Kind of in a bind. I put on new tires that require some light trimming. Fronts are done. Pretty simple as every single flare bolt snapped. I tried to tackle the rears tonight, and I cant get the bolt to snap off, nor back off. The slotted screw up inside the flare turns. I cant get anything on the screw to stop it from spinning. Any ideas?

 

Put a wrench on each side and crank till they pop. Worked for mine. The rears were tougher than fronts for sure. What's your plan from here?

 

Newer rear flares don't have a bolt/nut. They have a nut and a threaded stud that is tack welded to a plate on the outside of the fender. Sounds like that is what he has and the tack weld broke.

 

I have a 95 Sport. I cant imagine that exterior "stud" was or was supposed to be tacked. Its slotted to fit a flat head screwdriver, but.... you cant get a screwdriver up under the outside lip of the flare. All of the bolts spin freely but will not come out. Now that i think about it, I think the "holes" in the flare that the bolts go thru actually has an open slit on the top as if the bolts are just loosened, you should be able to pull the flare out from behind the metal mounting plate without totally removing the bolts. I;m going to try that first thing tomorrow after work. If that doesn't do it, I will have to get creative I guess. I'm thinking maybe a Dremel and the cutoff wheel will solve the problem. If the Dremel can trim the fender itself, it should be able to hack the nuts...

 

I can tell you with 100% certainty that my outer retaining plates for the flares on my 1997 had the studs tack-welded onto them. Yours may be different as I don't know when they made the change.

 

I just bought some cutting disks for my old Dremmel on Ebay. It cuts GREAT!

 

The studs are tack welded to the plates on mine. I just removed the flares for repainting and broke most of the studs off. I plan to removed the broken studs and tack weld 1/4 bolts back onto the plates to reinstall them this Saturday.

The post before this one has the best suggestion, Dremel cutting blades. Get the new quick lock attachment that allows you to install replacement blades without having to mess with a tiny retaining screw.

 

Was this guy:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/50-IIT-REINF...item336b715a91

 

I guess I got lucky with my 99... What about the quarter panels, though? These are tacked on and there is no way of getting to the backside of them... I suppose grinding these off is the way?

 

That's how I fixed mine though I don't remember what size I used.

I threw out my flares but kept the repaired plates.