Safety first! Hearing and eye protection in use throughout the rest of this post. Some who read this may recall a time many years ago when I failed to use eye pro when grinding on the frame of the Goat. Ended up with steel slivers embedded into my cornea. Optometrists are still asking me about the residual scarring. Never again.
For this project my intention is to cut as much fender away as possible. For the front I will retain the inner plastic liner. This is key to keeping the elements away from the door hinges which would otherwise be exposed. Some folks just stuff a pool noodle in there. Let's see if I can make the liner work first.
Here's a few pics showing why trimming is necessary. Plenty of room at the LCA thanks to the 4.5" backspacing with the rims. This is on the drivers side.
First I started by masking off the area I'll be working with. Since I'll be retaining the liner I've also removed that before starting.
I like the TJ fender flares the PO provided with the rig. Figure I'll cut back as far as the inner lip of the TJ flare. To do that I've clamped the flare into place and marked off its outer edge.
First cut is to remove some excess sheet metal around the fender. A 4" cut off disk on the old angle grinder made short work of the thin sheet metal. I just followed the factory body line to remove about 1" around the opening. Also went ahead and made my pie cuts in the lip that stick down into the middle of the well. Caution! there are pinch welds in this lip - make sure you identify them and don't cut through them. I used a dead blow hammer to knock these pie cuts flat. Also note that I've cut the shock boots off. I belong to the club that thinks shock boots are bad, mmmkay?
Next I made ~2" pie cuts on the outer fender up to the inner flare mounting line circumscribed earlier. Here is where things became time consuming. Making small adjustments I cut the fender liner to fit the new space as best as possible. The pie cuts will be folded over the liner to provide an outward mounting point. Standard body trim push-type plastic retainers were used elsewhere to hold the liner flat against the wheel well. Again using the dead blow hammer I knocked the pie cuts flat. Everything gets hit with a 60 grit flap disc followed by a coat of rattle can black.
Taking way too much time at this point I skipped pics. Suffice to say I fit the TJ flare to the body lines of the XJ using a long, slow process of sand/trim, test fit, repeat. I used the existing mounting holes in the flare and attached using push-type plastic retainers. Feels stout.
Update with photos.
Liner result:
Cab-side front passenger wheel well. You can see the result of the cut and fold:
Bumer-side front wheel well passenger:
I plan to fill in the marker light recess to create a smooth flare. Then everything will be hit with some bed liner to include the rocker panels and flares to give it a more consistent look and added protection.
Repeat for the drivers side. Long day...
Tomorrow I'll tackle the rears.
Project Cost: $0
Total Build Cost: $3,655
No comments:
Post a Comment