So my front driver's fender on my 99 XJ is dented so I was going to take it off and bang it back into shape.
I took off the header and unscrewed the torx bolts around the fender. Now I'm looking at where the very front of the fender hides behind the header panel and it's tack welded to the body. How am I suppose to take off the fender now without making it worse?
Did you buy it new or off of someone? If you bought it off someone they are the ones that did the welding to it. If its factory, get up underneath it and push up the mud guard protector underneath the headlight housing on each side. You should see 3 bolts(15mm) which hold the bumper bracket to the frame.
I found the three torx bolts behind the headlight which is what I was wondering. it's dark in my garage so I didn't see them at first.
But now the fender wont come off. It's getting hung up on something right above where the tire is, and it's not the flare bolts. Is there some other bolt I'm not seeing somewhere in the middle of the fender, like right above the tire?
Removing those 3 bolts from each side should allow you to remove the entire bumper from the frame. Also be sure to pull the vacuum hose from the vacuum ball, if I recall in '97 they started mounting them to the inside of the bumper on the passenger side.
thanks for the pic. The problem I was having was actually this bracket piece attached to the fender right above the tire. It was hidden under the mud guard. It took a 10mm wrench to undo it. Got the darn thing off finally, now time for repair.
