BigMikey

Ok....so i cut my fenders to prepare for my 33s to be mounted/installed this week.

The fronts are fine......all metal, no rust and i was able to cut with a smooth clean cut-line finish.

The rear.....well.....theres bad rust in some areas around the pinch welds. So I cut slits on either sides of the pinch welds and hammered the cut pieces up inside the fenders.

A couple things came to mind.....

1) Because of teh bad rusted areas theres some areas where the fenders are rusted away even higher than the pinch weld levels.....am I able to just cut the fenders like i did with the front fenders and then just pop-rivet the outer and inner fenders back together?? ( i plan on making come kind of home made flares later that would cover the rivets anyways)

2) has anyone made home made or custom made fender flares for AFTER the fenders have already been cut larger for bigger tires?? Id love to see some if anyone has.

thanks

OEJ

the reason no one has posted is this.
1. no pics.
2. if you want pics of flares, search.

But to answer your ?, I'm gonna say no. It must be welded back together. As you may or may not know, the pinch seam is where the body and unibody come together.

If you separate it and the just rivet it back together; it will eventually pull apart once you start flexing it out. That's way to dangerous to even consider.

So I would either fix the rust the correct way and pay aprofessional, or get another xj. My 2 cents.

Welcome to CF.

Slim357

I agree with OEJ pop rivets pull thru good metal quite easy and since yours are rusted chances are you will pull the rivet thru trying to put it in. You need to fix the fenders first. You can buy new wheel wells from c2cfabrication. You just need to weld them in or have someone weld it for you

andrewmp6

Yeah pop rivets will just make things worse,And not fixing rust the right way will always come back to bite you again.

Slim357

X2