96Cherokee113

Hello, everybody. I bashed up my passenger side front fender flare offroading and I'd like to take the front flares off and do some trimming. I tried to loosen the nuts, but the holders just spin on the opposite side. Would it be possible to just mark above the fender flare and cut it while the flares are still on there. That way I wouldn't have to try and unbolt them. Just curious as to if anyone's done this. Thanks.

DEVILSTOY

it will make it harder to make a clean cut , but it can be done , im not sure what year yours is and where your washer bottle is , but pull the splash sheild down and look up on your driver side and make sure you dont cut it

96Cherokee113

Mine's a 1996, I usually remember to mention that too. The splash guard is just clipped on, correct? Would I be able to keep the splash guard after I trim the fenders? Every XJ I see with cut fenders has a big opening that leads into the cab from the crevice in the door.

DEVILSTOY

nah the plastic shields need to be ripped out , they will hang down if you leave em , i just trimmed mine the other day on my 97 and they came out awesome , but you can jam something in your fender to keep mud from kicking up to where your door is , alot of people use those foam pool noodles and cut em in half , but honestly its not to bad not haveing anything in there at all

esteem

I cut my fenders while they were still attached. I drew out a line on the fenders to follow and it came out good. They dont look great anymore after alot of abuse but when they were first cut, they looked great.

96Cherokee113

Looks good. Did you cut n' fold the rears? Also, does a tornado of wind rush in through the door jamb? I think I might just drill some holes in the splash guard and somehow rivet it the engine bay, maybe zip ties. I'll figure something out though. Did you use a cutting disk on a grinder to trim yours? I'm either going to use that or an airsaw. Not 100% sure yet.

96Cherokee113

Oh, I forgot to add that I bought some door edge molding to finish off the edges and make it look pretty. Good tip for anyone that wants that finished look.

DEVILSTOY

nah no tornados of wind lol , and yea i cut and folded the back , i was gonna use the door edge trim on the edges just didnt get around to it

96Cherokee113

It was only a couple bucks from Pepboys so I figured why the hell not. Did you have to weld the rear fenders or do they hold fine? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm tempted to do the back too. It might not look right with only the front trimmed.

DEVILSTOY

i didnt weld them but i actually might just for the heck of it , but they hold up fine , i do body work for a living and im in between jobs so when i start at this new place ill grab some molding from there lol

96Cherokee113

Haha. I'm not too shabby with body work, but you can always cut more off, you can't cut more on, so I'd rather try and get it done right the first time. I tore a nice hole in my body the first time I took my XJ offroad so I just cut out the problem area, welded some sheet metal in, Bondoed it, painted it, and you can't even tell the whole accident ever happened. The fenders seem like they're a lot easier to mess up though. I guess I'll just give it a try tomorrow and see how it goes.

DEVILSTOY

just take your time and be a little extra careful with the back , thats a whole lot more of a big deal if you mess it up

DEVILSTOY

o yea , if you do decide to do the back your gonna have to pull the flares off , they sit higher then where u can it at