in GIMP for testing:
stock – flares attached:
flares removed:
fenders trimmed:
flares trimmed and remounted:
OK, I like that, so it’s time to get down to business. I waited until I went home to visit my family to do this. They have a driveway and plenty of room to work and spread stuff out.
What I started with that morning:
Remove anything that will be in our way. This includes the flares, plastic trim, and rockrails (because I’m Herc’ing the bottom fenders)
Position the flare where you want it. I did this to make sure where I had already planned to trim will work with the flare placement. If you look at the rear/bottom of the flare, you can see where I trimmed off the curved piece so it will sit flush for the mockup. Here is also where I found out that painter’s tape is the way to go. The regular masking tape left glue residue and pulled the paint off of my flares. The painter’s tape did not. It’s well worth the few extra pennies.
Take a very deep breath and/or a swig if your favorite beer, put on your eye/face/ear and hand protection and cut away. As you can see, it was easy to mark where to cut because I cut right where the fender does it first flare out.
If you are going to use a Dremel like I did, here are a few tips. First, get the heavy duty reinforced cutoff disks. I used about 1.5 disks per fender. Having them reinforced makes them last longer and if they do blow up on you, the reinforcing backing keeps them out of your face. Another trick is to not put much pressure on the material you are cutting. Score your cut line about 5 or 6 inches long to give you a good guide. Then slowly and lightly go back and forth over the same 5 or 6 inches until you are through. If you see black/brown smoke/dust, you’re pushing too hard and that dust is the wasted cutting disk you’re burning up.
Here’s another spot where the painter’s tape will help. It will help keep you from burning your good paint. The cutting tool will throw off a lot of sparks. If left unprotected, these sparks will mar your paint.
I ran into a small issue with the front fender. My first line wasn’t going to work.
This whould leave the sheet metal too close to the tires. So I rethought my line and recut it like this. Cutting it this way eliminates one of the fender mounting bolts, but I have yet to run into any issues. I kept the bolt just in case I need to use it.
Time to mark for the new flare mounting holes. I held the flare up to the fender. Then marked the first and last hole. Then put the flare back off to the side and held up the freshly trimmed fender up to it, lined up the first and last holes and marked the remaining holes. You will not use all of the original holes. A few are lost because of the spacing.
Temporarily remount the flare
Using more tape and an angle finder, I measured out a 30 degree line from the bottom outside edge of the fare upwards. The tape was marked with arrows on the cutting side just to make sure I didn’t do anything stupid:
The rear of the front flare was done in a similar fashion.
The flares are easily cut using a Dremel or even a sharp box cutter (pictures further down with finished pictures)
Now onto the rear…
Because the rear fenders have pinch seam welds that shouldn’t be cut out, I first trimmed up to the welds:
Then cut slits in between the welds. Followed that by laying a large bead of RTV behind the fender so it would seal up the crease created when I beat in the fender. You will also see I only cut and folded the front and back of the fender. I left the top alone because I wanted to remount my flare:
NOTE: you can also see that I redrilled the mounting holes up fractions of an inch higher. I would suggest against doing this. There isn’t enough extra clearance gained by doing this. Now when I permanently remove my flares and finish folding the top in, I’ll have to fill the holes in with weld to reseal them.
Now bolt the flares back into place. I decided to use heavy duty zip-ties instead. They are strong enough so far and are a lot easier to work with.
2 Responses to “Trimmed Fenders”
April 6th, 2010 at 11:40 am
I was really interested in your write up but the pictures do not seem to work….
April 13th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Just got the pictures done. Hope they’re showing up now.
Steve