Been wanting to do this for some time, not only because the unpleasant look of fenderless & capless is eating away at me, but rust is also eating away the lower quarters. So finally grew the ***** to hack up my ****.

I 80% followed a write-up on JF that was VERY detailed & helpful, but did things my way here & there.

Tools:
* Angle Grinder
* 4" Cut-Off Discs (2x)
* Saw-Zaw
* Metal Blades (for saw-zaw)
* Drill
* Metal Drill bits
* Wire Wheel
* Hammer (without a textured strike face)
* Rubber Mallet
* Couple pieces of 2x4
* Rivet Tool & Rivets
* Tape Measure
* Sharpies (1 Black, 1 Silver)
* Straight Edge
* Seam Sealer
* Surface Cleaner (rubbing alcohol or special prep cleaner, whatev)
* Masking Tape & Newspaper
* Paint or Bed liner of your choice
* & YOUR BRAIN

I didnt have flares or bumper caps, so additional wrenches, ratchets, phillips/flat-heads would be needed for that.

So, it starts...

First cut, red line


Rear Measurement


Forward Measurement, coincidence that the rust starts at the measured mark


These measurements are the distance of the space between the 2 fender layers. So, they both fold in & you I'd have plenty material to rivet to.

My straight edge to connect the marks




Inner Measurements, same as outer


Cut it!


All the material inside the yellow polygon will be gone, so it doesnt matter how you cut around the corners, but still try to line it with the inner cut line, here's where your brain comes a little handy.


Cut the inner




some hidden mud


couldnt get the grinder all the way to the back corner, but metal snips work fine on the single layers


success!!


theres technically really no specific order to things, I tend to jump around or the tools I was using inhibited, so I had to do another spot to come back to where I couldnt get to. I wanted to take the material off the rear part, but had to do other cuts first....anyways, next cut


same cut, from the inside


separating the inner fender from the rear part


the next part didnt happen until after I had the inner fender completely separated from the outer, because I could get the saw-zaw or angle grinder in the right position....got to be a bit of a PITA & didnt take pix of each cut, but this is what I basically ended up doing





yellow line is 1st cut (saw-zaw inside the 2 fenders), red is 2nd cut, & blue is 3rd cut

finally


this was the process for separating the inner & outer fenders






cut just below the bottom edge of the quarter lip (where the bend line will be)


then cut this out, makes the bend in that corner cleaner & it clears the middle piece




next comes flattening out the factory bends, where the non-textured hammer & 2x4 comes in to play






view from inside


time to fold, inner fender....massaged this area with the hammer while bending by hand


this one's kinda out of order, da well...cut an angle into the corner where the bend will be, also drill out the spot welds to take out an unneeded layer




cut the corner here, makes it fit better when folded up


didnt picture it (its messy), made a nice thick bead of sealant on the inside of the outer fender (right about where the end cap bracket was) & on the bottom/inside edge of the same fender....bent it up...I used a piece of 2x4 & jack to help bend it & hold it, to drill & rivet


moved the 2x4 & jack, drilled & riveted as much as possible


last bend (in red)....also (in yellow) material I removed from the middle piece, yet left enough to cover the rust parts of the inner & outer fenders....u could leave less & also fold it first or 2nd, rather than last, for a "cleaner" look....i opted for this


I also decided to cut & fold the fenders as well....cut the first lip off




relief cuts










pic from inside the wheel well, cut a little too high...smeared seam sealer on it


it was getting a late, so pix get sparse now....after seam sealing any spots that got to high, rubber mallet banging all the tabs in, & making it look decent




drivers side...spray on undercoating on the lip only, dont like it as much as the passenger




passenger side






Spread this whole project over 2 days, but couldve banged it out in 1. The most time consuming was sealing, riveting, sanding, & masking. Cutting & folding probably took a total of 3-4 hours.

Thanx for looking!

 

nice write-up, love the sticker too!!! you dont see that one very much

 

thanx!....yea, it suits me pretty well....play drums & love music

 

Came out good man. Nice write up. every time I go to do one, I just get to working and dont want to stop for pictures lol.

 

Nice write up! It made me very glad I didn't do an actual cut and fold, just a cut out everything and weld in new metal, the cut and fold looks like far too much work for my attention span.

 

haha, most pictures got taken during smoke breaks...thanks

ya, was a little time consuming...if i could weld, i would've gone that route, but those tin-foil panels cut & bend prretty easy

 

just did mine so easy good write up !!

 

Thanks for the write up me and my boss have been wanting to do that to our xj's and didnt know how and could not find a write up for it. i am wondering if we could weld the fenders instead of riveting them.

 

ya you could weld them i just did mine and welded them i welded almost every seam that got folded over and i also drilled hole like his where the rivets are but i plug welded the holes.

 

I just did the cut and fold on my 87 XJ. Two days ago. I followed this thread a little.
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/c...t-way-1007865/
I did mainly because the rust was getting real heavy. I was not able to get 4 1/2 and 5 1/4 due to rust. It turned out well with still enough metal to rivet.
It's not bad and rather fun. Like folding a Christmas present. I did mine all with 4 1/2 angle grinder and narrow blade. I Find the sawzall sometimes will vibrate loose metal and make it a little harder to cut.
I left both front and rear narrow pieces and folded those up as well. Four total pieces folded up.
With more threads I'm sure its helps out everyone.

 

Cool ill have to wait to do mine now school starts this thursday.and with afull te job on top of that ill have no time. Besided hunting season is right around the corner. Im also dropping in a new motor im rebuilding. But this write up was exactly.what I was looking for thanks.

 

Thanks for the write up between yours and AJ off road I was able to do this last weekend in one day kept coming back and reading the next steps.

 

^^^did you really have to quote all those pics to say that message?

not trying to be rude but on a phone its not the fastest to load...

 

Sorry did not mean to I removed quote.

 

its no prob man, alot of ppl dont realize sometimes, and when im on my pc it really dont matter....


anyways forgot to say great writeup, like all the pics and well explained.


nice job you too camping350