sorry if it sounds dumb or anything but im debating trimming my fenders after i lift it i would be cutting a lot of the rust off of both front or back. i am mainly just asking for advice on doing it.

Problems:
flares(just need to build my own)
ny salt will kill everything under the plastic coating when removed?
does the weather guard get removed completely from the wheel well
not sure exactly how

any help would be great im just trying to make her look better getting rid of the rust and and help out if i go with 33s instead of 31s

 

Ive not done mine yet but a lot of my friends have.
The trick to the rear is small vertical cut. You can fold them under and have The rolled look.

 

yep just start cutting into it. it's easy. I ripped out all the plastic guard (edit: FORCEFULLY) with my hands it just tears
I used a die grinder and a hammer to cut and fold. the rear is tough **** and there is a pinch seem so you need to cut up to it in small intervals and hammer it back. you can just go to town on the front. took me a couple hours
cant help ya with the salt issue. not much of that here in sunny cali

 

You'll probably want to bedline or POR15 whatever you trim to prevent further rusting

 

Here's my front finish product. Just get the flares off, bolts will likely just break, and get an angle grinder. Cut just below where fender "flares" out and bedline or paint after to protect any exposed metal.

The rears have the pinch welds. You'll notice them by the little "bumps" on the rear fender. Like other said just mark out where the pinch welds are and cut vertically and fold in with hammer and channel locks. Haven't gotten around to do mine yet

 

Good advice! Taping will help you set a line to cut to and will help reduce paint chipping and cracking beyond fold point! Take your time, do the front first (IMHO) it's easier cause if you mess up, you can always just take a little more and there is no pinch weld (aka pinch seam) to deal with.

 

And then the liner you just cut with snips to match how you cut the fender

 

thank you for the advice everyone it will all be taken into account now just to find lifting time had the kit for months just havent been able to put it in

another question without making a dumb thread i got 12.5 width swampers will those rub bad on stock rims? any thoughts?

 

Wheel spacers (hubcentric!) Or offset rims.

 

depends on how much you cut! bumpstop FTW

 

I ran 10.5x 31 on my old 89 with a 2" and add a leafs, they were M/Ts and they rubbed (badly) if I got into any sort of flex. I think 12.5s are too wide to run on a stock wheel anyway, they need more width so they seat properly on the bead.

 

Tin snips for the win. New 33's on summit D-windows. (15x8, 3.75 bs) Just free-handed both sides with no guides or anything. My point here is you canhack the hell out of the front and not worry about anything structural, so do these first like someone suggested. Yeah, it's not perfect or beautiful, but I can flex the hell out of these things now.

 

Hack the front all you want but beware of the washer fluid bottle behind the drivers side fender. If you cut into it you need to repair it, if hou cut above it well l that would just look really stupid.

This is if you are keeping your washer bottle neways.

And yeah the 12.5 treadwidth will rub first on you LCA's then everywhere else.

 

Not all xjs washer fluid res is located there. But always look before cutting.

 

For some reason i only saw the 01 xj in his vehicle list. Derp.

If the res is there it is a good spot to judge your cut on anyways. Start just below it and trace the line all the way around the fender. If i recall correctly that will take about 2" off of the fender and looks good and symetrical with the folded rear. Imo anyhow. Screw the stock flares on and it looks pretty good and costs nothing.