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Trimming your XJ's fenders for 33's
Part 2: the front fenders
By Jason
West
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The front fenders
is where the fun starts, and why most people are reluctant to cut
sheetmetal. Depending on what the backspacing is on you rims you may
have to cut more or less than what I've done here. My rims are 15x8's
with 4.75" backspacing. I've found this to be an almost ideal
size for running 33x12.5's with minimal fender problems. One thing
I didn't want to do was move the flares further up on the body, as
this leaves gaps that I think look bad. Also, moving the front flares
up makes the height difference between the front and rear flares even
worse, which again I think looks bad. My plan was to cut the fenders
even with the top of the front bumper, leave the flares where they
were, and trim them to match the fender (basically the way that the
newer body style XJ's come from the factory).
I
talked with a lot of people on how to go about trimming the front
fenders. I got suggestions of everything from tin snips to a sawzall
to a plasma cutter. One person suggested using a Dremel-type rotary
tool, which sounded like a good idea to me, because that just happened
to be what I had handy (I'm not lucky enough to have access to a plasma
cutter...), plus it would have the least effect on the paint when
I cut the metal. So, I pulled out my trusty Black&Decker corded
Wizard and a tube of cut-off wheels and went to work...
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To
start out you'll need to remove the flares and front bumper.
Next remove the lower fender support brace. If you haven't already,
remove the splash guards as well. Some people recommend relocating
the horns when you remove the splash guards, but I haven't had
any problems with leaving my horns in the stock location.
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Next you'll
probably want some way to mark where you're going to cut. I
used some blue masking tape. At first I decided to cut the fenders
off about one inch below the grill, so that's what you'll see
me doing in these photos. I soon discovered that wasn't enough
and I had to go back and trim the fenders level with the bottom
of the grill for more tire clearance.
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Now, if
you decide to do what I did and use a rotary tool and cut-off
wheels, be sure you have a LOT of cut-off wheels as they are
pretty brittle and shatter easily (wear eye protection!), not
to mention they wear down fast. I probably went through 4 cut-off
wheels per fender.
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It may
look like a tedious way to do it, and it did take a while, but
it really worked out quite well I think. The paint wasn't harmed
at all and I was able to get a very clean and straight cut,
as you can see. I've also got a 4" angle grinder that I
thought about using instead, but at the time I couldn't find
any cut-off wheels that would fit it.
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Now that
you've got the sheetmetal all trimmed up (however you decided
to do it), it's time to cut the flares. I remounted mine and
taped it off where I wanted to cut it. Again I pulled out my
B&D Wizard and went to work. I could have just used a utility
knife to cut the flares, but the Wizard was quicker.
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Since the
bottom mounting holes for the flare were cut off, I had to drill
a new hole and do some slight modification to the metal mounting
plates that help hold the flare to the fender. I also put a
piece of adhesive black door edge guard on the bare metal edge
to keep anyone from cutting a finger on it.
Below are
the photos from when I had to go back an cut some more off of
the fenders. You can see the black door edge guard pretty well
in the bottom left pic.
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That
bottom right photo is from a short trail I ran with my cousin and
his CJ8 just after finishing retrimming the front fenders. As you
can see, the 33's tuck pretty far into the front fenders, and I could
actually use some more trimming along the front of the fender to get
total clearance, but it's close enough at it is and I really don't
want to modify the flares any more than they are already. After all,
my rig is still my daily driver and it still has to look decent on
the streets.
Trimming
the rear...
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