TJ Flares

June 19, 2001

After seeing the results of Andrew Horvath's swap of TJ flares onto his YJ, I decided to finally get around to installing my own set. I was tired of hearing my tires rub against the stock flares at full flex and didn't want to reduce my suspension's articulation lengthen the spring bump stops. TJ flares would give me about an extra inch of compression. Not bad for a modification that has absolutely no disadvantages to the vehicle's handling or reliability. Here's how I did it:

Rear Flares

Before and After		Old flares be gone!
I clamped the TJ flare to the fender to figure out how I was going to position it.	Each flare has a couple of alignment studs. You can cut them off or drill holes in your tub for them. I drilled holes in the tub because I thought it would be convenient to use those studs to hold the flares in place while I worked. In retrospect, I didn't think it was necessary. Cut 'em off and don't use them.	Once I finalized on the position, I traced the inside of the flare to mark where I'd need to cut. Because of layout of the tub's sheet metal, I wasn't going to cut forward of the fender well. If I did, I'd be cutting into the inner fender well which would be a "bad thing."
The mutilation begins! I used a jigsaw with a bi-metal blade. It easily cut through the sheet metal. I didn't even wince!	The first cut has been made. I had to do some additional fine trimming to fit the flare perfectly.	Hear you can see how close the new opening is to the rear inner fender bulk head.
If we peek under the fender liner, you can see the metal bulk head that forms the back of the fender. I cut as close as I could to it without actually cutting in to it.	Because of the wider opening, the plastic liner is now wide open where the sheet metal used to be.	Pushing it up tucks it out of the way and makes it look ok again, so...
...I drilled a new, lower hole for the trim fastener and fastened it in its new position. After that, I drilled holes for #10 sheet metal screws and bolted on the TJ flare.

Front Flares

Before and After		The naked front fender.
As with the rear flares, I clamped the front flare in place to determine where I wanted it positioned. The front flares also have a positioning stud in them and I decided to cut them off. Didn't need them and didn't feel like drilling a large hole in the fender.	From this angle, you can see the crack in the top of the fender caused by tire contact. Fortunately, most of this crack will be cut out to fit the TJ flare. The remaining bit will be tack welded to prevent it spreading.	This is as far forward as I could position the TJ flare.
This photo shows that the TJ flare extends further back than the existing fender opening. It also shows how little distance there is between the fender opening and the back fender wall.	I traced the cutting line onto the masking tape. As you can see, the TJ flare will provide about an inch of additional clearance under the fender.	The sheet metal that was cut out included the tack welds that held the inner and outer sheet metal together. I addressed this problem by tack welding the edges of the two sheets together. Once the welding was done, it felt just as sturdy as before the cutting. The welding burn marks weren't a concern since they would be painted over and covered by the flares.
As with the rear flares, I drilled holes and used #10 sheet metal screws to attach the TJ flares. The final step was to trim the bottom of the front lip to match the fender. Masking tape was used to mark the cut line.