Okay so, I tore off the stupid flares to find this rubber covering and metal stuff. My question is, does this rubber need to stay? It appears it covers the entire area of my tire and mostly everything around it. My dad says that if I remove the metal on top then I will have to put the nuts back in and the rubber back in. I honestly don't know what to do here. I've never seen this stuff before, any suggestions?

I'm thinking I just cut the rubber covering and the metal pieces off but my dad insists that it will do some damage. I've seen other peoples rigs with cut flares and didn't see any of this rubber..

 

Just take it off. You won't do any damage, but you will throw some water/mud/dirt on the door hinges. You can put a peice of pool noodle in there if you are worried.
Heres mine (no pool noodle)

 

Wow okay, that is really good to know. My dad was like, you can't remove that because it covers the entire wheel well. And by the looks of it, I'd have to remove a lot of bolts/nuts.

 

Not to hard to remove. Just take the flares and bolts off then pull hard on it. THe only thing keeping them in are these plastic screw things. IIRC

 

Should the rubber cover thing cover the entire area of my wheel? I tried moving it and it appears to be a pretty large piece of material.

 

It's the inner fender liner.

 

get an utility or exacto knife and cut it how you want it