sean21

Alright. Been tidying up loose ends with my build. After the 4.25" offset rims and 1.25" wheel spacers. It's more than apparent that I need some extended fender flares.




Since I've already spent a TONNE of money on this thing. The bank account isn't so deep as it once used to be. I like the look of flat fender flares so I set out to build some cheep flat fenders that would be different and alterable later down the road.

I decided to build onto the original fender with some 16 gauge sheet metal that I had bent and cut at a metal shop. Two pieces cut to 48", 3" wide on one side and 0.5" on the other. $20 total for metal and labour.








I planned on welding the sheet metal to the fenders then covering then with some abs plastic sheet. I bought a 4'x8' sheet. It was about $50. It's textured on one side and glossy on the other.




So here goes the fab!

Started by first making a cardboard mold of the fenders shape. I then took that cardboard and cut the shape into a piece of plywood I had laying around.








Then was the task of taking the front end apart to get the fenders separated.








I then ground the inner edge of the fender giving myself about an inch of fresh metal to weld to.




Then I marked out holes "evenly" along the face of the larger flat portion of the flare to be able to mount the abs later on.




Then ground a bunch of hashes in the 1/2" side to make it easy to bend and provide more surface area to weld to.




Then bent the flare to the cut piece of plywood.








Now it was time to weld the flare support to the inside of the fender.








Started tacking the outer edges of the flare support.




Then finish welded all the open areas caused by grinding slots in the narrow side of the flare support.













Then painted the inside edge to prevent rust.




Since your probably thinking welding straight to the fender messes up the paint on the other side. Yes. It does. But I knew it would happen and didn't really care. Just grind and paint.






















I then cut the flat sheet of abs into strips that will be the top cover of the flare. I chose textured side up.




I then drilled small pilot holes up through the metal sheet flare into the abs. Once everything was all lined up and drilled with pilot holes I used a countersink bit to make countersink holes for the bolts that would hold the abs to the metal sheet flare. Sorry no pics of that.

The bolts I used were flat heads with thin nuts. I applied blue lock tight to the bolt and bolted everything up.




Since the bolts I bought were intentionally too long. I then took the grinder to them cutting off the excess flush to the nut and then painted everything to look decent and prevent rust.




Then used the grinder on all the hard corners and formed them to whatever way I thought followed the jeeps fender lines.



So there it is. Not really sure about the rears yet but I'll take some time in the next couple days to figure out how I want to do them. I will be painting the Heads of the bolts black so they are not so obvious but it was getting dark and ran out of painters tape. If there's thought of the tires catching the nuts on the bottom. They won't. It's properly bumpstopped and the nuts are thin enough as it is to not really be such a factor.

Final results.

iBeTRiiX

Looks Awesome man.

Atmos

good idea on how to bend that metal too. but what happens when you slam it into a rock?
I like the jeep too what do you have in it?

sean21

Thanks. I figured the abs would be the first point of contact. So I'd just replace them as required. These are just temporary so I don't get pinched by the cops. I'll be doing rocker guards and full bumpers soon. I plan to scrap the stock fenders and build tube fenders that bridge from the rockers to the front and rear bumpers. So to be honest I won't be upset if they get dented. Just means I have to start the next project sooner.

As for the jeep. 99 auto, re 5.5" coils and leafs with 35" hankook dyno pro mt's. Bilstein 5125's all around. D44 converted to discs in the rear with D30 converted with wj knuckles and radius arms up front. 4.88 gears with locker in rear. Think that's all the important stuff.

Atmos

oh wow that's a lot of effort into something that's temporary! nice clean job though.
but I gotta ask why you left those bolts silver. you've got a killer rig man

sean21

They're not being left silver. Ran out of painters tape to mask stuff off, spray paint was getting low and was getting dark too. Tomorrow prob get to them. To be honest. Should have painted them before install. and thanks

NorCalJeep

Damn dude that looks awesome. Glad I found this thread. TY!

Flowpro

Impressive work.

RichW

Very nice flares man!!! Two thumbs up!

1jeepman

Nice work! Looks great too.

stormitecture

This is pretty good way to add/modify for other future use. I actually like the general idea on a way I can install JK fenders on my XJ (to match my JK front bumper). Granted I am in no rush because I want to increase my track width first. Only using spacers (spidertrax hubcentric) at the moment. Since I don't wheel my Jeep in the traditional sense (mine is more for hurricane/blizzard intercepts and overland work related to my filming) this mod works well since I know I won't be going much bigger if ever.

RTorrez1

Not a bad looking job! Not bad at all. In other words I like them.

kleiner

Great idea on the flares. I use to have my Jeep at 5.5" but I brought it down to 4.5".... makes me want to go back to 5.5" lol

Grayguy

Good idea and nice fab work! I might copy this idea and run 1" tube on the outside of the flare for strength since I like to lean on trees so much

XJ Stryker

I have never really like the look of flat fenders. But if it makes you legal that is a lot cheaper than bushwackers lol.